All posts by Angie

Books, Check it Out:

Book Bouquet: Ice Cream

book bouquet logo

Each week we assemble a collection – a bouquet, if you will – of books you can read for yourself, or use to build into a display in your library. As always, the books we link to have info from Amazon.com. If you click a link and then buy anything at all from Amazon, we get a small percent of their profits from your sale. Thanks!! We really appreciate the assistance! 

We understand it’s cold outside but is it really ever too cold to have ice cream? We don’t think so, but you could always just read about ice cream instead of eating it! Here are some fun suggestions:

Gorilla Loves Vanilla by Chae Strathie, illustrated by Nicola O’Byrne
“Sam’s Sundaes is far and away the best place on Jelly Bean Street to get your favorite ice cream flavor! One day, five animals dash through the door, hoping little Sam Sundae will whip up the ice cream treat of their dreams. Stinky blue cheese for mouse, fish finger ice cream for cat, squirmy wormy ice cream for chicken, muddy ice cream for hippo, and daisy/grass/dandelion ice cream for cow all seem like excellent choices for each ice cream dreamer. That is, until Gorilla walks in and asks for the most surprising choice of all!”

Rocky Road by Rose Kent
“Ice cream warms the heart, no matter what the weather.
That’s the Dobson family motto. Whenever things get tough, they break out the special heart-shaped bowls and make sundaes. The road has been especially rocky lately for Tess and her deaf little brother, Jordan. Their plucky Texan mother talks big, but her get-rich-quick business schemes have only landed them in serious financial hot water.
Ma’s newest idea is drastic. She abruptly moves the family to snowy Schenectady, New York, where she will use the last of their savings to open her dream business: an ice cream shop. (Too bad the only place she could find an apartment is in a senior citizens’ complex.) Tess wants to be excited about this plan, but life in Schenectady is full of new worries. Who will buy ice cream in their shop’s run-down neighborhood? What will happen when their money runs out? Worst of all is Ma herself-she’s famous for her boundless energy and grandiose ideas, but only Tess and Jordan know about the dark days when she crashes and can’t get out of bed. And Tess can’t seem to find the right words to talk to Ma about it.
This moving story of family, community, and ice cream proves that with a little help from the people around us, life really can be sweet-and a little nutty-just like Rocky Road.”

Shug by Jenny Han
“Annemarie “Shug” Wilcox is clever and brave and true (on the inside anyway). And she’s about to become your new best friend in this enchanting middle grade novel from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (soon to be a major motion picture!), Jenny Han. Annemarie Wilcox, or Shug as her family calls her, is beginning to think there’s nothing worse than being twelve. She’s too tall, too freckled, and way too flat-chested. Shug is sure that there’s not one good or amazing thing about her. And now she has to start junior high, where the friends she counts most dear aren’t acting so dear anymore — especially Mark…”

Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
“Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home. But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything Lina knew about her mother, her father—and even herself. People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.”

Cure for the Common Breakup by Beth Kendrick
“Flight attendant Summer Benson lives by two rules: Don’t stay with the same man for too long and never stay in one place. She’s about to break rule number one by considering accepting her boyfriend’s proposal—then disaster strikes and her world is shattered in an instant. Summer heads to Black Dog Bay, where the locals welcome her. Even Hattie Huntington, the town’s oldest, richest, and meanest resident, likes her enough to give her a job. Then there’s Dutch Jansen, the rugged, stoic mayor, who’s the opposite of her type. She probably shouldn’t be kissing him. She definitely shouldn’t be falling in love. After a lifetime of globe-trotting, Summer has finally found a home. But Hattie has old scores to settle and a hidden agenda for her newest employee. Summer finds herself faced with an impossible choice: Leave Black Dog Bay behind forever, or stay with the ones she loves and cost them everything….”

Salt and Straw Ice Cream Cookbook by Tyler Malek and JJ Goode
“Based out of Portland, Oregon, Salt & Straw is the brainchild of two cousins, Tyler and Kim Malek, who had a vision but no recipes. They turned to their friends for advice—chefs, chocolatiers, brewers, and food experts of all kinds—and what came out is a super-simple base that takes five minutes to make, and an ice cream company that sees new flavors and inspiration everywhere they look. Using that base recipe, you can make dozens of Salt & Straw’s most beloved, unique (and a little controversial) flavors, including Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, Roasted Strawberry and Toasted White Chocolate, and Buttered Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. But more importantly, this book reveals what they’ve learned, how to tap your own creativity, and how to invent flavors of your own, based on whatever you see around you. Because ice cream isn’t just a thing you eat, it’s a way to live.”

Ice Cream: A Global History by Laura B. Weiss
“Be it soft-serve, gelato, frozen custard, Indian kulfi or Israeli glida, some form of cold, sweet ice cream treat can found throughout the world in restaurants and home freezers. Though ice cream was once considered a food for the elite, it has evolved into one of the most successful mass-market products ever developed. In Ice Cream, food writer Laura B. Weiss takes the reader on a vibrant trip through the history of ice cream from ancient China to modern-day Tokyo in order to tell the lively story of how this delicious indulgence became a global sensation. Weiss tells of donkeys wooed with ice cream cones, Good Humor-loving World War II-era German diplomats, and sundaes with names such as “Over the Top” and “George Washington.” Her account is populated with Chinese emperors, English kings, former slaves, women inventors, shrewd entrepreneurs, Italian immigrant hokey-pokey ice cream vendors, and gourmand American First Ladies. Today American brands dominate the world ice cream market, but vibrant dessert cultures like Italy’s continue to thrive, and new ones, like Japan’s, flourish through unique variations. Weiss connects this much-loved food with its place in history, making this a book sure to be enjoyed by all who are beckoned by the siren song of the ice cream truck.”

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist

Winter Edition: What Are We Doing Today? Virtual Activity Ideas from CMLE

Since so many of us are once again learning and working from home, CMLE has decided to resume sharing weekly online activity ideas!

Back in the spring of 2020, we created pages full of STEAM projects, art, daily exercise routines, scavenger hunts inside and outside, history lessons, virtual visits to museums and national parks, and so much more.

And we’re at it again!
To keep up with our weekly virtual activity inspiration, you can follow us on social media, sign up for our newsletter, or just keep an eye on our blog.
We will once again provide links to all our featured activities on our page in one spot for easy access.

CMLE is here to support our library members, especially during this challenging time. Always feel free to contact us at admin (at) cmle.org.

Here are a few activity ideas to get us started:

To start the day, try one of these four activities to get students excited about the day ahead! A scavenger hunt, beat the teacher game, and work on language using questions and clues! Check it out here.

Get those STEAM skills to work and make your own frost! It’s an easy experiment that doesn’t require too many materials, and if you’re in Minnesota like us, you can compare your homemade frost to the stuff outside!

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has this great page with FREE virtual workshops, storytime, short films, and instructions to make art at your home! Check it out and create away!

We’ll have more posts like this next week, with lots of ideas to keep you busy and learning from home. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2020: Masters of Tradition

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)  has announced their top choices for “electronic resources that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their educator collaborators.” These resources were formerly separated into the Best Apps and Best Websites for Teaching and Learning and are now combined into the Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning.

“This interactive story map allows students to explore the great diversity of cultures, communities, and artistic traditions that enrich the United States. Through abundant photographs, audio, video, short text, and first-person quotes, the story map addresses a variety of key themes, including immigration, migration, identity, heritage, and community.”

Shared foundations: Inquire, Include, Explore, Curate

A screenshot of the map that shows all the options across the country for learning more about a specific cultural heritage


This article from the Smithsonian site gives a brief overview of the tool and this page includes downloadable lesson plans and ideas for activities.

Check out the Masters of Tradition Video Gallery for a great variety of quick videos that feature music and interviews from the project.

CMLE, School Media Specialist

Join Our Extended Mini Grant Review Team!

We are very pleased to be able to offer an Extended Mini Grant Program to our members this year. If you missed our previous post, here are the basics:

For this school year only, through May, 2021, we will be soliciting minigrant applications from member libraries for funds up to $1,000. This is our Extended Minigrant program, as brought to you by the CMLE Board of Trustees.

Members are libraries in these counties: Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd, and Wright. You do not need to apply to be a member. If your library is in one of these counties, it is one of our members. Preference in applications will be given to school libraries.

You can be pretty flexible in what you apply to use these grants to fund in the library. Programs, materials, services – the three hallmarks of a good library – are all accessible with this money.

Potential minigrant applications that would be relevant in this program include requests like:

  • filling in a hole in your collection budget
  • buying software that will let you do distance library service
  • bringing a virtual program, or program series, to your students

You can apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1eng1oti0BIBWjczPPDLBZW0wnluJ57aqlHAqqEY3BLA/edit.

And we are looking for individuals to help evaluate the applications we receive! We will provide evaluation rubrics and will communicate on a monthly basis to review applications. This will not require an extensive time commitment, and will be a great way to see what other schools in the area are working on. Email us at admin@cmle.org to indicate your interest and we will be in touch soon!

We look forward to hearing from you.

Books, Check it Out:

Book Bouquet: Have Some Soup

book bouquet logo

Each week we assemble a collection – a bouquet, if you will – of books you can read for yourself, or use to build into a display in your library. As always, the books we link to have info from Amazon.com. If you click a link and then buy anything at all from Amazon, we get a small percent of their profits from your sale. Thanks!! We really appreciate the assistance! 

We’re looking for ways to stay warm and cozy this winter, and soup is a great solution! So our bouquet this week is about soup: fiction stories and of course, nonfiction cookbooks!

Kallaloo: A Caribbean Tale by Phillis and David Gershator
“Can a shell really make soup? It might, if it s a brown-and-white West Indian shell, fresh from the sea. All it needs is a master soup-maker, like Granny, to stir the pot – and a little help from the folks in Market Square. Who wouldn t be willing to lend a hand to cook up some kallaloo, a soup famous from Jamaica to Trinidad? But there’s one final ingredient missing and even the magic shell forgot to mention it!”

Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
“Deep in the woods in an old white cabin, three friends make their pumpkin soup the same way every day. The Cat slices up the pumpkin, the Squirrel stirs in the water, and the Duck tips in just enough salt. But one day the Duck wants to stir instead, and then there is a horrible squabble, and he leaves the cabin in a huff. It isn’t long before the Cat and the Squirrel start to worry about him and begin a search for their friend. Rendered in pictures richly evoking autumn, Helen Cooper’s delightful story will resonate for an child who has known the difficulties that come with friendship. Included at the end is a recipe for delicious pumpkin soup.”

Mean Soup by Betsy Everitt
“It has been a bad day for Horace. A very bad day. He’s come home feeling mean. But his mother knows just what to do! “For the book Mean Soup, the recipe is as follows: (1) clever text spiced with one or two outrageous bits; (2) a grand message about getting out anger instead of locking it inside; and (3) exciting artwork as full of life as the story.”

Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
“Beneath the holy mountain Croagh Patrick, in damp and lovely County Mayo, sits the small, sheltered village of Ballinacroagh. To the exotic Aminpour sisters, Ireland looks like a much-needed safe haven. It has been seven years since Marjan Aminpour fled Iran with her younger sisters, Bahar and Layla, and she hopes that in Ballinacroagh, a land of “crazed sheep and dizzying roads,” they might finally find a home.

From the kitchen of an old pastry shop on Main Mall, the sisters set about creating a Persian oasis. Soon sensuous wafts of cardamom, cinnamon, and saffron float through the streets–an exotic aroma that announces the opening of the Babylon Café, and a shock to a town that generally subsists on boiled cabbage and Guinness served at the local tavern. And it is an affront to the senses of Ballinacroagh’s uncrowned king, Thomas McGuire. After trying to buy the old pastry shop for years and failing, Thomas is enraged to find it occupied–and by foreigners, no less. But the mysterious, spicy fragrances work their magic on the townsfolk, and soon, business is booming. Marjan is thrilled with the demand for her red lentil soup, abgusht stew, and rosewater baklava–and with the transformation in her sisters. Young Layla finds first love, and even tense, haunted Bahar seems to be less nervous. And in the stand-up-comedian-turned-priest Father Fergal Mahoney, the gentle, lonely widow Estelle Delmonico, and the headstrong hairdresser Fiona Athey, the sisters find a merry band of supporters against the close-minded opposition of less welcoming villagers stuck in their ways. But the idyll is soon broken when the past rushes back to threaten the Amnipours once more, and the lives they left behind in revolution-era Iran bleed into the present.”

The Healing Soup Cookbook by Cara Harbstreet and Julie Harrington
“Move over apples―it’s a bowl of soup a day that can really keep the doctor away. The Healing Soup Cookbook is your complete guide to discovering the health (and flavor) benefits that a bowl of hearty, nourishing soup can bring to your life. Don’t wait until you’ve got a cold to stir up some delicious chicken noodle soup. The more than 90 recipes in this soup cookbook run the gamut from traditional classics to more exotic fare. Not only do these soups make perfect meals all on their own, they are also packed with healthy ingredients that combat inflammation, boost your immune system, warm you up, and help keep away colds.”

Twelve Months of Monastery Soups: A Cookbook by Victor D’Avila-Latourrette
“”Of soup and love, the first is best.” Brother Victor-Antoine makes a passionate  case for this Spanish proverb in Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, bringing easy, delicious, soul-satisfying soup recipes from the monastery to your kitchen. From simple, clear broths to thick, hearty soups, there’s a recipe to appeal to every taste. Arranged by month with an eye toward seasonal variety and at least one recipe for every vegetable native to North America, the 175 soups include classic favorites such as Cream of Corn and Tomato and more unique recipes such as Jerusalem Artichoke, Provenþal Rainbow, and Danish Onion-Champagne. With inspirational quotes proclaiming the goodness of soup sprinkled throughout and beautiful period block prints, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups is a celebration of the art of soup-making.”