Summer Reading!

It's so many people's favorite library time of the year--Summer Reading time!

If you haven't done it yet, get yourself down to your public library and sign up! Most libraries have a program of some sort for every age to participate, including adults. Signing up shows your support for the library, which is more important than ever! And as you probably know, reading over the Summer is especially important for youth so that they continue to move forward with their reading skills and prevent the Summer Slide.

As a library worker, planning the Summer Library Program is a lot of fun, but it can also be a challenge. It has to be done on top of all the regular things we do to keep the library running. Plus, we get so many more people at Storytimes over the summer--all ages from babies to adults. We do our best to have something engaging for everyone who comes. At my library we do a lot of crafts and games to go along with stories. It really keeps our patrons engaged and learning. The amounts of books we check out on Storytime days is tremendous and we absolutely love to see kids and families enjoying reading!

I'm certain there are many, many librarians who already have their entire summer program planned. But, if you are a little behind like some of us may be (ahem), Unicorn and Yeti are here to help with a couple of themed ideas. I do love a good theme. It adds a focus base to planning that I think is a lot of fun!

iRead

Level Up at Your Library is the theme the library system I work at is using. It's all about games--from board games to video games, and everything in between. So of course, UNICORN AND YETI: FUN AND GAMES is a perfect read!

In case you don't know, Unicorn and Yeti books each have three separate, themed stories. FUN AND GAMES has:

GAME ON - A story about sharing favorite games. Unicorn and Yeti combine their favorite games to create a new one that they can play together. As a bonus, in the back of the book, illustrator Hazel Quintanilla teaches us how to draw the game board. Sharing the story and then having each participant draw the game board could be great fun. I would love to see how each game board drawing comes out differently. And, of course, they can create game pieces and make up the game they play on the board as well. Then play!

Supplies needed: Paper, pencils, and crayons. colored pencils, or markers, and any other things you want to add if you want to get fancy.

HIDE AND SEEK - In this story about the classic game, Yeti helps Unicorn learn how to be a better hider. Not only does the story help children think about spatial awareness, it also models patience. It can take longer for some kids to figure out how to play games than others and Unicorn and Yeti show that that is okay! While we may not want to play hide and seek in a library setting, the story could easily fit into an outside game day where the kids learn to play a game like red light green light. Of course, you could always make the classic Yeti, since Yeti is really good at hiding. Yeti might even like to hide around the library or the kid's stacks of books at home this summer! He's always up for doing something cool!

Supplies needed: Paper, glue, cotton balls, pens or colored pencils. See the instructions here.

PUZZLED - Unicorn and Yeti have different ways of putting a puzzle together. They figure out that things can be done in different ways and playing, well, it should be fun! I know that librarians are crafty, so I don't feel like I need to tell you how to create a puzzle with kids. It is a great craft to make use of recycled items.

Supplies needed: Paper, cardstock, or cardboard, colored pencils or pens or glue and magazines, comics, etc., and scissors. Of course, you can also purchase cheap puzzle blanks.

Bonus: In UNICORN AND YETI: A GOOD TEAM, Unicorn and Yeti create a race in the story titled... (you guessed it!)... A RACE. Creating a race could be a fun interactive project for the kids to do together! I think I might do that one too!

Whether you read the entire FUN AND GAMES book for one Storytime or use one story, it is definitely ready to fit into this year's iRead theme!

CSLP

Color Our World is the Collaborative Summer Library Program theme this year. The classic theme has lots of possibilities. Unicorn is always coloring the world! I do love the stories where Unicorn changes Yeti's appearance in SPARKLY NEW FRIENDS second story, AN AMAZING FRIEND and the third story in TOGETHER, TEA PARTY.

Of course, painting is a perfect activity for the Color Your World theme, and Unicorn and Yeti do just that in FAIR AND SQUARE, NO FAIR! The story reminds readers that each of us is unique as are our creations, and that painting is supposed to be fun, no matter how our paintings turn out.

So there you have it, a few quick and easy ideas to go with the 2025 iRead and CSLP Summer Reading themes. Thank you librarians for all you do to get kids excited about reading!

 

Book Joy Live!

Book Joy Live happens every week and I love watching when I can. John Schu has so much enthusiasm for books and I always learn about some great new children's books when I watch. (And my heart wants them all!) 

So, it is amazing to say that today, Hazel and I were on Book Joy Live with John Schu! It was a lot of fun talking all things Unicorn and Yeti with Hazel and John, plus we did a reader's theater-- we read aloud the first story from Fair and Square (around 18:00). And our Editor, Katie Carella even popped in! It was my first live author appearance and I couldn't have asked for it be more fun.

Thank you to everyone who watched and was so supportive! I loved reading through the comments on the Facebook feed. I've embedded the recording incase you missed it and want to watch. We can all use more book joy in our lives! You can also find the recording on the Scholastic Book Fairs Facebook page and on John Schu's website. 

 

Fair and Square!

 

Hey, hey, it's an exciting day! 

Unicorn and Yeti book 5, Fair and Square, is out into the world!

As you can see from the book cover, in Fair and Square Unicorn and Yeti take on painting! They also build a forest out of shapes, and Yeti makes a pie! Hazel Quintanilla's illustrations are so amazing, as usual, and bring such joy and wonder to the stories. I am so excited for kids to get to read it!

Looking at the completed book I can see a lot of my family in these stories. When my kids were small we had so many fun painting days. We'd build with blocks and sticks and whatever we could find to make towers and caves and robots--whatever struck our fancy. Our house was also under construction so we always had lots of building going on. My husband
built our house in his time off from working construction, so mornings before work, evenings after, and weekends.

I did a lot of holding up of big pieces of stuff, handing of tools, and nailing of nails--construction support. But let me tell you that a lot of things that you hold up during construction are not easy! And when we built our barn I had to get really high up and I did not have a trusty unicorn to fly me! (I definitely did my best to stay close to a holding place like I am in the picture.) It seems to me that sort of dedication deserves some sort of a medal. But we settled for pie. I made us lots of pies, and that seems to be a better prize anyway. Is the appearance pie in this book a coincidence? I certainly didn't think about it when I was writing the book but now I wonder!

 

Here's the family building a barn. The kids were older and loved helping!

Building, painting, pie making-- it's all fun and magical to me! I'm thrilled that Unicorn and Yeti is a 5 book series now and am so happy to be able to share more Unicorn and Yeti stories with readers! Just look at all of those amazing covers with those two amazing friends!

I can't wait to get to show you all book 6, Together. It comes out in 2022!