Virtual Book Talk: Women's History Month

For my virtual program in March, I decided that I would do my first virtual book talk on Women's History Month. It was a challenge because it was my first program that wasn't in a storytime or craft format, but I so enjoyed doing this and to promote some of the incredible women who had made a difference.

I ended up using Google Slides and Screencast to make a video on some of the great female biographies for young readers that I came across. I wanted to make sure that I chose books that were diversified and had women from all walks of life. 

Originally, I came up with the idea to physically hold up the books as I was talking about them-which is the traditional way of doing these virtually it seems, but because I wasn't able to get a hold of any books I set aside in the library, I decided to take this as a challenge and see what e-books we offered on Hoopla and our other e-book sources. 

After seeing that a lot of e-books on my list were available on Hoopla, I decided to narrow down my list from those and thought this worked out perfect because everyone watching could check out these books either physically from the library or on Hoopla. I loved how we have these great books on women available both the physical copy and the e-book copy. 

Below is a list of the books I decided to narrow down to and present, but there are so many women biographies for kids that are so inspiring! These twelve book suggestions vary from picture books to chapter books. Happy Women's History Month!

25 Women Who Fought Back by Jill Sherman (chapter book)

111 Trees: How One Village Celebrates the Birth of Every Girl by Rina Singh, Marianne Ferrer (picture book)

A Woman in the House (and Senate): How Women Came to the United States Congress, Broke Down Barriers, and Changed the Country by Ilene Cooper (chapter book)

Dolores Huerta: Labor Activist by Kate Moening (easy reader/early reader)

Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You've Never Heard Of by Helaine Becker (picture book)

Mamie on the Mound: A Woman in Baseball's Negro Leagues by Leah Henderson (picture book)

On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Berne (picture book)

The Bug Girl: Maria Merian's Scientific Vision by Sarah Glenn Marsh (picture book)

The International Day of the Girl: Celebrating Girls Around the World by Jessica Dee Humphreys (chapter book)

The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark by Kate Moore (chapter book)

The Voice That Won the Vote: How One Woman's Words Made History by Elisa Boxer  (picture book)

Women Inventors Hidden in History by Petrice Custance (chapter book)

Book of the Month: The Worry (Less) Book: Feel Strong, Find Calm, and Tame Your Anxiety

 

For February's Book of the Month, I chose a nonfiction children's book about worry and anxiety to help children who might be having trouble with our new normal because of Covid-19 or those that like me, tend to having worry and anxious tendencies. The Worry (Less) Book: Feel Strong, Find Calm, and Tame Your Anxiety! by Rachel Brian is our Book of the Month. I read a lot of self-help nonfiction for adults on worry and anxiety and wanted to see what we have out there for our children to read on the subject. 

Summary: Start worrying less and enjoying life with this book for people who worry or struggle with anxiety (so yeah--everyone)!

Ages: 6-10 years

"What this book can do: explain how your body reacts to worries. Help you recognize anxiety. Give you ideas for calming yourself. What it can't do: tell you how to worry. Pick up your dirty socks. Make all anxiety disappear."

In kid-friendly speak and fun comic illustrations, Rachel Brian presents a helpful book on worry and anxiety for children and like she says, "for everyone!" Particularly helpful is how she presents ways middle graders and adults can manage their stressful moments and how to understand their feelings better. This is a great book to explain worry to children and how there are good worries and being overly worried. 

The pictures really get emotions across that will help the reader understand even better. There's also valuable information explaining worry from a scientific and medical perspective. I also liked how the author pointed out the different ways you can recognize it's anxiety and how anxiety can get in the way of new opportunities and all the ways you can take care of you to avoid worry's ugly moments. 

This book is a great introduction on worry and how to alleviate them.