April brings us a lot of reasons to celebrate, including El día de los niños, Earth Month, National Poetry Month, and National Library Week.
El día de los niños, is traditionally celebrated on April 30 throughout Mexico. El día De Los Niños, El Día de los Libros, or “Día,” is celebrated by San Diego County Library throughout April.
SDCL will install self-guided “Story Trails” at parks throughout the County. In partnership with the City of La Mesa Community Services department, La Mesa will be home to two different “Story Trails,” one each at MacArthur Park, and Harry Griffen Park.
On April 11, at 4:30 p.m. in celebration of “Día,” the La Mesa Branch will host an all-ages performance of Story Box Theater, featuring storytelling in the Japanese Kamishibai style. All children in attendance will receive a free book, while supplies last.
You can also celebrate “Día” at home by checking out a book to read yourself, or with your family. If you have preschoolers, I recommend introducing them to Pete the Cat in either Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes, or Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons, written by Eric Litwin, and illustrated by James Dean.
Also In April, we celebrate Earth Month.
You can try small changes in your everyday life that can make a big impact in our world with the book, Sustainability Made Simple by Rosaly Byrd. Or you might be interested in growing some of your own food with The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Garden by Sally Roth.
The La Mesa Branch will also soon be home to a Seed Library, as part of the San Diego County Library’s Seeds & Sustainability Project. The coming Seed Library is made possible in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
One more celebration in April is National Poetry Month.
Why not check out one of the collections of poems by Amanda Gorman who took the world by storm with her moving poem read at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration?
You can find The Hill We Climb and Call Us What We Carry in the San Diego County Library’s physical and digital collections. As for new poetry, in Promises of Gold, José Olivarez has compiled a collection of poems about love, life and all the complications of both. The collection features the poems in Spanish, as well as their English translations. Speakers of both languages may enjoy comparing the nuances of each version.
And last, but certainly not least, National Library Week will take place this year April 23-29.
This is a perfect time to check out the book This is What a Librarian Looks Like by Kyle Cassidy.
A collection of photographs and stories from librarians in all 50 U.S. states and Canada, as well as odes to the library in the form of original essays by big names like Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, and Paula Poundstone. You may even notice a familiar face from the La Mesa Branch among the librarians featured on the cover.
To see the latest event information, go to sdcl.org/ events and click “La Mesa” for all the details.
National Library Week image courtesy of American Library Association
