There are two easy ways you can donate to LANTERN to help us build an improved library for Sebastopol and the West County. 

First, if you ever buy things on Amazon.com, you can sign up for their Amazon Smile program, and a small percentage of the cost of everything you buy from them will go to LANTERN.  Go to smile.amazon.com to sign up.  When you are prompted for the name of the organization that you wish to support, choose LANTERN, the one from Sebastopol.  Then, whenever you go to shop at Amazon, be sure to sign on to smile.amazon.com, and the donation will be automatic and will not cost you anything.

Second, there is a program called eScrip that, likewise, donates a small percentage of what you have spent.  But eScrip works at many local stores and restaurants, as well as many online sites.  To sign up, go to escrip.com.  There is a list of participating business on the eScrip website.  Fircrest Market in Sebastopol is one, as are the Oliver’s grocery stores.  (For Oliver’s you have to ask them for one of their Community Cards—that is how they link your purchase to our account.)
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Of course, if you want to donate directly, we certainly welcome that.  You can follow directions on our website (http://www.lanternlibrary.org/support.html) to donate through PayPal, or you can send your donations directly to LANTERN, PO Box 2820, Sebastopol 95473.

Have You Seen My Monster?
Steve Light
 
Follow this curly-headed little girl who’s tracking her shaggy monster through a shape-filled county fair. Could he be here? Artist Light says he loves fairs (his nearest is in Queens, NY) and it shows. The fair’s intricate geometry is exquisitely drawn in black ink on white paper. Only the twenty shapes--including exotic ones like nonagons, trapeziums, and quatrefoils--are washed with colored inks. Sometimes the monster’s easy to spot; sometimes not--it’s hardest in a scene dominated by the giant amethyst circle of a Ferris wheel. Kids can search among the members of a marching band (red pentagon hats), at a livestock competition (lime-green fence squares), even at a snack bar trimmed with burnt-sienna triangles, where the monster loads up on treats. As they finally head for home, a golden crescent moon appears. Young mathematicians learn geometry and vocabulary, while parents, teachers (and artists) have fun at the fair as well.

2015, Ages 4 to 8

Check it out from your library using the library catalog. Donate to an improved Sebastopol Regional Library here.

Recommended by: Barbara Talcroft
Barbara Talcroft reviews children’s books professionally for childrenslit.com and for Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database.  She has a Master’s degree in International Children’s Literature.  She also has many years’ experience as a teacher.  Barbara is one of the founders of LANTERN and its past chairperson.

​Counting Crows
Kathi Appelt
Illustrations by Rob Dunlavey
 
Back to school! It’s time for math, and here come the crows to help. With huge beaks, round white eyes, and wearing red-and-white striped shirts (one sports a red polka-dotted scarf), they don’t look like the jet-black birds kids may know, but who cares? Flapping and cawing raucously, they group themselves into sets of three, then six, and nine--till young enumerators have a full dozen to count. These crows snack on anything from spicy ants and chewy chips to sweet peas and slimy snails--all drawn in grey pencil to be counted, too. The crows fly, roost, hop, joust, and sing in time to Appelt’s jazzy rhymes, all enhanced by the spiky typeface, Pocket. On the title page, alert viewers may have spotted a clue to their hasty departure. As the twelve flap off into the distance, kids will see ONE grey cat wearing ONE red scarf. Counting has never been so much fun!

2015, Ages 3 to 6 

Check it out from your library using the library catalog. Donate to an improved Sebastopol Regional Library here.

Recommended by: Barbara Talcroft
Barbara Talcroft reviews children’s books professionally for childrenslit.com and for Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database.  She has a Master’s degree in International Children’s Literature.  She also has many years’ experience as a teacher.  Barbara is one of the founders of LANTERN and its past chairperson.