Town School for Boys Library

And we’re back!

We’re thrilled that the school year has started and the Town School Library is once again a busy, noisy place.  There have been a few changes and improvements over the summer, and as usual, we have tons of brand new books.  Some of the changes you may notice include:

• A board-gaming area in the reference section.   Towards the end of last year, we started buying board games for boys who wanted an alternative to playing sports outside during recess.  So far, we have Monopoly, Harry Pottery trivia, and Runebound, and we’re definitely looking to build up this collection.  If you have any specific game requests, let us know.  We’ve also created shelf space for boys to save unfinished games, since most good games take at least two or three recess periods to finish.

• Our Junior Fiction section is better than ever.  We cleaned out and donated a number of the older books that were no longer appealing to kids, and we’ve bought a huge stack of new, colorful, and engaging short chapter books.  Come take a look!

• New magazines!  This year, we’ll be subscribing to a number of different magazines, including Game Informer, Mad Magazine for Kids, Cricket, MLS Magazine (soccer!), ESPN Magazine, Slam, and Time Magazine for Kids.  You’ll find all current issues of these magazines in the hanging racks next to the back windows.  Boys are welcome to borrow magazines overnight.

• As you may know, the library has lots of videos.  In previous years, only teachers were able to borrow these, but this year we have decided to let kids and parents check them out, too.  Boys can borrow videos on Fridays and must return them the following Monday.

• Looking to donate a book to the library?  Check out our new Amazon wishlist!  We’ll be using this wishlist as part of our new, improved Birthday Book program, coordinated by parent volunteers Tammy Leong and Akemi Tsuruyama.  And while we’re on the topic, if you’re a Town family member and are interested in volunteering in the library, feel free to contact our new volunteer coordinator, Tina Tunney.

• And last but hardly least, MICE!  Sadly, one of our library mice — Bernadette — died this summer.  As of last week, however, Nibbler has two new companions: a black mouse named Frances, and a grey-and-white mouse named Lucy.

In the rest of the country, today was merely Valentine’s Day.  But here at Town, we also celebrated Dress Like a Celebrity/ Athlete/ Teacher Day.  We had a lot of football players, Harry Potters, and a couple terrific teacher costumes.  One costume in particular was a big hit in the library: Pat from 4B dressed up as Nibbler, the library mouse!  Here’s a picture of him holding his “tail.”  They don’t show up too well in this photo, but Pat’s even wearing red goggles to mimic Nibbler’s bright red eyes!

Believe it or not, Ms. Wolfram and Ms. Alonso have finally cracked the code and figured out who our mystery authors are.

But what about you? Are you as clever as your two librarians? Can you solve this puzzle too? Read the comments on the previous entry and see if you can decode the authors’ clues.

By the way, we’re pretty sure that Nibbler and Bernadette are not the authors.

Behind the Bookshelf
Snowboarder Mouse
Mouse’s War
The Mystery of Mouseopolis

Do you recognize these titles? We sure don’t! Before this week, we’d never heard of them before.  And then all of a sudden, we started finding book after books after book hidden in the library’s shelves. They’re strange little books: beautifully written and illustrated, but mysteriously small in size, almost as if they were written by a mouse.  (It kind of reminds us of the book Library Mouse, by Daniel Kirk, in which a mouse named Sam secretly writes books at night and puts them out on the shelves for children to find.)  But who could have written our books?  Could Bernadette and Nibbler have done it?  And if so, why would they hide them on our shelves, rather than giving them to us to catalog and label?

Hmm…we are totally mystified.

If you have any idea who might be writing these wonderful books, perhaps you could leave us a clue in the comments area on this blog.

As many of you have already discovered, the library is now home to two white mice named Bernadette and Nibbler.

Bernadette and Nibbler live in a plastic aquarium on Ms. Wolfram’s desk. Since mice are nocturnal and need lots of shut-eye, they spend most of their days sleeping, but early in the morning and late in the afternoon they tend to wake up and play on their wheels. The rest of their time is spent snuggled inside their log, which they have carefully lined with shredded newspaper, to make it private and cozy.

Since the best way to get to know someone is by listening, we decided to interview our two newest arrivals and see what they could tell us about themselves. Here’s what they had to say:

Bernadette: I’m thrilled to be here in the library, since I’ve always loved reading. My very favorite book is probably Stuart Little, but I also loved The Marzipan Pig, by Russell Hoban. Aside from napping, running on wheels, and building nests, I also enjoy listening to my iPod (my favorite band is Modest Mouse) and yoga.

Nibbler: Hi guys. I’m kind of shy, so you probably won’t see as much of me as you will of Bernadette. She spends a lot of time out on the wheel, but I usually stay indoors during the day. While I’m inside my log, I do a lot of reading. I’m glad that Ms. Wolfram’s been giving us shredded newspaper to bed down in, since it is very important to me to keep up with current events. I used to like to read the news online, but our wireless reception inside this aquarium is unfortunately not that great.

So that’s what Nibbler and Bernadette have to say about themselves. I’m sure they will have plenty more to contribute to life in the library over the next few months — perhaps they will even share a book review or two with us sometime!