 My name is Amanda. I am a librarian at the Fox Branch Library. So today we are going to sing some songs and read some books. And as you can see, we are in my house. Despite popular beliefs, librarians don't live in the library. They actually have homes of their own. All right. I got one more little song and I'm going to read some books. All right. So if you're ready to hear a story, clap your hands. If you're ready to hear a story, clap your hands. If you're ready to hear a story and you really want to show it. If you're ready to hear a story, clap your hands. If you're ready to hear a story, stop your feet. If you're ready to hear a story, stop your feet. If you're ready to hear a story and you really want to show it. If you're ready to hear a story, stop your feet. If you're ready to hear a story, wiggle around. If you're ready to hear a story, wiggle around. If you're ready to hear a story and you really want to show it. if you're ready to hear a story, wiggle around. If you're ready to hear a story, shout, hooray, hooray. If you're ready to hear a story, shout, hooray, hooray. If you're ready to hear a story, and you really want to show it, if you're ready to hear a story, shout, hooray, hooray. Great job, all right, so I have a bunch of books to read, and I'm really excited about it. So, this is a story that I read when I was a little girl, and I really love it. So it's called the little mouse, the red ripe strawberry and the big, hungry bear. Can everybody give me a roar? Uh-oh, what is this mouse? Oh, right. All right, what is this mouse going to do with this red ripe strawberry? Hello, little mouse. What are you doing? Can you see a little mouse? It's got a little ladder. I wonder what he's gonna go do. Oh, I see. Are you going to hit that red ripe strawberry? Mm, sounds good. But little mouse, haven't you heard about the big, hungry bear? Here we go. Oh, how that bear loves red ripe strawberries. Oh, the big hungry bear can smell a red ripe strawberry a mile away. Especially one that has just been picked. The bear will tromp through the forest on his big, hungry feet and smell that red ripe strawberry. No matter where it is hidden or who is guarding it or how it is disguised, I don't know. I don't know if I find that strawberry with those glasses and that nose and that mustache. It's a pretty good disguise. Quick, there's only one way in the whole wide world to save the red ripe strawberry from the big, hungry bear. Cut it in two, share half with me and we'll both eat it up. Yum. Now that's one red ripe strawberry, the big, hungry bear we'll never get. That was a good one. I like that one. All right, I got another one about bears. This one is called a bear snores on. The bear snores on. And can everybody give me their best? I might need you guys to do some snoring, okay? So, does anybody have any moms or dads that snore? Maybe you snore? I have a little tiny puppy that snores, actually. He's not really a puppy anymore. He's in a kind of an old dog, but he's an old dog and he snores pretty loud. Sometimes he wakes me up because he's snoring so loudly. All right, in a cave in the woods, in his deep dark lair, through the long cold winter, sleeps a great brown bear. The bear's hibernating in the winter. Cuddled in a heap with his eyes shut tight, he sleeps through the day and he sleeps through the night. The cold wind howls and the night sound growls but the bear snores on. Let me hear your snores. If you do them so loud, maybe I can hear them. An itty bitty mouse pitter pat tip toes, creep crawls in the cave from his fluff cold snow. Mouse squeaks too dark, too dark, too dark. So he lights wee twigs with a small hot spark. The cold's pit-pop and the wind doesn't stop but the bear snores on. Two glowing eyes sneak peek in the den. Mouse cries, who's there? And a hair hops in. Whole mouse says hair, long time no see, so they pop white corn and they brew black tea. Mouse sips, wee slurps, hair burps, big burps. Can you give me a big burp? Oh, oh, let the bear snores on. Oh, shh. A badger scuttles by sniff-snuffs at the air. I smell yummy yums. Perhaps we can share. What do you think? I brought honey nuts, badger says with a grin. Let's divvy them up, cozy down and dig in. Yum, yum. And they nibble and they munch and they chew, chomp, crunch. But the bear snores on. Give me a good snore. A gopher and a mole tunnel up through the floor and then a wren and a raven flutter through the door. Mole mutters, what a night, what a storm. Twitter's wren and everybody clutters in the big, great bear's den. They're having a little party. They tweet and they Twitter and they chat and they Twitter, but the bear snores on. Shhh. In a cave in the woods, a slumbering bear sleeps through the party in his very own lair. But uh-oh, hair stokes the fire, mouth seasons is stew, then a small pepper flake makes the bear. He blows and he sneezes and the whole crowd freezes. Uh-oh, what's gonna happen? And the bear wakes up, bear gnarls and he snarls, bear roars and he rumbles, bear jumps and stomps, bear growls and he grumbles. You snuck in my lair and you've all had fun. But me, I was sleeping and I have had none. And he wimpers and he moans and he wails and he growls at the bear ploppers on. He's sad he was messing out on the party. Mouse squeaks, don't fret, don't fuss, look see, we can pop more corn, we can brew more tea. That's nice in the mouse. What a nice mouse, friend. Bear gulps, and he gobbles and he sighs with the glide. Then he spins tall tales through the blustering night when the sun peaks up on a crisp clear dawn. Bear can't sleep. What happens? But his friends snore on. All his friends are sleeping. Is that a nice one? All right, I see some more friends saying hi. I just wanna say hi, Miles and hi, Leemon. Hi, Aquina and Breanne and Samyak. Hi guys, nice to see you. Glad you could come. All right, we're gonna do one more little song to wake up our bodies, ready? I bet you guys know this. Can everybody show me where their head is? Where's your shoulders? Where's your knees? Where's your toes? My toes are in my slippers, but you get the idea. All right, head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes, let's see y'all stand up. Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes, eyes and ears and mouth and nose. Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. All right, let's do another book. This one is called Bark George, and it's by Jules Pfeiffer, the author and illustrator. It's kind of a silly one. You guys can help me out guessing what some animals. Bark George. George's mother said, Bark George, but George went, Meow. Wait a second, that's not what dogs say. No George said George's mother, cats go meow, dogs go woof, woof, woof, woof. Now Bark George and George went, Quack, quack, quack. Wait a second, what animal goes quack, quack, quack? It's not a dog. No George said George's mother, dogs go quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. Dogs go woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof. Now Bark George and George went, Blink, blink, blink, blink. Wait a second. No George said George's mother, pigs go oink. Dogs go woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof, woof. Now Bark George and George went, moo, wait a second, that's silly. George's mother took George to the vet. I'll soon get to the bottom of this, said the vet. Please bark, George, and George went meow. The vet reached deep down inside of George and pulled out a cat. Bark again, George, and George went clack, clack, clack, clack. The vet reached deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep inside George and pulled out a duck. Bark again, George. George went blank. And the vet reached deep, deep, deep, deep, deep inside of George and pulled out a bark again, George. And George went moo. The vet put on his longest latex glove. And then he reached deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep inside of George. Now that is ridiculous. How the hell fit in George? What happened? Bark again, George. And George went, OK, a few. Looks like he's all better. George's mother was so thrilled that she kissed the vet. And the cat, and the duck, and the pig, and the cow. On the way home, she wanted to show George off to everyone on the street. So she said, bark, George. And George went, what do you think? Is he going to bark? Is he going to bark? What do you guys think? Guessing? Guesses? He said, hello. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, what happened? Trouble. All right, I see more friends saying, hi. It's so great to see so many friends out there. Hi, Violet. Hi, Brooklyn and Aubrey. My nieces are signed in. It's so nice you guys are here. I love you guys. Hi, Sterling and Everett and Juniper. Oh, it's so nice to see you. Hi, guys. I remember you guys from the dance party at the library. All right, it looks like lots of people love Bark George. Love it. All right. Awesome. Thanks, guys. All right, I'm going to have a little sip of my coffee, and then we're going to read a few more stories. Look, I have my nice library coffee mug. Give me a second. All right, this next one is one of my favorite ones. It's a very sweet story. It's called Spoon. It's by Amy Kraus Rosenthal and Scott Magoon. All right, this is Spoon. This is Spoon's family. Do you see all the spoons? It's a big family of spoons. On Sunday, Spoon goes to visit his aunt, Silver. He has to be on his very best behavior there. She's very fancy and proper. Goodbye, darling. Ta-da. Let's put this stuff together a little bit. Give me a second. Ooh, something sticky got on the pages. Oh, man. All right. Well, it's OK. At bedtime, Spoon likes to hear the story about his adventurous great-grandmother, who fell in love with a dish and ran off to a distant land. It's just that. I don't know. One second. Sorry, these pages are stuck together. All right, there we go. Lately, though, Spoon has been feeling a little blue. What's wrong, asked his mother? You look a little bent out of shape. Nothing in Mumble Spoon. It's just that I don't know. All my friends have it so much better than me. Like, Knife is so lucky he gets to cut. He gets to spread. I never get to cut or spread. Yes, Knife is pretty spiffy that way, isn't he? And Fork? Fork is so lucky. She gets to go practically everywhere. I bet she never goes stir-crazy like I do. Fork does get out and make herself useful, doesn't she? Let me see the Fork. And chopsticks. They are so lucky. Everyone thinks they're really cool and exotic. No one thinks I'm cooler exotic. Those chopsticks are something else, aren't they? Meanwhile, if only Spoon knew what his friends were saying at that very moment. Spoon is so lucky, said Knife. He's so fun and easygoing. Everyone's so serious with me. No one's ever allowed to be silly with me. Like they are with Spoon. Clang, clang, bang, bang. See, somebody's using the pot and the Spoon as a drum. Spoon is so lucky, said Fork. He gets to measure stuff. No one ever does that with me. Spoon is so lucky, said chopsticks. He can go places by himself. We could never function apart. It's true. You kind of need both chopsticks, right? That night, after bedtime story, Spoon's mom turned off the light, tucked him in and said, you know, Spoon, I wonder if you realize just how lucky you are. Your friends will never know the joy of diving headfirst into a bowl of ice cream. It's pretty special. They'll never know what it feels like to clink against the side of a cereal bowl. They'll never be able to twirl around in a mug or relax in a hot cup of tea. Spoon hadn't thought of it that way before. He lay awake in bed for a long time. His mind was racing. He felt. So there was only one thing to do. I can't sleep. Come snuggle. Come spoon. And so we did. He's spooning with his little spoon family. Sweet dreams. He's dreaming of a bunch of delicious desserts. Yum, yum. All right. I see more friends. Say hi. Hi, Celeste and Sabina. It's nice to see you guys. Hi from Evie and Elliot and Esther. Leo and Charlie. Hi from Kavith. Awesome. It's so nice to see you guys. All right. I am going to do a few more books. How does that sound? All right. This one's kind of a silly one. It's called Sh. We have a plan. Can you do your best? We need to tiptoe in this book. Can you do your best tiptoes? Shh. We have a plan. I like this one. This book is, oh, I forgot to say. This book is by Chris Houghton. And he actually draws the pictures. He's the illustrator and the author. Sometimes people have different people do each thing. But he is the author and the illustrator. He's written a lot of really good books. I like his illustrations. All right. Look, a bird. Go slowly. Tiptoe slowly. Now stop. Are they going to try to catch the bird? Ready, two? Ready, three? Climbing slowly, climbing slowly. Ready, one? Ready, two? Ready, three? And you can see, guys, oh, sorry, backwards. See all the letters? They're all in capital letters. And they have an exclamation point, which means they're yelling it at the top of their lungs. That's how I know. Look, down there. Hello, birdie. Shh, shh, I'm a good plan. Do you think this plan's going to work? Paddling slowly, paddling slowly, paddling slowly. Now stop. Ready, one? Ready, two? Ready, three? Is it going to work? I think they need a new plan. What do you guys think? Hello, birdie. Would you like some bread? This might work. One, two, three. You see all the birds. So there's one, then two birds, then three birds. That's a lot of birds. Ready, one? Ready, two? Ready, three? Phew, that was a lot of birds. They got a little scared. Look, a squirrel. We have a plan. The end of that one. I really like that one. It's kind of silly. They might need to come up with a new plan, though, don't you think? All right, a few more hello's. Hi, Charlie and Victoria. Hi, Pandora and Hagley. Flora and Iris, it's so great to see you. Hi, guys. All right. I got two more bucks. And this last one is one that I used to read when I was a little kid. It's a very classic old story. And it's one of my favorites. It's called Miss Nelson is Missing. Uh-oh, Miss Nelson is Missing. Where did she go? And it's by Harry Allard and James Marshall. James Marshall is one of my favorites. I gotta be honest. He draws a lot of great pictures and writes great books. You've probably read some before. The kids in room 207 were misbehaving again, spit balls stuck to the ceiling, paper plane whizzed through the air. They were the worst behave class in the whole school. Oh, no. Guys, I have a secret for you. I once dressed up as Miss Viola Swamp for Halloween. That was pretty cool. Now settle down, said Miss Nelson in a sweet voice, but the class would not settle down. Oh, no. They whispered and giggled. They squirmed and make faces. Look at this silly face this guy's making. Oh, no. They were even rude during story time. And they always refused to do their lessons. Something will have to be done, said Miss Nelson. Hmm. Look it, they're supposed to be doing their lessons and they're drawing silly pictures of Miss Nelson. Not very nice. The next morning Miss Nelson did not come to school. Wow, yelled the kids. Now we can really act up. They began to make more spit balls and paper planes today. Let's just be terrible, they said. Not so fast? Hissed an unpleasant voice. Uh-oh. A woman in an ugly black dress stood before that. I am your new teacher, Miss Viola Swamp. And she wrapped her desk with a ruler. Where is Miss Nelson, asked the kids. Never mind that snap, Miss Nelson. Open those arithmetic books. Miss Nelson's kids did as they were told. Yikes. They could see that Miss Swamp was a real witch. She met business. Right away she put them to work and she loaded them down with homework. That is a lot of homework. We'll have no story hour today, said Miss Swamp. Keep your mouth shut, said Miss Swamp. Sit perfectly still, said Miss Swamp. And if you misbehave, you'll be sorry, said Miss Swamp. The kids in room 207 had never worked so hard. Days went by and there was no sign of Miss Nelson. The kids missed Miss Nelson. What's they did? Maybe we should try to find her, they said. Some of them went to the police. Detective Mixmog was assigned to the case. He listened to their story. He scratched his chin. He said, hmm, I think Miss Nelson is missing. Detective Mixmog would not be much help. They know she's missing already, right? That's not so helpful. Other kids went to Miss Nelson's house. The shades were tightly drawn and no one answered the door. In fact, the only person they did see was the wicked Miss Viola Swamp coming up the street. If she sees us, she'll give us more homework. They got away just in time. Maybe something terrible happened to Miss Nelson. Maybe she was gobbled up by a shark and one of the kids, but that didn't seem very likely. Maybe Miss Nelson went to Mars, said another kid. Hmm, but that didn't seem very likely either. I know exclaimed one no at all. Maybe Miss Nelson's car was carried off by a swarm of angry butterflies, but that was the least likely of all. That would be pretty crazy. The kids in room 207 became very discouraged. It seemed that Miss Nelson was never coming back and they would be stuck with Miss Viola Swamp forever. They heard footsteps in the hall. Here comes the witch, they whispered. Hello, children, said someone in a sweet voice. Who is it? It was Miss Nelson. Did you miss me, she asked. We certainly did, cried all the kids. Where were you? That's my little secret, said Miss Nelson. How about a story hour? Oh yes, cried the kids. Miss Nelson noticed that the story hour, no one was rude or silly. What brought about this lovely change, she asked. That's our little secret, said the kids. Back home, Miss Nelson took off her coat and hung it in the closet, right next to an ugly black dress. Hmm, when it was time for bed, she sang a little song. I'll never tell, she said to herself with a smile. Who's black dress is that? Hmm. P.S., Detective Mcsmog is working on a new case. He is now looking for Miss Viola Swamp. I'm as Nelson as a tricky, tricky teacher. All right, a few more hallows and then one more story. All right, we have Nora. Hi, Nora. Let's see, Eve and Kate. Hi, it's nice to see you guys. Julia and Matthew, thanks for coming and listening to some stories. All right. All right, I got one more story and this is kind of a cool one and something maybe you could even do at home. So this one is not a box. And I remember when I was a little kid, my mom and dad, they used to get big boxes from the grocery store or from Costco or there was a path mark around the corner from our house and we would go to the grocery store and we would get these giant boxes and me and my brother would color them all in and decorate them and make them all different things. Yeah. And so this book is kind of about that a little bit. And if you guys have any boxes at home, any cardboard boxes, you can do the same thing and they could be really anything. Sometimes we, I use little boxes, the smaller ones to make little beds for my son's stuffed animals. Sometimes we make big boxes and he likes that we just put a blanket in there and he likes to read his stories in the box. Sometimes they can be rocket ships. They could really be anything you want them to be. So that's what this story is all about. Not a box. It kind of looks like a box though, right? And something cool about this story, you can't feel it, but it feels, you can hear it a little bit. It feels like a cardboard box, which is kind of fun. All right, let's see what this bunny is up to. Not a box. Oh yeah, sorry. And it's by Antoinette Portis. Why are you sitting in a box? What's he doing? Can anyone have any guesses? If you have a guess, you can write it in the thing or you can write them in the comments on the side or just tell them to your parents or anyone that you're at home with. Looks like he could be in the bathtub. He could be, I don't know, let's see. It's not a box. He's pretending it's a race car. That's super fun. Well, what are you doing standing on that box? What do you think? Any guesses? I don't know. What could he be doing? Looks like he's standing on it. Could be like he's standing on the top of something. Maybe like a statue? He almost kind of looks like the bunny statue of Liberty. What do you think? It's not a box. Oh, it says rabbit peak. He's on top of a mountain. That's pretty cool. What are you doing squirting that box? Hmm, what could he be pretending? Maybe he's pretending he's washing a car or I don't know. Almost looks like he's putting gas in a car. Oh, I said it's not a box. He's pretending to be a firefighter. That's so fun. What a fun thing to pretend. Now you're wearing a box? Hmm, what could he be pretending? Uh-oh, this is not a box. He's a robot bunny? Are you still standing around in that box? It's not, not, not a box. Oh my gosh, look at all these cool things. He's in a hot air balloon. He's on a tugboat. He's on a, right on the back of an elephant or in a pirate ship. Oh my gosh, you can do so many things with an empty box. So many fun things to pretend. Well, what is it then? What should he call it? His imagination box? So many things. Hmm. What should he call it? It's my not a box. It's a rocket ship. So cool, so many options. And he's flying off into space. So cool, such a good one. All right, so I encourage all of you, if you guys have any, I'm looking at it's got a little side up, just like a cardboard box. So I encourage any of you guys, if you have boxes at home to pretend and make them anything that you want them to be. And I also need to give a little shout out to all of the publishers who gave us, who are letting us read all these awesome books. So, not a box is written by Harper Collins or is published by Harper Collins. Ms. Nelson is by Houghton Milthlin. We have a plan is by Candlewick, which is a local publisher actually. They're right here in Cambridge, which are really, they're really awesome. Spoon is by Hyperion. Bear Snores On is by Simon and Schuster and Red Ripe Strawberries by Charles Play. So those are all the publishers that make the book. And I wanna just thank everybody for coming.