Kids


Color Your Own Dragon Cards

color your own dragon cards in multiple colors

Happy Holidays busy readers! I thought it would be super fun for you all to be able to color your own dragon cards. I bet you have some really cool ideas about what your dream dragons would look like. All through December you can stop in at the children’s department to pick up a pack of blank dragon cards or request them at curbside pickup. I would love to see what you make! You can share your cards with the library through facebook or tag your cards on social media #DoverReadingDragons 


Holidays Around the World

This year has been different to say the least.  Most people have not traveled anywhere or at least have stayed close to home. 

So, we decided to give everyone a little taste of adventure this holiday season by transforming the top of the bookshelves in the Children’s Department into a trip around the world.

Christmas is celebrated by a lot of people in the United States and a lot of European countries, but you can’t forget about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa too. 

I have learned so many cool facts about different countries, like how Ukraine uses a spider web on their trees due to an old folk tale.  In Thailand most people are Buddhist, but those that celebrate Christmas like to use the fish, which is a Christian symbol, to make special ornaments for the tree. 

Kwanzaa came into existence in 1966 to celebrate African American heritage. 

Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 nights because the Maccabees were able to survive with a day’s worth of oil that lasted 8 days.

Of course, the Christmas season in the United States is a religious holiday for many representing the birth of Christ, and homes and churches decorate with manger sets, trees and hold family gatherings.

It is also welcomed by many celebrating the arrival of Santa, gift giving and the reading of the ever popular The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore.  Did you know that it was first published as an anonymous poem in 1823, and in 1837 was found to be authored by Moore. 

Stop in and find out more about this joyous holiday season! 

This display starts November 16 and will continue until the end of December.  It is for kids of all ages.

-Jen Gardner, Children’s Department Manager


Halloween at Home

Stuck at home this Halloween? Make the most of it with these five fun activities you can do without leaving the house!

  1. Interactive Movies: Watch your favorite movie with a new twist. Come up with actions to do during key moments in the movie to turn movie night into a game. Need some ideas? Check out YALSA’s post on Interactive Movies for scripts and more.
  2. Ghost Hunt: Hide paper ghosts or other ghost props around your house and have the kids race to find them all! Search for free clipart to use on Pixabay or draw your own!
  3. Halloween Egg Hunt: Have the Easter Bunny help you out for this one! Hide candy and toy-filled plastic eggs around the house. Bonus craft: decorate your plastic eggs with puffy paint to turn them into pumpkins, ghosts, monsters, and more. Not crafty? There’s always these pumpkin eggs from Amazon.
  4. Scavenger Hunts & Escape Rooms: Feeling a bit more ambitious? Try your hand at making a custom Scavenger Hunt or go a step further with an Escape Room! Check out Escape Room puzzle ideas and downloadable kits at Lock, Paper, Scissors and Instructables.
  5. Minute to Win It: Play a series of challenging mini-games to win the title of Halloween Champion. Come up with your own games or do classic Halloween games like bobbing for apples. Need some ideas? Check out 30 Easy & Fun Minute-to-Win-It Games for Kids from Red Tricycle.

Happy Halloween!

-the DPL Staff


Reading Dragons

Reading dragon cards for the Skeleton, Glowshroom, and Calico dragons

This Fall, I’m excited to announce that the Reading Dragons are back with a new look and brand new games to play!

Earn a new dragon card for every 30 minutes of reading. You can get 4 different dragons each month. That is a total of 16 cards a month! One card for every box on the tracker.

Where did the dragon cards come from? How are there so many different kinds? The original line art was designed by Ms. Mallory of the Children’s Department. The unique colors and themes for each dragon are then created by library staff. Sometimes, these designs are even based on patron ideas!

So how do you get a Reading Dragon? You start with an egg, and then you read to make it grow! It will hatch into a baby, then grow to a teenager, and then finally become an adult dragon. Then, you can start all over again with a new egg!

And now, Ms. Mallory has developed two new games to play with your dragons! The more you read, the more dragons you collect, the more fun you can have playing.

Stop by the Children’s Department at the Library to pick up your Reading Dragon tracker, game instructions, and some special starter cards!

-Liz Strauss & Mallory Thompson

Update 12/27/2023

Please email Mallory at mthompson@doverlibrary.org for information on how to get started and access to our Google Drive!


Happy Shark Month!

cartoon in a shark costume: August is Shark Month at Dover Public Library

Did you know that there are around 500 known species of sharks? That’s a lot of teeth!

Join us in the Children’s Department to learn even more about sharks this month as we celebrate these fascinating creatures with craft kits and books. Help us fill the ocean with many colored sharks on our Shark Wall and check out our other displays. Special freebies are also on hand in the Teen Room for older shark fans.

Check out our Shark Month kick-off story time on Facebook as Ms. Jen reads Misunderstood Shark.

Ms. Jen wearing a shark headband and a shark mask
Happy Shark Week!

Stuck at home? Learn 50 Amazing Shark Facts from Shark Sider, or sink your teeth into a Shark Word Search from Monster Word Search!


Back to School Book List

Here are some fun books to get your kiddos ready for school!

We Don't Eat our Classmates by Ryan Higgins dinosaur picture book

We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan Higgins

Little Lola by Julie Saab cat goes to school picture book

Little Lola by Julie Saab

Dinosaur vs school by Bob Shea book

Dinosaur vs School by Bob Shea

The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes picture book cover

The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes

Chu's first day at school by Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex  picture book cover

Chu’s First Day of School by Neil Gaiman

The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School by Deborah Deisen picture book cover

Pout Pout Fish Goes to School by Deborah Deisen

Monsters love school by Mike Austin picture book cover

Monsters Love School by Mike Austin

Biscuit Goes to School by Alyssa Capucilli, an I Can Read Book

Biscuit Goes to School by Alyssa Capucilli

Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London picture book cover

Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London

-Compiled by Mallory Thompson, Librarian


The Baby-Sitters are Back

If you were a pre- teen during the late 80’s or early 90’s you may remember a book series called The Baby-Sitters Club

Ann M Martin The Baby-Sitters Club #1: Kristy's Great Idea 1986

Author Ann Martin put out a hit when she wrote this series.  176 million copies were sold during the period of 1986-2000.  The original TV series came from those books and was on HBO in 1990.  I did not personally watch or read since I was graduating in 1990 and was just too sophisticated for that – haha!! I am pretty sure my younger sister did have at least one of those books.

The books and TV series are making a comeback now with the hit show on Netflix.  You can still follow your favorites Kristy, Claudia, Stacey and Mary Anne even though there have been adaptations to the current styles and technology in both the books and show. 

Ann M Martin The Baby-Sitters Club The Summer Before, 2009

In 2009, Martin wrote a prequel called The Summer Before, and it was such a hit that the books  are being reissued, and there are even graphic novels of the books.  The books are slowly coming back out one or two a month through the beginning of the new year.  You can count on those books being on our shelves. Well… at least being owned by the library. They will be off the shelves more often than they will be on them, I’m sure.

-Jen Gardner, Children’s Department Manager

Baby-sitters series collection