Anti-bullying Awareness Month

October greetings from the Children's Library! The month is moving along swiftly. If you have been in the library recently, you have probably seen staff members in Geek tee shirts. Or if you've attended an around-town activity lately, the library may have been there with their geek booth. If you haven't been in recently or seen our booth around town, you might be a little unclear about all this geeking. Do not be dismayed, your chance to say, "Oh, I see!" is coming. On Saturday, October 29, Memorial Library is hosting an official geek day in our parking lot and on our lawn from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The community is invited to come on out, enjoy some carnival-type games, have a snack, maybe win a prize in our giveaway, and find out what geek is all about. Because our entire staff is helping with this event, the library will not be open that day. Just drop off your due materials in the book drop and we'll get them checked in.

Storytimes have resumed on Thursday mornings. If you know someone who would like to take part, just have them give us a call, check our website, or stop by the library for the schedule. New little ones, and accompanying adults, are always welcome. This session lasts through November 17.

October is Anti-bullying Awareness Month. Bullying seems to have become more prevalent in our society. There are certainly more opportunities to bully in this day and age with cyber bullying offering another avenue. The library has a number of resources for both children and teens, as well as for parents. These titles include Bullying and Me by Ouisie Shapiro and Smart Kid's Guide to Online Bullying by David Jakubiak , both from the children's non-fiction collection. For teens, Dealing with Bullying by Alexa Gordon Murphy and Odd Girl Speaks Out - girls write about bullies, cliques, popularity, and jealousy, by Rachel Simmons. From Barbara Coloroso, The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander - from Preschool to High School: How parents and teachers can help break the cycle of violence. In addition, if you search our card catalog, you will find a number of fiction stories about children overcoming bullies.

The Children's Television Network has joined the anti-bullying campaign as well. Here's what the site has to say about their recent offerings on the topic. "Big Bird, Elmo, Abby and the rest of the Sesame Street gang address the important issue of bullying in a special episode, 'The Good Birds Club,'which aired on PBS on October 17. Bullying has been identified as a major concern by schools across the U.S. with 56% of students having personally witnessed some type of bullying in school. Sesame Street's anti-bullying episode hopes to educate young viewers about bullying and encourage preventative actions to combat aggressive behavior. The episode is part of a larger Sesame Street anti-bullying campaign including:

• Two new additional episodes addressing other bullying-related social-emotional issues.
• A robust parenting topics page at www.sesamestreet.org/bullying providing caregivers with videos, anti-bullying tips and "view and do" activities for children designed to promote healthy friendships as well as respect and understanding of each other's differences.
• A special 5-part video series Happy To Be Me: An Anti-Bullying Discussion with experts in the fields of child psychology, advocacy, education and health, delivering important messages for parents and children.
• The full street story of 'The Good Birds Club' will be available online for parents to watch with their children.

The new episodes will introduce young children to the ongoing issue of bullying and teach them the pro-social skills necessary to prevent and address this critical problem."

If this is a topic you are further interested in, Families Together is hosting a conference on November 12 in Wichita which is open to the public. Here is what they say about that conference, "Students who are bullied show more physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomach aches, and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, than other students. Families Together is proud to welcome Su Ellen Fried, co-author of Banishing Bullying Behavior and nationally renowned Anti-Bullying Advocate, and Dr. Charles Smith, author of Raising Courageous Kids to the 2011 FINDING SOLUTIONS conference. Dr. Smith and Ms. Fried will tackle this serious issue on what our children maybe facing everyday."To sign up, contact Families Together at 316-945-7747 or go to http://www.familiestogetherinc.org/ then click on dropdown "our events" and select 'statewide conferences'.

Join us for Geek Day on October 29 and we'll see you at Memorial Library!