Kinder Club Kits: Letters and Numbers
Welcome back to Porter Library’s Kinder Club Kit blog. Each season, Mrs. K. and Ms. Jamie will put together a Kinder Club Kit containing a variety of early literacy activities…
Cat’s Picks! Fall Favorites!
Autumn, that wonderful season! Cold enough for jackets and flannels, and warm slices of pumpkin pies! Caramel apples and apple ciders; scratchy warm scarves that cover our necks from the…
My Favorite Books Ever
First, foremost, and forever, my answer is The Mysterious Benedict Society. When I first read this, I was just at the age where I started to notice how carelessly written some…
Kinder Club Kits: Colors, Shapes and Sorting
Welcome to Porter Library’s Kinder Club Kit blog. Each season, Mrs. K. and Ms. Jamie will put together a Kinder Club Kit containing a variety of early literacy activities that…
WPPL STEAM Week 2024: Exciting Experiments for Kids
It can be a challenge to keep kids occupied during the summer. These three STEAM activities are fun, educational and will amaze the kids. Have the kids repeat the experiments…
John Cena Did WHAT? Celebrities, Picture Books and the Keys to Success
Do you know who John Cena is? Of course you do. He's the guy from the memes. Also a wrestler. Also an actor. Also... a picture book author? In 2018,…
Medium Monday: Acrylic Paint
What Is Acrylic Paint? Art supplies get their color from pigment. That pigment can be mixed with a "medium," which changes the way the pigment is handled. In the case…
Cat’s Picks! Celebrate Lunar New Year with Picture Books!
February 10th is the beginning of a week-long celebration—the Lunar New Year! Also known as the Spring Festival, this annual holiday ends with a bang on Lantern Day (literally, with…
Cat’s Picks! Spotlight on Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak was born June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, NY. His parents were Polish Jews who had immigrated to the States; most of his childhood was impacted by loss of…
Folklore Fun! Latin American Tales
It's hard to believe that I've written eleven installments of the Folklore Fun series! Yet, I knew that there was still a huge geographical region that I hadn't explored yet:…
Cat’s Picks! A Charlie Brown Christmas
If you're a kid of the 1970s, like my parents, you might've caught some of the best stop motion Christmas specials as they broadcasted for the first time, or on…
Medium Monday: Papercraft
What Is Papercraft? Papercraft, broadly speaking, is a work of art that is created out of paper. The interesting thing about papercraft is its variety of forms. There is the…
Cat’s Picks! Cozy Holiday Books for Families!
Whether your household celebrates Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the Winter Solstice, Westlake Porter Public Library has an abundance of picture books for all of the winter holidays. Click on the…
The Classic of the Month: A Christmas Carol
Welcome to this month's Classic of the Month! Today, we're looking at an absolute classic of the Christmas season. The story in this book has been told and retold, again…
Age Is Just a Number … But What Do Those Categories Mean?
I have always been known for reading outside of my age group. When I was little, I loved to pick up books that challenged me, reading titles that were meant…
The Beast and the Bethany: A Deliciously Devious Series
The beast has the finest house in the land.It's so tall and long and terribly grand.Even the Queen, with her palace so wide,Couldn't compete with the beast if she tried.The…
Zombies on Your Bookshelf? It May Be More Likely Than You Think
How Can a Book Be Undead? I'll be honest: I've never liked zombies. They're scary. They're gross. They bear the faces of humans—people who once laughed, and dreamed, and fell…
No Bones About It! Five Skull and Skeleton Books
I have a skull sitting on my desk at home. Not only does it look really cool, but it makes me feel like the writer of some sort of dark…
Folklore Fun: World Tour!
This post was updated in November 2026 to reflect WPPL’s current collection. In honor of WPPL's Welcoming Week, we're going on a whirlwind trip around the world! Let's ease in…
Check Out Our World Languages Collection!
Did you know that the library has a collection of titles in several foreign languages? Books in world languages can be easily searched in the library catalog with these instructions,…
STEAM Week: Easy DIY Zoetrope
This DIY Zoetrope project creates movement in design and is the perfect way to celebrate STEAM Week with your children. Making a Zoetrope encourages your children to practice multiple skills…
Mammoth Math by David Macaulay, pp. 84-85
David Macaulay: When Art and Science Meet
There is no one like David Macaulay. His picture book Black and White won the Caldecott medal for it's unique split-screen storytelling (four narratives play out side-by-side, leaving the reader…
Dino-Mite Books
Freddy Fossil's Dino Show comes to the Porter Room on Monday, July 10 at 7:00pm as part of STEAM Week. To celebrate, here are some great dinosaur books in the…
The Classic of the Month: Harold and the Purple Crayon
It was one of my favorite books as a child and its still one of my favorite nostalgia reads now. This month's classic is a heartwarming tale of a young…