"For the Love of Books"

The patch shows a bear reading a book!

Last night I had the pleasure of hosting local Brownie Troop 498 in our library!  Troop leader Mrs. Barbato asked if the girls could come in so they could earn a Brownie Try-it award named "For the Love of Books".  And because I demonstrated that I know to good care of books, I ended up earning one of the awards, too!  The patch is absolutely adorable and I plan to proudly display it in the library!

The girls started off browsing damaged books that live in the "Sad Bag".  (You can find a blog post all about the Sad Bag by clicking here.)   I spread the books out on the library tables and gave them time to look through them.  Then we sat in a group on the rug and discussed what happened to each one and how to keep something like that from happening to one of their library books.  The girls were very good detectives!  By examining the clues, they figured out all sorts of dangers that need to be avoided: rain, juice, dogs, very young children, and plain old carelessness were at the top of the list. 

Eeek! A dog-earred page!

Scissors got this one!

What might cause THAT?

Finally, the girls started designing bookmarks with a positive message about taking care of books.  They each made one to keep and they also took home a few more to decorate and donate to the Ashaway Free Library.  The time really flew by, but I am happy to announce that all of the girls earned a patch and will receive it at their next awards ceremony.  Congratulations!