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Reading is fundamental. Do you know what else is fundamental? Having fun. And do you know what else is fundamental? Crafting – learning to create something you’re proud of. And do you know where you can have all of these experiences at once?

Craft Time!

As of January 2025, with the support of the marvelous and talented Youth Services Department, I have been hosting Craft Time after the last Preschool Story Time of each month. We had so much fun making bear puppets in January and paper butterflies in February. Come join us for our next craft on Tuesday, March 25! Crafts correlate with the story time books read by Miss Pamela and will be suited to the skills of 4-6 year olds, whose creativity we have found impressive and inspiring. Here are a few books that are available to check out in the Young Readers’ Room that will help you and/or your kids get creative in the meantime.

You know when a book lives in the back of your head because it’s just so delightful? Ed Emberley’s Fingerprint Drawing Book is one of those books. Requiring nothing more than paper, an inkpad, a marker, and your own thumb; this is a book that you will enjoy and learn from even if you don’t have a creative bone in your body. It guides you through each step of the process to make everything from a snail to a watermelon to a knight in fingerprinted armor – all smiling, of course. These mini artworks are so easy and so much fun. Once you’ve made one, it’s hard to stop.

If you’re looking for a craft that’s a bit more complicated and a lot more unique, look no further than The Usborne Book of Masks. It’s complete with instructions and templates for creating funny, cute, or scary masks. While some of the masks require more patience (the genuinely freaky Sea Witch, with glitter eyebrows and fish in her hair), there are simpler options as well (Hovering Bees, a face full of flowers surrounded by bees on wires). The diverse options of this book make it the perfect guide for a family craft night.

When I was younger, the American Girl book series changed my life – I was finally able to connect with history by seeing it through the eyes of girls my age. The American Girl craft books and cookbooks are wonderful for having tactile experiences that connect you with the past. Addy’s Craft Book begins each section with a short summary about an area of Addy Walker’s fictional life in 1864, and details how to create a related range of paper and fabric crafts that a girl like Addy would have learned. If you’ve ever wanted to try cross stitch or wondered what a Jacob’s Ladder is, this book can answer your questions.

Star Wars Origami rules the craft section of the Young Readers’ Room – it’s so popular that we have three copies. So much fun, even if you’re not a Star Wars fan – the intricate character designs will keep you busy and engaged. The way this book is formatted, it teaches you the basic paper folds and terms of origami before launching into the projects, which include a wide variety of characters and ships. It’s a great introduction to origami and, of course, to Star Wars origami.

Come by the Young Readers’ Room to check out any or all of these books, or spend some time perusing more options in our delightful craft book section. If you’ve gotten the itch for crafting something fun and book-inspired, don’t miss Story Time on March 25 at the Contemporary Club!

Many adults enroll in A.K. Smiley Public Library’s Adult Literacy Program with the goal of improving their reading and writing skills so they can read to their children, help their children with school assignments, and communicate effectively with their children’s teachers and medical professionals. Recognizing the critical importance of literacy within a family, the Redlands Adult Literacy Program initiated family literacy services in 2019. Members of the family literacy program hold monthly meetings to help low-literacy parents develop skills that can support their children’s education, promote the value and pleasure of reading together as a family, and provide solutions to reduce the risk of multi-generational illiteracy.

Initially, the children in family literacy were ages 2 to 7 years old. Now, the program serves children up to the age of 12 and provides books of interest for a wider age group. The family literacy team provides a welcoming and consistent environment which supports learning. Each meeting dives into a book’s theme to involve and make learning fun for the whole family. During the meeting, families are engaged in interactive games, reading and writing, science, art, and math opportunities. The meetings model what parents can do at home to encourage a love of learning in their children.

One of the most important aspects of family literacy meetings is ‘parent time’ where parents meet separately while children participate in various activities. This special time for parents allows parents to ask difficult questions, share ideas with each other, and learn new ways to engage their children with literacy. The parent time helps parents learn new literacy skills that are immediately practiced when they rejoin their children in parent/child time. Family literacy consultant, Joan Prehoda, teaches a strategy that covers a single topic that encourages one aspect of reading, writing, or communication within families. Joan has shared strategies that support parents in many areas of literacy including: teaching the stages of writing development, developing children’s self-esteem, identifying and naming feelings, teaching problem solving skills that help children build their independence, identifying questions to ask children while reading to them to build reading comprehension, and sharing the importance of reading every day.

Over the past five years, the family literacy program has provided more than 1,500 books to build home libraries for family literacy participants. The children are always excited to choose new books to take home at the end of the family literacy meetings. Joan Prehoda shared that “during the last meeting I quietly uncovered the books and had to quickly step out of the way as the children swarmed around the table to see what books were available.” The books are readily available to children at home as the family literacy team has encouraged parents to leave them on shelves or tables in every room of the house and in the car so they can be taken along to appointments where families spend time in waiting rooms. Several parents were excited to report that because books are always within reach, their children are reading more and developing a love of reading.

Joan Prehoda and Renee Kennedy guide the overall family literacy program and are assisted by: Melany Chong who leads children in various interactive activities, Evan Shimota who teaches science lessons, and Barbara Vester who helps with community building exercises. “Without a caring and supportive team, the family literacy meetings would not be successful. Each team member contributes to our welcoming community that helps families develop a level of trust in us,” shares Renee Kennedy.

Future plans include hosting a book club for the older children to participate in.  Together, they will read the first chapter of their book club selection, then they will take the book home to read independently and prepare for a discussion of the book during the next book club meeting.

Renee Kennedy also leads a state-wide family literacy community that is available to leaders of family literacy programs throughout California. These meetings provide an opportunity to share and develop new family literacy practices which enhance family literacy programming at other libraries. “Selecting Renee Kennedy to spearhead the statewide family literacy effort is a reflection of how respected the Smiley Library family literacy program is,” observed Diane Shimota, Adult Literacy Coordinator at Smiley Library.

The Family Literacy Program seeks to address the special needs of families whose adult members are currently enrolled in the Redlands Adult Literacy Program or who would like to enroll in the adult literacy program in the future. To learn more about the Family Literacy Program, please call Diane Shimota, Adult Literacy Coordinator, at (909) 798-7565, ext. 4138, or email literacy@akspl.org.

The Redlands Adult Literacy Program also invites you to consider volunteering to be a literacy tutor for adult learners. The next Volunteer Tutor Orientation is April 22, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. in the Library Assembly Room. Call (909) 798-7565, ext. 4138, or email literacy@aksp.org to reserve a space or to obtain more information.

What’s New at Smiley you ask? I’m so glad you asked! The Youth Services Department is excited to announce nine newly acquired book kits for our Library of Things, consisting of six Mental Wellness (two in Spanish, four in English) and three STEAM Kits (English) available for check-out! The Mental Wellness backpacks are provided to you through a grant from California State Library. The STEAM kits were purchased from Penworthy Books.

These are the subjects for the Mental Awareness kits:

• Grief
• Bravery
• Anger
• Kindness
• Spanish – Kit de Sentimientos
• Spanish – Kit de Ansiedad

and the STEAM-to-Go:

• Paw Patrol Phonics
• Sensory Explorer
• Trucks and Tools

You will find these kits in the Young Readers’ Room, hanging on hooks near the Computer Table Station.

With a valid library card, a borrower is able to check out one backpack or kit for two weeks with no renewal ability (one per family).

Each kit comes with a label attached to the backpack listing all contents inside.

Each kit comes with an explanatory, laminated sheet to help you maximize the use of the kit with your child.

We’ll be excited to see which kit you decide to check out first!

~ Pamela Martinez, Senior Librarian, Youth Services

Do you make food resolutions? Maybe you are determined to eat less refined sugar, include more vegetables, or expand the number of home-cooked meals for your family in 2025. If you are in need of some inspiration, Smiley Library can provide you with fresh ideas from our latest additions to our cookbook collection.

Tieghan Gerard is serving large portions of comfort food that are do-ably delicious in her latest book, “Half Baked Harvest Quick and Cozy.” Creamy turmeric lemon chicken and orzo, baked broccoli cheddar-gruyere, and loaded potato topped with sour cream, bacon, and green onion are some of the soup options to fill your bowl. For some oven-baked dinner options, do try sheet pan mac and cheese, double-baked taquitos, gochujang margherita pizza, and cider-braised beef brisket. Tieghan offers a select number of desserts including blackout sprinkle cookies, maple banana pudding, apple honey cake, and frosted peanut butter brownies.

One way that people express their love and appreciation for others is through cooking and baking. Pamela Anderson did this for her two grown sons with a housewarming gift of family favorite meals written on recipe cards. Later, those cards were developed into her cookbook, “I Love You” for all of us to enjoy. Vegetables and bread take center stage with nourishing recipes for crispy saffron-spinach rice cake, harvest veggie pot pies, salad pizza, heirloom tomato galette with cashew cream, and herby French potato salad. Pamela’s love for bread shines through with cinnamon rolls with maple glaze which includes a sourdough variation, crispy stacks of waffles, soft pretzels, and rustic sourdough. These dishes and more are all Vegan-friendly as no animal products appear in her recipes.

“I love the excitement that dessert brings to daily life. A weeknight dinner feels a little more special topped off by dessert.” If you are a fan of sweet treats but also desire to reduce refined sugar, then check out “Not Too Sweet” by Jessica Seinfeld. Pineapple upside-down coconut cake, roasted strawberry pop tarts, chocolate brownies, and figs in a blanket are a sampling from the 100 recipes on offer. As an added bonus, many desserts are also gluten-free, grain-free, and/or dairy-free.

Finally, here is an extra helping of recent titles for mealtime inspiration: “Ottolenghi Comfort” by Yotam Ottolenghi, “Simply Jamie” by Jamie Oliver, “Martha the Cookbook” by Martha Stewart, “The Pasta Queen” by Nadia Caterina Munno, and “When Southern Women Cook” edited by Morgan Bolling.

President Abraham Lincoln, in his Emancipation Proclamation, declared, “…all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State… shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free…”

The Lincoln Memorial Shrine, the Civil War museum and research center in Redlands under the auspices of A.K. Smiley Public Library, recently installed an insightful and poignant exhibit in its west wing, “…that All Men are Created Equal: Slavery in America.” Though not normally open on Mondays, we invite you to visit The Shrine and reflect on this exhibit and others this Presidents’ Day, Monday, Feb. 17, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

In our continuing observance of African American Heritage Month, in complement to this special exhibit, we will highlight here some of our new non-fiction acquisitions discussing the painful topic of enslavement of others and its legacy of continuing generational damage, challenging what it means to be ‘free.’

“I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free,” by 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Wall Street Journal writer Lee Hawkins. Researching his ancestors in-depth, Hawkins looks to them for answers, spurred on by the nightmares he began experiencing in his 40s. He identifies the inheritance of violence-and resilience-that has followed his family in every generation since enslavement.

“In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World” is a collection of essays by key historians and scholars, provided by The National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is a companion book to an extensive exhibition of the museum, providing 150 illustrations of people and objects, framing the history of slavery in a global context. Discussing contemporary echoes of slavery, the authors also demonstrate how those affected have asserted and are asserting their humanity and their right to equal freedoms.

“A Plausible Man: The True Story of the Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is authored by Susanna Ashton, a professor of English and an expert on slavery and freedom narratives. Ashton painstakingly combed obscure records to find John Andrew Jackson, a fugitive slave who was hidden by Harriet Beecher Stowe one night and inspired her novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” which is thought to have sparked the United States Civil War. His story takes us through nineteenth-century America: the war, Reconstruction, and the restoration of white supremacy.

Additional related titles include:

“Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History,” 1800? – 1831, by late historian Anthony E. Kaye and collaborator Gregory P. Downs

“A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune,” 1875-1955, by Noliwe Rooks

“We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance,” by Kellie Carter Jackson

“Galveston’s Juneteenth Story: and Still We Rise,” by Tommie D. Boudreaux and the Galveston Historical Foundation

“Slavery After Slavery: Revealing the Legacy of Forced Child Apprenticeships on Black Families, from Emancipation to the Present,” by Mary Frances Berry

Look for these books and more on our ‘New Book’ shelves, or on our Black History Month display in the Library.