Helping Children Cope

by Jennifer Nicholson  Rowan Public Library

Spring is the time of year that many celebrate new life and growth, especially gardeners!  Yet, it is also the time of year that many reflect on the loss of love ones.  I recently loss someone very special to me, and while my focus was on my needs and the needs of others in my family; I almost overlooked my son’s need to understand why mommy and daddy were sad.  We kept his routine the same, encouraged him to talk about our loved one, but in his 3-year old mind, everything was the same.  I wanted to share my story, as in the words of Reverend Mark Burns, “our grief is personal, but it is not private,” and helping our children understands the loss of a loved one, pet, or deal with any tough situation can be extremely hard on parents both, emotionally and mentally. 

The Rowan Public Library offers many great resources geared to younger children, that discuss many difficult situations, including death, but also provides parents the tools they need to help explain those situations.   The Drawing Out Feelings series by Marge Eaton Heegaard includes When Something Terrible Happens: children can learn to cope with grief and When Someone Very Special Dies offers prompts through out the books, encouraging children to draw and color their emotions and thoughts; while urging conversations between parents and children about their feelings.  As many parents can relate, encouraging children to discuss their feelings can be tough as many kids are still learning and exploring the different ranges of their emotions.  Other series, including the Dealing with Feeling series and Exploring Emotions series, allows children to explore those different feelings from sadness to shyness.  These books are simple, addressing key scenarios and vocabulary words that can help children relate to the characters, and gain a better understanding their own personal feelings.

While children do grief the death of a love one, many families and children experience the loss of a pet.  Saying Goodbye to Lulu by Corinne Deams , Up in Heaven, by Emma Chihester Clark, and The Berestain Bears Lose a Friend by Stan, Jan, & Mike Berestain, are great example of books that dress the loss of a pet; which can be just as hard for a child to understand. 

Regardless of the situation or scenario, helping children cope, and deal their feelings of loss is important to every parent.  Healing the Hurt, Restoring the Hope by Suzy Yehl Marta, is great book for parents. The chapters are quick and easy, allowing parents to access key points swiftly and confidently.  This book not only covers death, but it also covers divorce and other crises that many children today face.   

Dealing with loss whether through the passing of a loved one, pet, or even divorce or job loss, effects not only adults, but children as well. A few additional titles that can help children are: What is Heaven Like?  by Beverly Lewis, Missing Mommy by Rebecca Cobb, What on Earth Do You Do When Someone Dies? By Trevor Romain, are all available at the Rowan Public Library.  For older children or teens, the library does offer: Death and Bereavement, by Jody Kornfeld and When a Friend Dies: a book for Teens about Grieving and Healing, by Marilyn E. Gootman.  The library also offers additional titles for parents and other adults experiencing loss, to see a our full catalog please visit us or our website at rowanpubliclibrary.org.

                                                                                                                                Jennifer Nicholson

                                                                                                                                YA Librarian

Gardening Fun with Children

by Dara L. Cain Rowan Public Library

Spring has arrived!!! 
It’s the perfect time to head outside and start planting flowers and growing vegetables.  Did you know that gardening is not just for adults?  Children can plan, create, and maintain their own gardens with a little bit of guidance.  Give them the opportunity to plant seeds in the soil and watch their reaction as the plants mature.  Below are some great children’s books to set the mood and get your children excited about gardening and the outdoors all while spending time together as a family. 

Lois Ehlert has written and illustrated simple and engaging picture books for the preschool age group.  Her book How to Plant a Rainbow is about a mother and child who plant a variety of flowers in the family garden. Ehlert explains to children in a simplistic way how to plant bulbs, seeds, and seedlings as well has how to nurture their growth.  The surprise at the end of the story is a beautiful rainbow garden.  Similarly, in Ehlert’s book Growing Vegetable Soup, a father and child share the joys of planting, watering, and watching seeds grow in their vegetable garden.  At the end of the story, the reward for taking care of the garden is enjoying vegetable soup together. Both titles incorporate brightly colored illustrations and include the names of what is being planted as well as the tools used to tend to the garden.

Children will discover dozens of food chains right in their very own backyard after reading Food Chains and the Food Web in Our backyard:  Secrets of the Garden by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld.  Alice’s family plants a vegetable garden every year and this naturalist reports all she sees about how the plants grow, what insects arrive to eat the plants, and what birds and animals appear to eat the insects in this beautifully illustrated book.  This simple narrative is very engaging and science concepts are introduced in more depth in sidebars by a pair of intelligent and funny chickens. Maybe some kids will be inspired to eat their vegetables after learning about some backyard science in a fun and accessible way.    

Creating a garden on a vacant piece of land in no small task for five eager gardeners in the book A Harvest of Color by Melanie Eclare. The children each select their own vegetable to grow – carrots, radishes, beans, zucchini, or potatoes and document their progress by keeping a garden diary and taking photographs.  The diary and photographs clearly demonstrate the satisfaction and challenges faced by these aspiring gardeners.  There are also some helpful planting hints that the children share for when your kids are ready to get started.  At the end of the summer the children celebrate by having a big cookout and making vegetable soup.  Their recipe is included at the back of the book. 
A Backyard Flower Garden for Kids and A Backyard Vegetable Garden for Kids are two books written by Amie Jane Leavitt that are wonderful for first time gardeners. Children will learn about where they should grow their flower garden, what they should grow, what flowers attract butterflies and birds, planting time, and what to do if they don’t have space for a garden.  There is also a fun craft on how to decorate a garden belt.  If vegetables gardens are more appealing to your children, they’ll learn what vegetables to grow, preparing their plot, sowing seeds, harvest time, and planting in small spaces.  A great hummingbird bath craft is included.  These two books provide simple and well organized step by step instructions and include a helpful glossary. 
It can be difficult to find time to plant and take care of a garden, especially with young children at home.  The book Gardening Projects for Kids:  101 Ways to get Kids Outside, Dirty, and Having Fun by Whitney Cohen and John Fisher provides some great ideas on how to involve your children in the gardening process that makes it educational and exciting.  Whether it be playing leapfrog over pumpkins, harvesting a six-plant part burrito, cooking up a compost cake, weaving lavender wands, or pickling pears, this book is sure to have a fun activity your child will enjoy. 
Gardening can be a fun activity!  There are so many benefits to this activity including science exploration, working hard and harvesting the benefits, and most importantly spending time with your family.
Don’t forget, all of the titles are available to borrow at Rowan Public Library.

Hunting and Firearms

By Melissa J. Oleen Rowan Public Library

                When the zombie apocalypse begins, I want my friend Ansley in my group.  Ansley is comfortable navigating in the woods, can hunt and fish with the best of them and better yet, can field dress a deer.  These are skills you need when you are directly responsible for your own survival, but even if armageddon does not happen during our lifetime, these skills also build confidence, character and resourcefulness.  Ansley was taught these skills from a young age by a father who also happens to be a Wildlife Officer.  But for those of you who do not have a Daryl Dixon to assist you with hunting and navigating outdoors, might I offer up some new titles in the Children’s Collection at the library.  Open Season is a series by PowerKids Press best suited for children aged 9 – 13 years.  Titles in the series include Bow Hunting, Hunting with Shotguns, Hunting with Rifles, Hunting Gear, Know Your Quarry and Hunting Laws and Safety.

First and foremost, all of the Open Season books emphasize safety and responsible, ethical hunting.  The author, Annie Wendt Hemstock, stresses finding out what the hunting laws are in your state and county and the types of training and licenses hunters must have.  If you think Duck Stamps are only for envelopes or a subplot in the movie Fargo, this series is for you. The books have good photos, colorful graphics and feature hunters of all ages, male and female.  

Bow Hunting, Hunting with Shotguns and Hunting with Rifles discuss the different kinds and parts of bows, shotguns and rifles.  Each title discusses when and why hunters will select one type of firearm or bow over another and which are best for young adults.  Hunting Gear discusses the equipment hunters may use including lures, scents, decoys and the importance of picking the right clothes to wear based on when and where you will be hunting.  

                Know Your Quarry introduces the types of game that are hunted: big and small mammals, waterfowl, and birds.  The book explains why knowing the habitats for each species will help you determine where to look for them.  Spoor, the signs animals leave behind, is explained as is how spoor allows you to track your quarry.

PowerPress has developed an online list of websites related to the subject matter of each title.  At the end of each book, a website with related internet links is listed.  The folks at PowerPress keep these links updated.  For example, the website in Hunting Laws and Safety will connect you to sites where up to date information for each state’s hunting and fishing licenses, permits, applications, hunter education and classes, law and regulations can be located.  You will learn that a duck stamp is the federal license required to hunt migratory waterfowl.  Ninety-eight cents of every dollar generated by the sale of Federal Duck Stamps goes directly to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System. 

                When you are ready to go hunting, the Open Season series recommends you take a map.  Hunting on the Map by Alix Wood, is a great way to introduce map skills to children within the context of hunting.  This fun book has in-book activities and puzzles that teach readers about following tracks, mapping the land, habitat maps, scale, longitude, latitude and what belongs on a map.  It is part of the series Fun with Map Skills.  Other books in the series teach maps in the context of the military and pirates.

Hunters and non-hunters alike will find that the information presented in these volumes provides a good foundation for the sport and the skills and equipment involved. These books are great discussion starters and an excellent way to begin talking about hunting and firearms with your children.

Celebrate the Arrival of Spring

by Pam Everhardt Bloom  Rowan Public Library

Spring arrived March 20 and with it the opportunity to be outdoors with warm weather once again.  Whether digging in the dirt, mowing the grass, riding a bike or taking long walks, add a stroll through the DVD collection at Rowan Public Library and you might find yourself ready to kick back and relax after an active day of work or play. Take a close look at the following movies. All have won or been nominated for awards in film or TV.

Don’t miss Painted Lady starring Helen Mirren. Like her starring role in an April release that centers on a famous painting, this 1997 movie tells the story of a different type of art theft as Maggie Sheridan, a former 60’s rock singer, sets out to solve a murder and find the missing work. The complex plot and performance by Mirren will keep you riveted.

Another 1997 film, Life is Beautiful stars Roberto Benigni, the first male to win Best Actor at the Oscars for a male performer in a non-English-speaking role. The film centers on an Italian Jewish family and their internment in a Nazi concentration camp. Controversial at the time among some critics, the plot revolves around a father trying to protect his son’s innocence with a fabricated tale that makes this movie a true tragicomedy.

Hugo, a Martin Scorsese film, is based on the 2008 Caldecott winner, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a juvenile novel.  Don’t dismiss this award winner as just a kid’s movie because it is a masterpiece on so many levels. An adventure story, a magical quest, transformation – take your pick, you may be transformed. Interestingly, I actually saw Hugo, the movie, before I read the book and enjoyed both thoroughly.

Another film I saw before reading the novel was The Book Thief.  Had I not seen the movie first, I would have hurried through the book to reach the conclusion of illiterate Liesel and her journey with books, family, war and Death himself. Instead, I read it over a period of weeks, savoring the story and the language.  The visuals from the film actually added to my enjoyment of the book, something I did not expect.

On a lighter note, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day was nominated for People’s Choice Award for Favorite Independent Movie.  Miss Pettigrew literally seizes the day with her unexpected employment as social secretary to a glamorous American actress. Set in 1939 London, this film is a romantic comedy staring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams.

Other DVDs from Rowan Public Library you might want to add to your list of possibilities include Bottle Shock, Danny Deckchair, Julia, Kinky Boots, Philomena, Official Best of Fest and The Story of Qiu Ju.  Meanwhile, The Visitor is next on my list for viewing. With reviews from Rex Reed, “moving, humane and life-affirming” and the Boston Globe’s, “This is a film of our times – paranoid, heartbroken, disillusioned – and the rare recent American movie whose characters react the way actual people might.” (Wesley Morris) this is definitely a film I look forward to enjoying after a lovely spring day.