Teens: Looking for a summer volunteer opportunity?

. . .Perrot needs you! Perrot is looking for teen volunteers for its Youth Services department to help run the summer reading program for kids.

Who can be a Perrot Library Summer Teen Volunteer?
Anyone who is going into Grades 7 and up, and who can volunteer at least 5 hours during the summer.

When do volunteers work?
From June 22nd to July 29th, whenever the library is open. You can set your own schedule and sign up for shifts during mornings, afternoons, or evenings.

Why volunteer?
• To help others
• To learn job skills
• To earn community service hours
• To meet other teens and have fun!

How do I become a Summer Teen Volunteer?
Easy! Just pick up an application at the Youth Services Desk (or download one here- PDF), have a parent or guardian sign it, and drop it off.

How do I learn what to do?
All volunteers must attend a 30-minute training session in June where we’ll teach you everything you need to know. (Even if you volunteered last summer, you must attend this year's training session.)

Have more questions?
Please call Kathy Jarombek, Director of Youth Services, at 203-637-8802.

Upcoming Event: Journalist Will Stolzenburg on his book, HEART OF A LION

Journalist Will Stolzenburg on his new book,

HEART OF A LION: A LONE CAT'S WALK ACROSS  AMERICA

Wednesday, May 25th, 2016

7:30 PM

Radcliffe Children's Wing

Late one June night in 2011, a large animal collided with an SUV cruising down a Connecticut parkway. The creature appeared as something out of New England's forgotten past. Beside the road lay a 140-pound mountain lion. Speculations ran wild, the wildest of which figured him a ghostly survivor from a bygone century when lions last roamed the eastern United States. But a more fantastic scenario of facts soon unfolded. The lion was three years old, with a DNA trail embarking from the Black Hills of South Dakota on a cross-country odyssey eventually passing within thirty miles of New York City. It was the farthest land-bound trek ever recorded for a wild animal in America, by a barely weaned teenager venturing solo through hostile terrain.

Stolzenburg retraces the lion's two-year journey-- from his embattled birthplace in the Black Hills, across the Great Plains and the Mississippi River, through Midwest metropolises and remote northern forests, to his tragic finale upon Connecticut's Gold Coast. Along the way, the lion traverses lands with people gunning for his kind, as well as those championing his cause. This is a story of one heroic creature pitting instinct against towering odds, coming home to a society deeply divided over his return. It is a testament to the resilience of nature, and a test of humanity's willingness to live again beside the ultimate symbol of wildness.

Will Stolzenburg has written hundreds of magazine articles about the science and spirit of saving wild creatures. A 2010 Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellow, he is the author of the books Where the Wild Things Were and Rat Island. He is also the screenwriter of the documentaries Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators and Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship. 

PerrotYouthServices- check us out on Bibliocommons!

Follow Perrot's Youth Services Department on Bibliocommons! We have a growing collection of useful booklists, including lists of picture books on various themes, book club picks, and read-alikes.

Some recent additions:

• An extensive list of Great Classroom Read-Alouds
• Easier novels for kids to try after they've moved on from Early Readers: Moving on from Beginning Readers- What's Next?
• Looking for longer books to read aloud to your kids? Check out Great Chapter Book Read-Alouds for the Whole Family

Have an idea for a booklist you'd like to see? Please share your thoughts with us!

Y2C2's Favorite Book of 2015/2016 Is...

The Young Young Critics' Club (Y2C2), Perrot's book club for 4th- and 5th-graders, has declared that its favorite book of 2015/2016 is...

THE BLACKTHORN KEY, by Kevin Sands

Tell no one what I’ve given you. Until he got that cryptic warning, Christopher Rowe was happy, learning how to solve complex codes and puzzles and creating powerful medicines, potions, and weapons as an apprentice to Master Benedict Blackthorn— with maybe an explosion or two along the way. But when a mysterious cult begins to prey on London’s apothecaries, the trail of murders grows closer and closer to Blackthorn’s shop. With time running out, Christopher must use every skill he’s learned to discover the key to a terrible secret with the power to tear the world apart.

See the rest of Y2C2's favorite books for some great picks!

Youth Services Summer Program Schedule Now Available

The Youth Services Summer 2016 Program Schedule is now available!

Please note that during our summer program session, all of our preschool programs are DROP-IN, and most are limited to the first 20 children and their caregivers to sign in before each program. Our Stuff & Nonsense and Spotlight programs will be by registration only.

Pick up a registration postcard for the program of your choice from the Youth Services Circulation Desk, beginning on Monday, May 23rd, 2016. Don't forget to bring a stamp! The registration period closes at 5 PM on Sunday, June 12th, 2016. Our programs are selected by lottery. You will receive your card back in the mail a few days after the close of regitration.

If you have questions about our programs or registration process, please call us at 203-637-8802.

Winners of the Semi-Annual Y2C2 Jeopardy Tournament

Winners of the Semi-Annual Y2C2 Jeopardy Tournament

Golden Y Award Winners, Spring 2016

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the Semi-Annual Young Young Critics' Club (Y2C2) Jeopardy Tournament!

The winning team, Team Kyle (L-R):  Leo, Elliot, Henry, Amrutha, and Ellie

They are the current holders of the coveted Wonderful Golden "Y" Award! The winners have demonstrated their mastery of trivia questions related to the books that the Young Young Critics' Club (our book club for 4th- and 5th-graders) has read during the past year. (Yes, it looks like a lobster, but trust us, it’s also a wonderful golden ‘Y’-- stop by the Youth Services Department and see for yourself!)