N is for "North Haven Memorial Library"

"N is for the North Haven Memorial Library"

The North Haven Memorial Library

Today we went to the North Haven Memorial Library in North Haven, CT. It is a great library and had an awesome children's section. There were 4 floors. The basement was the children's section, the main floor had books you could buy, the second had the teen section and the adult non-fiction books, and the third floor had adult fiction, movies, and magazines.

This library outside has it's own "Reading Garden", a gated off area outside with benches, statues and plants contained in it. This is the first library we've visited that has had this. It's a great place for outdoor programs, and even tutoring sessions!

The reading garden entrance.

One of the statues inside the reading garden.

This library had THE best children's summer reading programs we've seen so far. There was a cute little scenario of a writer named Mr. E (ha ha!-if you're not sure why this is funny, say "Mr. E" out loud really quickly- "mystery"!) who had writer's block and the children needed to help him by going trough the secret door ( a room in the children's section) and completing the spaces inside. Each day any child ages 4-14 who was signed up would need to read at least 15 minutes and circle a day on their chart. After about a week or so they would bring the chart back to the library and go in the secret room and complete an activity and read a summary on a particular book for each of the days they read. All together there was 40 days you had to complete. 

The secret door.

Mr. E!!!!

A sample passage, the volunteers or the children read!

The activity to go along with the Half Magic summary above.

All throughout the program, kids earn tickets which they can then put towards special prizes such as pencil sharpeners, or little plastic animals.
The North Haven Library also had a great teen program that had different raffle prizes such as gift cards to Sports Authority. For every 30 minutes you read a day every signed up teen would get a raffle ticket to put in the drawing.

The teen section nicknamed Teen Haven.

The teen section was pretty average. There were really cool rocking chairs though.....

The North Haven Library had a book sale called the Best Friends Bookstore with a lot of cool books on sale. They also accept donations from the public.
The North Haven Library was great and we can't wait to go to Old Saybrook!

"M is for the Madison Public Library (a.k.a the Scranton Library)"

Cool artwork by the entrance!

This week we visited the Madison Scranton library. I have to say, what a cool library! The front of the building is neatly done and looks like an old town hall. The library has an awesome teen section right near the front door so as soon as you walk in you see it! There is a wide selection of
Nutmeg nominees and I even borrowed a few. The teen section also has magazines, DVD's and lots of books on tape.  This library also had a great children's section full of a great selection of books. In the children's section they also had little projects out you could work on such as tracing your hand. 

The teen section and large prints.

The children's sections great selection of picture books.

The children's section.

The Scranton Library had a great adult section with statues of mermaids on the shelves (since Madison is a beach town). They also had a section with newspapers and a huge section full of magazines.

 Part of the adult section. 

 We had a spectacular time at the Madison Scranton Library and we can't wait to visit the North Haven Memorial Library for N!

L is for "Lyme Library Association"

 

 

"L is for the Lyme Library Association"

The Lyme Library was teeny tiny; however they had a wide selection of books and a shelf for young adult selections. As we soon found out, this library had it's own cat!  It was the one and only library in Connecticut that had a cat living there and we thought this was very cool as we are cat lovers. 

The library cat named Emma. How Cute!!!

This library had a children's section which also contained many great books and tons of picture books and easy readers, too.

The children's section.

There were many great books in this small library.

We loved driving up into the middle of nowhere finding this library with great books. Next Stop: Madison for the Scranton Library!!

K is for "Kent Memorial Library"

 

 

 

"K is for the Kent Memorial Library"

 Hi Guys!! My family and I went to the Kent Library this past weekend. We had a great time and the library was so cute and small- it reminded us of Ivoryton! The librarian was very nice and they had a special reading room that was very old. There were also many places to sit down in the reading room.

The reading room.... SO CUTE!!!!

The one thing I found surprising about this library (since it was so tiny) was the fact that they had a young adult section. The section consisted of 3 tall shelves packed with lots of young adult selections. 

Kent is on the Appalachian Trail, so hikers and their gear were everywhere!  This gear belongs to some hikers who also like to explore libraries wherever they go.

The children's section was pretty average. For some reason it reminded me a little of the children's section from the Jewett City library. They had all of the 2013 Nutmeg Nominees in the same place as most of the libraries and it was easy to take one out. The only difference in the Nutmeg section was the fact that the teen Nutmeg nominees and the children's were mixed together and put on the same shelf.

The children's section!!

After visiting the library we visited the rest of Kent. We discovered a great Indie bookshop called House of Books. Besides books they also sold everything from pens, to puzzles, to toys, to stationary.The owner, Terri was a wonderful help when we asked for directions to the Falls.

We ate here for lunch after the library. This restaurant is called The Villager had great food!!! We recommend the black bean soup and homemade guacamole.

A gorgeous place to take a break before our long drive home!

After eating and checking out the bookstore we visited Kent Falls a waterfall in Kent. My brother and I had a blast since we were allowed to swim in the waterfall its self!! It was cool, especially since we had never done it before!

  We had a marvelous time in Kent!  It was full of our favorite things- a quaint library, a great indie bookstore, some exploring in nature, AND ice cream at the end of the day :-)!

J is for "Jewett City"

 

"J is for the Jewitt City Library (a.k.a. the Slater Library)"

This library was built in 1884!!!!!!

The front view of the building.

 Today we visited the Jewett City Library in Jewett City, a subsection of Griswold, CT. This library was built in 1884 and was originally called the Slater Library. We were surprised at the size of the library being that Jewett City is such a small area. This library had a wide selection of books and had a large young adult section (who knew?!) wedged in with the adult books.

The Young Adult section.

 This library's children's section was located in the basement of the building. On the way down the stairs there was a lovely mural of the genie from the Disney movie Aladdin. It was if he was greeting you and saying, " Welcome to the Slater Library's children's section!"

The large children's section in the basement.

The mural of the genie you notice on your way down the stairs.

The children's section chapter books.

For the town's school summer reading recommendations, they organized the books assigned on the cart next to the bookshelf (shown in the above picture) by grade. One shelf was for 6th grade, a second for 7th, and a third for 8th. I found this a great way to do it so that a child could easily find the book he/she needed to read.

There were many little places to sit in the Jewett City Library and I enjoyed this library very much. I can not wait to visit our next library!!!