A Woodside Walk- Projects for Neighborhoods

The book that I've had to repair the most is Un Bolsillo Para Corduroy by Don Freeman.  At this point, this book has more tape than paper.  The nice thing about this book is that it takes place in a laundromat.

A new holiday books section has been added to the cart...albeit a small one but still festive. Happy Holidays!

Will reschedule soon, so keep checking back! But you can enter the Coloring Contest by printing out the page from the Coloring/Activity book link at the top of this page and submitting it to the box at the Launtromat.

Some more dates have been added to the Story Time readings. Come join us for stories and prizes! September 17th and October 1st at 10am Also, you can enter the Coloring Contest by printing out the page from the Coloring/Activity book link at the top of this page and submitting it to the box at the Launtromat.

The other day the Staff at the Laundromat 55 decided to move things around a bit.  Now the video game has been moved into the back nook where the books used to be and the book cart has been moved closer to the front of the space, with more chairs surrounding it.  It's nice to see that they have really adopted the cart and now consider it a permanent fixture to their business.

I found this little note taped to the cart today:  It says "children book from 6-8" Someone really likes to play Librarian. Today I replenished the book cart with another 50 books, making the total thus far to 194.  Before today's addition  there were 91 books remaining, .  But on top of the 91 of my books, another 30 books had been added to the cart.  I brought the new pile home to register them into the project with a bookplate and number.  This evening I will go back and put back 28 of them.  The 8 that I am not going to put back are: 1 book that makes sounds with dead batteries. 2 books about winter (which I plan to put back on the cart in the Fall) 1 book on Thanksgiving (again put back in October) and the 4 books I am still debating about. These 4 books are Christian books.  Not books about Adam and Eve, or Noah's ark , not even about Jesus.  No, they are books with titles like: "Because I Love You", and "With You All the Way". The

It's been a very very hot weekend, and we ended it by going to have our ice cream dessert this evening from the Laundromat vending machine.  While we were there, I was straightening the books on the cart, and noticed there were some books I did not bring over.  I counted 30 books have been added to my stack.  Apparently I now have a co-librarian at the Laundromat.

Last Wednesday, I had high hopes. Lots of kids would show up for the reading.  After all, I did put up fliers announcing a FREE reading, and PRIZES.... but alas, there was only one child at the Laundromat when we arrived at 6pm.  They were getting their clothes out of the drier, and had already called a car service to pick them up, so I was dissapointed.  I decided to give the mother one of the book bags containing a new book, crayons, and the Woodside Walk coloring book anyway, in the hopes that she would tell her friends about the project.  Unfortunately she did not speak any English, and since I cannot speak any Spanish, I could not communicate enough to her about the project to make any future impact. She was very happy to get the goody bag and some new books for her child though.

So this evening, after dinner, we ventured over to the Laundromat to do an impromptu reading.  Last Sunday there seemed to be several children there, so I thought, why not try for our first Storytime tonight.  Well, what I realized is that people are not creatures of habit, especially during the summer. So I will put up posters advertising a reading for next week sometime.  I will shoot for Wednesday afternoon/early evening...Stay tuned. We wait around by reading some books, hoping some children will show up to do laundry with their parents. We choose a dessert from the vending machine. Then Harley reads the ingredients for the creamsicle to Hiro. Thus, concludes our first reading..... On this 90 degree evening, we could have done worse, than to sit in an air conditioned laundromat and had ice cream!

Getting ready for storytime, here's an example of the bookbags that will be giveaways! Each child will get one of these filled with a brand new book, crayons, and the Woodside Walk coloring book!

About a year ago, when our son was 1-1/2 years old, you could read the same book over and over and over again to him, with no complaint.  He even had In The Night Kitchen , memorized since we read it a lot.  We had Sandra Boynton 's Going to Bed Book memorized to the point that whenever he heard the words, "The sun has set, not long ago..." he would begin crying since it signaled bed time. Skip to today, our son would rather "read" the new books.  Same with videos and food too.  Anything new, he will devour, and anything old, he will pass over. So if you need a new book to read to your child, and the library is closed, walk your laundry, or yourselves over to our corner laundromat for a story!   Hiro tries to push the cart by himself. Crossing the street. Organizing the books. Sort of organized....notice my all time favorite book at top: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. My First reader!  A boy who was there, circled the scene

To begin thinking about what time and day of the week to schedule a weekly storytime, I made a poll. see the column on the right.  I hope to get at least 5-10 kids at least at one time. I hope.

Before releasing the books to the Laundromat, you need to tag them with a book plate.  Every book must have it's unique code so that it can be traced.  Today was going to be a studio building day for my book cart, but I realized I don't have enough lumber to do that, so I'm back at the computer designing a bookplate to affix to all the outgoing books. Here is my first design:  with an image of Hiro reading In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak .

Tonight while looking for free or cheap books online to distribute for the project, I came across this site: www.bookcrossing.com where you can actually put a code on your book before letting it free, track it to see where it goes, and who reads it. This will only work if the finders log onto the Book Crossing website and input the required info.  Hey it's worth a shot to see where the books end up! I love this idea as it turns the world into a public library.

A is for Arch, standing stiff as starch B is for the Bell that once clanged on the Sylvan Dell C is for Caduceus, with two snakes intertwined in bliss D is for doughboy, in WW I his gun he did employ E is for eagles, but don’t confuse them with seagulls F is for flag that the wind likes to wag G is for graffiti, found in areas that are seedy     Written for his sweetie H is for harpoon, best used under a full moon in June I is for Irish tavern, where yummy hamburgers turn J is for juice refreshingly chartreuse     Made with lots of produce K is for kindergarten, with smiling children within     Or K is for Katy the clown, with never a frown L is for lions roaring at O’Brien M is for music, played quickly when homesick N is for neon that goes off and on O is for Open Air Stage with performances under a cage P is for pyramid, a glass and metal hybrid Q is for Quran studied without shoes over a life span R is for Red Rose , smell the delicious aroma with your nose S