An article I read this week “On the rights of reading and girls and boys” really got me thinking about what we consider to be good books for boys and for girls. How early are we starting to teach segregated reading to our kids?

Many of the changes happening at the library you may have already noticed, like the construction of our Sky Lab or our new Adult Information Desk. But one thing you may NOT have noticed on the main floor is that we are starting to catalogue all of our paperback materials!

What does that mean? Well, it means 2 things...

This year's Battle of the Books was another great success, thanks to all of you!

I had the pleasure of helping host the Battle again this year, on Tuesday at Heather Park Elementary, and it never ceases to amaze me how dedicated our Red Cedar readers are here in Prince George! Even though your teachers and school librarians were not allowed to help you practice during out-of-school hours this year, all of you did a great job of keeping up your reading at home and practicing together with your teammates. It was such a pleasure to see all of you so excited for this event and to hear about which books you loved best.

Well done, all of you, and a special congratulations to Van Bien Elementary, whose 2 teams came in 1st and 3rd, and to Southridge who finished 2nd.

In a recent New York Times blog post, it was said that Children's books published over the last decade or two have been "losing touch with nature", featuring fewer natural environments (as opposed to building and cities) and wild animals (as opposed to domesticated or animals made to act like humans).


If you want to read the blog post,
here's the link: http://nyti.ms/yzgoyq


While this may be true as a general trend, I know that as someone who chooses which picture books to buy for kids in Prince George, I always have my eyes open for great stories on environmental themes or celebrating nature. So when I first opened "And then it's spring" by Julie Fogliano, I knew I had found a gem!

Hey everyone - to celebrate Leap Day today, why not read some excellent froggy books? They'll have you jumpin' for joy :)


Bradley McGogg : the very fine frog – by Tim Beisner

When Bradley McGogg runs out of food in his bog, he visits his neighbors to share some of their food.


City Dog, Country Frog – by Mo Willems

Through the seasons, whenever City Dog visits the country he runs straight for Country Frog's rock to play games with him, but during the winter things change for them both.