Storytime Plan: Thanksgiving

Created by: Laura Baas
Age Group: Preschool
Time: 30 minutes (additional materials included as time fillers if needed)

Introduction and Song (5 minutes)

Introduction:
I’m thankful that you’re all here today. We all have many things to be thankful for, although some days we may need to think harder about what those things might be than on other days. Today we’ll be having some fun thinking about being thankful and about the day that we’ve set aside specifically for thankfulness—Thanksgiving. Since it’s the day that many people consume some turkey, let’s begin with a turkey fingerplay. Follow along with me…

Song:
The Turkey
The turkey is a funny bird.
[Action: Hook thumbs together and spread fingers out like a turkey’s tail.]
Its head goes wobble, wobble.
[Action: Wobble head back and forth.]
And all it knows is just one word:
[Action: Hold one finger in the air.]
“Gobble, gobble, gobble.”
[Action: Use hand to mimic a mouth that’s gobbling, by opening and closing your hand while making gobbling sounds.]

Books (20 minutes):

Note: If children seem restless, insert an active song into the middle; otherwise, plenty of these tales include rhyming books which can be made participatory to keep the audience involved (*denotes book in rhyme).

1. Thanksgiving at the Tappletons by Eileen Spinelli
The Tappleton’s always make Thanksgiving special; each Tappleton has a job to do. Unfortunately, this year everything goes haywire, beginning with the turkey’s slide down the icy hill into the pond. In the end, it’s a good thing that Grandmother is there to save the day. Truly funny tale about being thankful for family and for what you have and not what you don’t have. It does have quite a few words, so would be best used as the main lengthy tale or not at all (or with an older audience).

*2. I know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson
Who among us has not overeaten at Thanksgiving? Jackson tells this tale in cumulative tale fashion by depicting a guest growing bigger and bigger as she consumes more and more of the Thanksgiving feast (children who have read the I know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly will find this tale particularly delightful). Again, the story has quite a few words, so gauge your audiences attention capacity.

*3. Thanksgiving in the Barn by Nadine Westcott
In this rollicking, rhyming pop-up book, one-of-a kind barnyard characters pop-up to toast Thanksgiving and thankfulness. With a tin-eating goat, a filthy pig, and a thankful turkey, Thanksgiving in the Barn tells us that anyone can be thankful anywhere at any time.

*4.Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dave Pilkey
In this poem storybook told in a rhythm analogous to “The Night Before Christmas”, school children at Mack Nugget’s farm save the lives of eight turkeys.

*5. Albuquerque Turkey by BP Ford
Albuquerque is a turkey, And he’s feathered and he’s fine, And he wobbles and he gobbles, And he’s absolutely mine. This silly, catchy rhyme continues until the end where a surprise awaits for Albuquerque and all.

*6. Off to Plymouth Rock by Dandi Daley MacKall
The Pilgrims’ voyage to the New World and the Native Americans’ guidance that culminated in the first Thanksgiving told in verse.

*7. Over the River: A Turkey’s Tale by Derek Anderson
The age-old holiday song is retold from a different perspective with this time it being the turkey family on the way to Grandma’s house.

8. Sometimes It’s Turkey, Sometimes It’s Feathers by Lorna Balian
This one’s great, but it’s too long for most storytimes. Nevertheless, it’s a must for display. In the story, an old woman and her cat find a turkey egg, bring it home, watch it hatch, and raise the turkey—all with the intention of getting a scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner as the end product of the efforts. However, by the time Thanksgiving rolls around she finds herself sharing the day with her turkey friend instead of eating it; the final illustration is priceless. Sometimes… is a sweet tale of friendship and thankfulness for friends.

Recommended Poetry: It’s Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky and Marilyn Hafner
These poems can be substituted in place of or in addition to some of the above stories. Perhaps even request audience participation in selecting which poems to read.

Song and Conclusion (5 minutes):

Song:
If You’re Thankful and You Know It
(Tune: “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)
If you’re thankful and you know it,
Clap your hands.
If you’re thankful and you know it,
Clap your hands.
If you’re thankful and you know it,
Then your face will surely show it.
If you’re thankful and you know it,
Clap your hands.

If you’re thankful and you know it,
Stomp your feet, Shout “I am!”, Do all three (Clap your hands, Stomp your feet, Shout “I am!”), or add other verses as desired

Conclusion: Thanks for coming in today. I hope you are thankful and you know it. I know that I am thankful that you were all here, and I’m thankful for all of these books to read and enjoy. Don’t forget to stop by the children’s section and pick up a few to read over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Possible Time Fillers (in-between books or at end):

SONG OPTIONS
I Eat Turkey…
(To the tune of: Frere Jacques)
I eat turkey,
[Action: Point to self]
I eat turkey.
[Action: Point to self again]
Yes, I do,
[Action: Nod head]
Yes, I do.
Turkey in my tummy,
[Action: Rub tummy]
Yummy, yummy, yummy.
Good for me,
[Action: Point to self]
Good for you.
[Action: Point to others]

Turkey Trot…
(To the tune of: The Hokey Pokey)
You put your right wing in.
You put your right wing out.
You put your right wing in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the turkey trot
And you turn your self around.
That’s what it’s all about.
Additional verses: Left wing, Drumsticks, Stuffing, Wattle(Head), Tail Feathers(Bottom), Turkey Body, etc…

OR

I’m a Turkey
(To the Tune of: “Yankee Doodle”)
I’m a turkey, big and fat.
[Action: Spread arms wide]
I spread my tail. I walk like that.
[Action: Spread fingers like a turkey’s tail and waddle]
Each day’s corn I will not miss,
[Action: Pat and rub stomach]
And when I talk, I sound like this:
[Action: Point to mouth; Cup hand behind ear]
GOBBLE! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!
[Action: Shout]

CRAFT OPTIONS: Search the web for a simple Thanksgiving Day craft such as the ones found at Activity Idea Place. Sample crafts from the site include making Turkey Headbands or Hand Turkeys.

Additional Books for Display (Code: PB—picture book, BB—board book, ER—easy reader, CB—chapter book):

1. If You Were at the 1st Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern (CB)
2. 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (I Am American) by Catherine O’Neille Grace (Wampanoag side of the Thanksgiving story) (CB)
3. Alligator Arrived with Apples by Crescent Dragonwagon (PB)
4. Clifford’s Thanksgiving Visit by Norman Bridwell (PB)
5. Dora’s Thanksgiving by Sarah Wilson and Robert Roper (PB)
6. Fat Chance Thanksgiving by Patricia Lakin and Stacey Schuett (PB)
7. Firefighters’ Thanksgiving by Maribeth Boelts (PB)
8. Garcias, the Thanksgiving Turkey by Joy Cowley (PB)
9. I Am the Turkey (I can Read Book) by Michelle Spirn (ER)
10. Merry Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing and Isidre Mones (PB)
11. Milly And The Macy’s Parade by Shana Corey (PB)
12. Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen (PB)
13. P is for Pilgrim: A Thanksgiving Alphabet by Carol Crane (PB)
14. Perfect Thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli and JoAnn Adinolfi (PB)
15. Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood and Greg Shed (PB)
16. Snappy Little Thanksgiving by Derek Matthews (PB—pop-up)
17. Thank You, Sarah!!!: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson (PB)
18. Thank You, Thanksgiving by David Milgram (PB)
19. Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes (PB)
20. Thanksgiving Day at Our House: Thanksgiving Poems for the Very Young by Nancy Carlstrom (PB)
21. Thanksgiving in the White House by Gary Hines and Alexandra Wallner (PB)
22. Thanksgiving Is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland and Sonja Lamut (PB)
23. Thanksgiving Mystery (Scooby Doo Reader) by Gail Herman (ER)
24. Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation (Time-Traveling Twins) by Diane Stanley and Holly Berry (PB, 48 pages)
25. Thelonius Turkey Lives! by Lynn Rowe Reed (PB)
26. This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story by Laura Krauss Melmed and Mark Buehner (PB)
27. This Is the Turkey by Abby Levine and Paige Billin-Frye (PB)
28. Turk and Runt: A Thanksgiving Comedy by Lisa Wheeler (PB)
29. Ugly Pumpkin: A Thanksgiving Story by Dave Horowitz (PB)
30. A Plump and Perky Turkey by Theresa Bateman (PB)
31. How Spider Saved Thanksgiving by Robert Kraus (PB)
32. Story of Thanksgiving by Nancy J. Skarmeas and Stacy Venturi-Pickett (PB)
33. We Gather Together…Now Please Get Lost! By Diane de Groate (PB)
34. One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B. G. Hennessy (PB)
35. Thanksgiving Mice! by Bethany Roberts (PB)

Note: For more Thanksgiving books to display see Laura Baas’ WorldCat.org list for Thanksgiving–Juvenile Audience (largely includes K-8 recently published literature).

Note 2: Another resource for finding books about Thanksgiving is the Oyate website where they have listed recommended books about Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving books to avoid, and primary sources from a colonialist perspective.

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Amelia Rules! Volume #1 The Whole World’s Crazy by Jimmy Gownley

In Amelia Rules! Volume #1 The Whole World’s Crazy by Jimmy Gownley, Amelia really does rule in her humor, humanity, and nine-year-old child (and occasionally adult-like) sensibilities. In Amelia’s crazy world, life is not all fluff and sunshine. She’s the child of recently divorced parents, she’s living in a new town in a one Tanner-tantrum away from homelessness home (i.e., her Aunt Tanner’s house), and she’s recently been branded into the nerd group at school. Fortunately, Amelia has tremendous reserves of wit and wisdom that she showcases in each episode—episodes that are part funny, part sad, part cynical, part hopeful, part inspirational, and completely down-to-earth kid friendly.

Amelia, Reggie, Rhonda and Pajamaman, the G.A.S.P. (Gathering of Awesome Super Pals) group, display unique personalities; they are each depicted with humor and warts and all. Amelia, well, she rules! Reggie’s fixation on superheroes leads to many a memorable moment—his number one career choice was pharmacist, but since that seemed so unattainable, he chose superhero as a new gameplan. Rhonda looooooooves Reggie, and this leads to a bit of love-to-hate animosity between herself and Amelia. Pajamaman (consistently depicted in the same sleepwear) is a quiet presence, but he manages to add humor and depth to Amelia’s story.

For instance, in one episode, Amelia discovers Pajamaman is a latchkey kid (latchkey being a term defined multiple ways by the kids) who receives no presents from Santa. She resolves to become Pajamaman’s Santa by giving away her own Red Captain Ninja. Amelia Rules! may be laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s not without its share of depth, touching on issues such as poverty, bullying, divorce, parenting, truth, loneliness, and, well, overall world craziness or sanity.

For child readers, Gownley replicates everyday childhood life through familiar issues, locales, and events–his episodes include familiar childhood realities such as outwitting the school bullies, cheating in freeze tag, passing notes in class, making Christmas lists and debating the existence of Santa Claus, (repeatedly) visiting the principal’s office, not to mention the plethora of jokes about gross bodily functions (and you may find yourself wary of Taco Bell ever after). For adult readers, Gownley inserts small touches such as Amelia’s interrogation of Santa at the Consumaway Shopping Center, her father’s employment in the licensing department for Softee Chicken, and her school attendance at Joe McCarthy Elementary “Weeding out the wrong element since 1952”.

Gownley’s glossy illustrations are displayed within the comic book medium’s basic three-by-three framework. While Gownley uses the basic nine-panel layout 9-panel layout, he also frequently enlivens this basic framework by employing flexibility—by adding or deleting borders, combining or adding panels, and alternating full-color and white-space backgrounds. At sundry points, Amelia speaks directly to readers; Amelia’s direct address is easily identified because Gownley consistently delineates these pages by depicting Amelia by herself against a white backdrop. Such direct address augments readers’ identification with Amelia and understanding of her thought processes.

Amelia does pronounce, “I rule” in one episode but also she manifests self-doubt and feelings of guilt over her parent’s divorce. Even as she confidently proclaims her normalcy in the face of the whole world around her being crazy, readers are made privy to her niggling doubt about whether the situation might actually be the other way around—the world normal and only she crazy (to which she eventually concludes, “suddenly my head hurts”). Fortunately, in the face of such doubts and insecurities, Amelia’s Aunt Tanner is always there to sit her down for some straight talk as when she declares, “You know Amelia…Just because your home is broken…that doesn’t mean you have to be.”

Amelia’s diverse support group—her G.A.S.P. pals and her Aunt Tanner—help her to make sense of (or at least to enjoy living in) this crazy world. Amelia Rules! readers will be able to take heart from watching Amelia boldly face the world around her and be better equipped to face this crazy, wonderful world for themselves.

Just a taste of Amelia’s wisecracky wisdom:

• My parents are crazy, my friends are crazy, everybody is crazy but me. I’m normal…Suddenly, my head hurts.
• I hate school! Why can’t we have the apocalypse instead.
• I tell you Tanner…It’s not easy raising a parent these days…You gotta be sharp! Aware of every little thing.
• Life is like a New York Egg Cream! It has the chocolaty Goodness of U-Bet syrup…the wholesome fortification of 2% milk, the…uh…the bubbles of…um…seltzer water…and…uh…okay, I was stretching. Life is nothing like an egg cream.

For all this and more from Amelia, don’t miss Volume 1. I’m also looking forward to diving into Amelia Rules! Volume 2: What Makes You Happy and Amelia Rules! Volume 3: Superheroes.

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In a past post, I provided the link to one of my graduate school projects entitled The Many Faces of WorldCat. WorldCat.org and Open WorldCat are the OCLC’s leap into the Web 2.0 world via using the information in its WorldCat database (information that is traditionally available through FirstSearch).

These WorldCat faces do have a lot going for them, and, lest we forget that in our Google/Amazon world (both excellent resources for sundry purposes in themselves), I wanted to champion for at least an occasional pit stop on the WorldCat.org website to find the book, music, video, or article information that you seek. So, here I go championing (check out my project for a more detailed overview)…

In addition to WorldCat’s traditional face as OCLC’s Online Union Catalog that is accessible as a searchable database within FirstSearch, WorldCat has a couple of additional faces that are illuminated in OCLC’s WorldCat FAQ:

“The Open WorldCat Program and WorldCat.org are both initiatives designed to make the collections and services of WorldCat-participating libraries more visible on the open Web, outside of the library environment”.

• Open WorldCat is a program that makes a limited subset of the WorldCat database—focused on popular materials—available for harvesting by major search engines as well as bookselling and bibliographic sites. Users at sites such Google and Yahoo! Search discover “Find in a Library” results for particular library-owned items among other results for Web content.
• WorldCat.org is a destination website released in August 2006 and remains in beta. Users search the complete WorldCat database and link to online catalog records and local OPACs. The site also provides a variety of free tools such as a WorldCat.org search box that can be placed on any website and browser toolbars and plug-ins.

By registering at WorldCat.org, users are able to add content to item records in the form of item reviews, notes, or table of contents. Registered users can also make lists. While I haven’t done many (okay, any) reviews, notes, or tables of contents, I have begun to use the list feature a bit in order to create display lists of books that coordinate with storytime plans. You can view the lists that I have created thus far here.

Now, I hear you thinking (neat trick, huh?), why not just go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble to read a review or to view or create a list? Well, you could, but by using WorldCat.org for these purposes you have immediate access to the library holdings information for that item (if you don’t see the library nearest you listed, you may want to check to be sure that the library is an OCLC member since only OCLC members’ holdings are reflected in the WorldCat database).

The best part about searching for items using WorldCat.org is the immediate access you have to be able to locate the item in a library; of course, if your local library does not own a copy, then WorldCat.org also makes the Buy it Now and the Buy from Amazon links available.

There’s also a handy interaction between the WorldCat.org website and the URL for each library catalog item so that users can easily jump to viewing the item in the catalog and then return to the item information on WorldCat.org. Lastly, I’d just like to point out that if the one-box simple search is too simple, then be sure to use the advanced search interface. And really lastly, be sure to utilize the faceted browse that will be available once the original search has been executed. This is a great way to narrow down results by author, content, format, language, or year of publication.

To facilitate your own or others’ use of WorldCat.org, OCLC provides users with the option to place a WorldCat.org search box on their own homepage or blog or to download the WorldCat.org search box and install as a browser plug-in. At any rate, OCLC continues to improve WorldCat’s amenities, and, consequently, it is rapidly turning into one cool cat (with many faces).

Awwww…

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The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (2002 hardcover, 2004 softcover) Ages 9-12

“Human” is defined narrowly in Nancy Farmer’s The House of the Scorpion. Farmer envisions a world in which creating clones from existing humans genetic code is a reality. Matteo Alacran (Matt) is one such clone; he just happens to be the clone of puissant opium lord El Patron. Although Matt is the clone of El Patron, he is continuously persecuted as a “creature” without a soul, even as “worse than an animal.”

As the marking (branding) on Matt’s foot suggests, he is considered to be nothing more than “Property of the Alacran Estate” (or to put it another way: the organ replacement for El Patron). Matt is seen as not worthy of telling the truths to about himself, until his bodyguard Tam Lin tells him the dirty little secret, “No one can tell the difference between a clone and a human. That’s because there isn’t any difference. The idea of clones being inferior is a filthy lie.” Farmer’s whole book is constructed to get us thinking about truth and lies, human and non-human, regress and progress, right and wrong.

Even in creating an alternative world, speculative fiction/fantasy speaks to issues in our world. Farmer creates a future world that is both exceedingly strange and familiar. The evil empire called Opium is tucked in between the U.S. and Aztlan (formerly Mexico). El Patron’s drug kingdom is farmed by “eejits,” who Matt is horrified to discover are brain-dead clones. The eejits live hopeless, choiceless lives. Farmer’s construction of the eejits forces readers to value their power to choose—whether it be small choices such as whether or not to take a drink of water or whether it be larger choices such as what to do with our lives. While each one of us sometimes makes wrong choices, a key idea of the book seems to be that the ability to choose for ourselves is essential to feeling “wholly” human.

Even though Matt has not had his brain deadened (due to his position as a favorite of El Patron), he feels empathy with his fellow clones. This very human emotion of empathy enables him to have the courage and resolve to help change the situation. Partly because he is El Patron’s clone and partly because he is discovering who he is as a unique individual with the ability to choose what to make of his life, Matt has an indomitable will to survive. Through the course of the story Matt faces much opposition, first from the evil, conspiring Alacran family on the estate and then in Aztlan where he is captured and taken to a base orphanage after he flees the estate following El Patron’s death.

At the close of the book, he escapes the orphanage and returns at last to his inheritance, the Alacran estate, with plans to…well, I won’t spoil the end for you. I’ll just say that the end is not without hope for humanity. Farmer’s original, fast-paced tale is lined throughout with questions about genetics, ethics, and politics and its premise could be used to engender many classroom and/or bookgroup discussions.

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 The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (2004 hardcover, 2006 softcover)

Macy’s perfect world is shattered forever when her special bond with her father is broken by his death—a death she blames partially on herself. Since his death, the joy has seeped out of Macy’s life. She has stopped running (running being one activity she and her father always did together), her boyfriend has left town for brain camp, and she feels isolated from her mother and sister. In her attempt to stop her downward spiral and try something new, she takes a part time job catering with Wish catering.  Through working for Wish, she begins to make new friends (including an attractive, artistic coworker named Wes) and to feel hopeful about finding joy in life again.

Macy and Wes begin to play “Truth,” a conversational game in which they reveal deep-seated truths to each other. Macy and Wes find solace in speaking and listening to each other. Unfortunately, Macy’s mother does not understand why her daughter wishes to interact with the people at Wish, and Macy’s newfound joy and fragile relationships come close to splintering irreparably and forever.

Dessen aptly narrates a young girl’s loss of her father and her attempts to cope with this loss. Macy’s life has irrevocably changed—her father is physically gone forever; she must fight to hold on to her memories and to have a future that has any joy in it. Macy runs again.

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Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks (2007)

According to the police, seven-year-old Cadel Piggott needs a psychologist (after all, he did just hack into top-secret computer systems and create chaos). Unfortunately for Cadel’s return to psychological well-being and/or normalcy, his largely negligent adoptive parents choose Dr. Thaddeus Roth. Dr. Roth, as an esteemed psychologist for delinquents may at first seem the apropos choice–that is, until his first session with Cadel in which he gives him three tidbits of “wisdom”: never get caught, never admit to anything, and never trust anyone.

Cadel’s acquaintance with Dr. Roth leads to his inevitable ties to Dr. Roth’s boss—Dr. Phineas Darkon—evil genius extra-ordinaire and lifetime prison inmate (he broke rule #1: never get caught). Through a series of carefully planned manipulations, these two men propel Cadel down the path towards becoming an evil genius.

Despite Darkkon’s status as a lifetime inmate of the prison system, he still manages to cook up schemes for eradication of inferior humans since in his mind “most humans [are] the equivalent of junk DNA.” Darkkon’s most recent scheme to accomplish this eradication involves funding his own institute—the Axis Institute—and Cadel.

At the age of thirteen, Cadel matriculates to the Axis Institute where he studies for a degree in World Domination by enrolling in classes such as Coping Skills, Pragmatic Philosophy, Cultural Appreciation, Law, Personal Presentation, Computer Science, Psychology, Media Studies, and Embezzlement (i.e., Basic Lying, Pure Evil, Forgery, Loopholes, Disguise, Infiltration, Manipulation, Misinformation, and Embezzlement respectively). If you have free time or some deep-seated wish to be completely unproductive, visit the Axis Institute for yourself and take the evil genius quiz. At the Axis Institute, Jinks builds up a supporting cast–this supporting cast provides her with humans to eradicate in order to move the plot forward. Readers should be aware that Jinks’ dark morality tale does contain multiple deaths and its share of gore.

Cadel’s only respite from his progress down the path to becoming an evil genius is his friendship with a woman he met as a part of Partner Post, the fake online dating service he founded. Cadel began the Partner-Post dating service due to his belief that by observing and testing theories about human behavior, he could predict and understand humans; his relationship with his Partner-Post pal leads him to know otherwise. Cadel’s concern for his Partner-Post pal gives him the strength to attempt escape the life planned out for him. Between the deaths of fellow students and his developing friendship with his Partner Post pal, Cadel begins to question the Axis Institute’s purpose and Dr. Roth’s and Dr. Darkkon’s methods.

Jinks’ myriad scientific and mathematical details and generous cast of characters that she embeds throughout Cadel’s story make for a complicated narrative that requires one’s full-attention in order to keep all of the characters straight. Cadel, in particular, manifests as a fully-developed character struggling with right, wrong, and purpose. Cadel is a genius, and as a genius he could easily choose to follow his own self-interest in lieu of concern for societal good.

Evil Genius is the tale of a young man struggling to decide whether to become an evil genius/menace to society or to become a socially responsible member of society. Cadel struggles to overcome his early training in order to recognize that his genius does not justify his actions. Cadel must find out for himself that actions do have consequences, and he is responsible for those actions. After all, John Donne told us long ago, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” As the story winds its way to a close, readers sense that Cadel’s struggles with morality are not over; his genius will be a force of good or evil over the course of his lifetime. Readers of Evil Genius will be forced to consider the powerful effect of even the smallest of choices on the formation of character and identity.

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On the sidebar of this page, you can see my most recent del.icio.us bookmarks. While that’s all well and good, it may also seem a bit random, since the links are displayed without tags and without context. This randomness is solved somewhat by actually visiting my del.icio.us site and clicking a tag to view all of the sites that have been bookmarked as fitting under a particular category.

Well, that also is all well and good, but what if all of these bookmarked websites could be made searchable (for presumably, they were bookmarked in the first place due to their containing content of some value)? In other words, what do you get when you cross a social bookmarking tool with a custom search engine? Answer: deliGoo. With deliGoo (deliGoo being a mashup of del.icio.us and Google Custom Search), del.icio.us goes beyond simple tagging/categorizing.

deliGoo allows users to search for specific content within a specific user’s del.icio.us bookmarks or within a specific del.icio.us tag. Users can either search on deliGoo’s search site or install deliGoo as an add-on for Firefox 2.0+ and Internet Explorer 6.0+. So how does this wonderful tool operate? Just enter a username, tag, and search term, then click Goo!.

In other (more-detailed) words, deliGoo works by dynamically building a Google Custom Search engine with the sites specified. Entering a username and tag to be searched is actually optional (but does save time). If you don’t enter a username, the search would proceed over all the sites tagged by selected tag. If you don’t enter a tag, the search would be proceed over all the bookmarks of selected user. If you find yourself getting too many results, then it may be time to narrow the search by entering a username or by choosing a narrower tag to search (that’s the librarian in me talking…don’t get me started on the merits of using search limits and Boolean operators ).

So the specification of the sites to be searched is the “deli” aspect, what of the “Goo”? Once you click Goo!, deliGoo analyzes the sites that have been specified and the “Goo” custom search aspect of deliGoo kicks into high (albeit somewhat slow-seeming) gear. The custom search engine searches the contents of every site for a match to your search query. Using deliGoo can be particularly handy if you are trying to find a web page that you remember bookmarking but you cannot remember what tags you used to bookmark it or how long ago you bookmarked it.

Due to its customized nature, deliGoo may take some time (particularly if you do not enter a username). In the time you wait for your results, you may choose to become annoyed or you may choose to be amazed at the way deliGoo is basically building a custom search engine from scratch. Possibly in the future, deliGoo might allow users to sign up and create custom searches that will be remembered. As it currently stands, deliGoo users must wait for Google to index the specified sites each time.

For now, deliGoo remains a useful way to find that website you bookmarked oh so long ago with those tags that are oh so far away from your memory bank. Where tags may fail, deliGoo does not (or at least that’s the intent).

So, in sum, you can use deliGoo either by installing the toolbar button so as to have it ever-present, ready, and waiting to be used at your leisure or by navigating to deliGoo’s own searching site (same end, just different means). Of course, you could always just bookmark deliGoo in your del.icio.us bookmarks !

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Out of the mouths of others one can find much wisdom (and humor) regarding libraries and literature. Here are just a few quotes and some links should you wish to track down more:

• Library: Here is where people, One frequently finds, Lower their voices, And raise their minds. Richard Armour
• Reading is for me a stimulus for reflection, a source of pleasure, and a professional imperative. Corinne A. Allen
• Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Francis Bacon
• I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. Jorge Luis Borges
• You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury (check out Fahrenheit 451 for details)
• A room without books is as a body without a soul. Cicero
• Never judge a book by its movie. J.W. Eagan
• Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. Neil Gaiman
• Libraries never let us forget who we are, for their worth stands by the knowledge they keep and save for us. Virginia Hamilton
• A man’s mind, stretched by new ideas, can never go back to its original dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Perhaps no place is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. Lady Bird Johnson
• Perhaps no place is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest. Juliana Kimball
• Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read Groucho Marx
• You see, I don’t believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that’s been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians. Monty Python
• The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. Mark Twain

Links that will lead you to additional quotations that hail the worth of libraries and literature are:

• AmusingQuotes.com: Book quotes
• Deb Logan: Quotations about Books, Libraries, and Reading
• Library Support Staff: Quotations about Books, Libraries, and Reading
• Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County Library: Quotes from Our Columns
• Useful Information: Famous Library Quotes and Quotations
• Zaadz: Quotes about Books

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Scrapblog enables users to easily fix memories online in a fun way by uploading pictures and choosing how to organize them. Have fun with stickers, themes, and more at Scrapblog, or just watch my Scrapblog shamelessly promoting my favorite picturebook (which I’ll be reviewing fully someday) Diary of a Wombat. If you’d like to view the larger Scrapblog in all its glory, click here.

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Mr Pusskins: A Love Story by Sam Lloyd

This is the review of the story of a little girl called Emily and her dear cat, Mr. Pusskins. Emily adores Mr. Pusskins—she incessantly tells him she loves him, brushes his fur, and reads him a bedtime story every night. Unfortunately, it is unrequited love as the cantankerous Mr. Pusskins is illustrated pushing Emily away and shunning her hair brushing and bedtime stories. In fact, Mr. Pusskins walks out the cat door and tries his paws at being a bad cat as the newest member of the Pesky Cat Gang. As clever as the cleverest of cats, though, he soon comes to his senses realizing just how much Emily loves him and just how poorly he treated her in return.

Auspiciously (clever cat that he is), he reaches her via phone (sounds corny, but it works in the book). A joyous reunion follows soon thereafter, and a reciprocal love relationship commences. The moral of the story is, of course, to appreciate what you have because the Pesky Cat Gang (or whatever else is out there) might not be any better and could very well be worse.

The illustrations mirror the story flow as Mr. Pusskins transforms from a cat with a bone or two to pick with the world—fully decked out with ruffled fur and a permanent scowl—to a smiling, huggable ball of love. Mr. Pusskins is a charming book for cat lovers and love lovers alike. This is the end of the review of the story of a little girl called Emily and her dear cat, Mr. Pusskins.

Well, one more thing, be sure to watch for the sequel Mr. Pusskins and Little Whiskers: Another Love Story that comes out in May 20, 2008.

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