Put parent panic in your pocket and bring any questions on Saturday, March 22 at 10:00 a.m. at the Downtown Library. We are pulling out the toys for the children to play, while Dr. Jamie Plunkett from the University of Michigan Center for the Child and Family gives a brief talk on the importance of play and positive parenting, then hangs around to chat with parents.

In conjunction with Ann Arbor Family Days, Pornrat Damrhung, Professor of Dramatic Arts at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, and Charley Sullivan of the UM Center for Southeast Asian Studies, will lead simple Cambodian and Thai classical dance for the whole family. We will also be coloring dramatic masks. Keep an eye out for the Lunar New Year's Lion Dance! Follow the Lion as it dances along the sidewalk from AADL to the Main St. area.
Join the fun this Saturday, March 8 from 10-11 a.m.

Will Bunny ever find his home? Will the beautiful cockroach, Senorita Martina, ever find a true love who will sing to her in the evenings? Celebrate Valentine's Day with songs and stories at the Wednesday Downtown and Thursday Pittsfield storytime this week.

PIGGIES get their stage in Baby PlayGroup this week. We'll do a gentle home-grown version of The Three Little Pigs. You can check out Piggies by Audrey Wood, the fingerplay story; or Piggy In The Puddle by Charlotte Pomerantz for a rhythmic romp in the mud. VERY oink!

We can't wait for the India Family Cultural Celebration this Sunday, February 3 at 2:00 pm at the Downtown Library! Join us for storytelling with Rohit and Amanda Setty, Tabla and Sitar music by Meeta Banerjee, John Churchville and Dan Piccolo, delicious gulab jamoon and a colorful rangoli craft that the whole family will enjoy!

The hilarious new picture book, Grumpy Bird, will be joined by a blackbird adventure from India and a crafty trickster rabbit tale from American Indian tradition, when rabbit bounces up through the clouds to steal fire from the sky people, at the Wednesday Downtown and Thursday Pittsfield storytimes.

Baby PlayGroup Programs begin this week. Every week there are 6 programs at 4 locations. Join us when you can!
3 great books for winter with babies are Snowballs; Mouse's First Snow; and First Day Of Winter. Then let's make some roly-poly snowballs and itsy-bitsy snowflakes together!

Find T Rex and other outrageous costumed creatures when the AADL and the Main Street Area Association partner with a silly storytime and parade on Wednesday, October 31. Come to the Downtown Library at 10:00 am for tales and a costume march around the library. Then head to Main Street at 11:00 a.m. for trick-or-treating. This is a perfect way for the stroller crowd to celebrate.

I'm scouting DVDs for parents with infants. I found a WINNER in Ten Things Every Child Needs For The Best Start In Life. It supports top research without sounding "academic". You see/hear "big names" in childhood development plainly speak to parents about needs of infants. You get to see other cute, cute, CUTE infants, just like your own! The book 125 Brain Games For Babies provides great ideas on how to play with baby. Have FUN!

NEW Books that are perfect for baby lap-reads are The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri; So Sleepy Story by Uri Shulevitz; and A Good Day by Kevin Henkes. They show pictures that baby sees in her world. They have words that sound lovely to say and use and repeat from the driver's seat.

Soon to be arriving at the branches, there will be many new Arabic books for children. Many of these books are especially good for children (or anyone) learning Arabic as they have the vowel marks (tashkeel) on every word to aid in recognition and understanding. There will be board books, dictionaries, picture books and kits which will contain a book and a CD or cassette. The selection varies from branch to branch so check out the youth foreign language collection in the youth department on the first floor of the downtown library or in the foreign language collection at any of the branches. Any questions, comments or suggestions about Arabic books or any other foreign languages, please e-mail stantont@aadl.org

New at the downtown library in the Youth foreign language collection on the 1st floor in the Youth department, there will soon be a selection of children's Portuguese books including picture books and titles for older children. Put a hold on the books through the library catalog and have them delivered to the branch of your choice or browse the shelves downtown. If you have any questions, suggestions, comments on Portuguese titles or any foreign language books, please e-mail stantont@aadl.org.

A selection of the new titles:
A girafa que comia estrelas
O meu livro
Doze reis e a moca no labirinto do vento
O castelo verde
O cavalo da noite

Baby PlayGroup series is arriving the week of September 10, 2007. And new books keep arriving. Look for rhythm and rhyme and names and pictures you LIKE!
Remember .... You'll need to read it again, and again, and AGAIN!
Try Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan; and Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett; and The Cow Who Clucked from Denise Fleming.

Here is a selection of more new Chinese books for children. There are many more that will be on the shelves at each branch in the youth department downtown and in the foreign language collection at the other branches. Questions, comments or suggestions, please contact stantont@aadl.org

Picture books and books for younger children: 彩图儿歌/Cai tu er ge, mi yu, 沒有東西"送給你/The gift of nothing, 彩图寓言故事, 小皮斯凯的第一次旅行, 艾斯頓的石頭/Aston's Stones and 巴贝尔和他的孩子们/Babar and Family

Books with read along CDs: 动物摇滚乐 /Animal Rock 'n' Roll , 胆小的皮亚诺 /"Piano" the scarecrow and 小熊造船记 /Three bears build boats

The library will soon have many new children's books in Chinese on the shelves. The selection of books varies from branch to branch and can be found in the youth section at the downtown library and in the foreign language collection at the branches. The selection includes many original Chinese language works and works translated into Chinese from other languages. You can browse the shelf to look for new books or put a hold on books through the library catalog and have them delivered to the branch of your choice. Any qiestons, comments or suggestions, please contact stantont@aadl.org
The selection includes
The popular Elmer the Elephant books, Elmer, Elmer in the Snow,Elmer and Wilbur, Elmer's Hide and Seek,Elmer and the Lost Teddy and Elmer Again