Hello, from the Children’s Desk!
The month of October brings us a lot to celebrate. This week we have Columbus Day, Farmers’ Day, National M&M Day (Oct. 13 - Do you have some M&Ms to observe the occasion?), Boss’s Day, and Sweetest Day. Later this month of course, is the most well-known of them all: Halloween.
There are many other celebration days that I did not list. It’s a fun Google search to see what celebration days we have coming up and fun ways to participate in them. However, I wanted to highlight another celebration day that just passed Oct. 12: Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a time for reflection, honor and remembrance of Native American peoples.
The state of Minnesota adopted this celebration in 2016. Some have even stopped celebrating Columbus Day due to its controversial history. You can read more about this celebratory day online. To honor and encourage reflection and remembrance of Minnesota’s and our country’s great Native American history, I encourage you to read a book by an #OwnVoices author.
My suggested children’s titles that are on the shelf at the Litchfield Public Library include:
- “Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People” by Debbie Reese
- “Apple in the Middle” by Dawn Quigley
- “Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story” by Kevin Noble Maillard
- “Thunder Boy Jr.” by Sherman Alexie
- “Bowwow Powwow” by Brenda J. Child
Another October celebration that librarians have a lot of fun with is the nationwide celebration of teens, TeenTober, hosted by libraries.
At the Litchfield Public Library, we aim to create collections, programs, and services to help teens learn and discover new books and resources for education and entertainment. For this TeenTober, Litchfield and Atwater libraries will be hosting a digital teen program. Teens can interact with each other and use their creative talents to generate a final digital project.
For more information, contact Margaret Weigelt at 320-974-3363 or watch our Facebook page later this month. This digital event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 31, at 1:30 pm. Here is the link to join the meeting: https://meet.jit.si/TheLibraryTeenProgram1002
