Spider Bookmarks, Germs, and Plans

Summer reading events are continuing here at the library! Monday we'll start off with a Spider Bookmark craft at 10 a.m. Then we'll probably do the Hokey Pokey and Hello Joe songs, and maybe use up the rest of the Scooby Doo puzzle packs to round out the half-hour.

Then on Tuesday there will be a Germs program at 2:30. Kids will do a Kleenex race, a Band-Aid race, and design their own germs from construction paper and craft foam shapes. Then on Wednesday and Thursday, the Teen Book Club and Readathon will take place as usual.

This week I'm starting to think about August and the rest of the year. I have a few Saturdays when I'll be working but I'm not sure what kinds of events to schedule. Should I do a gamer's meet-up? A Wild West program? A No-Bake Cooking program? Alice in Wonderland? Pokemon? What do you think?

Scooby Doo and Scary Stories

We're off to a fabulous, roaring start for summer reading here at the library! We're close to breaking registration records, and a bunch of you have been coming to our programs. I've been so glad to see everyone here!

Next week we're having a Scooby Doo party and a Scary Stories & Edible campfires program. At the Scooby party, kids will construct and balance Monster Sandwiches, try to guess how many Scooby Snacks are in a jar, and make Scooby collars. And the Scary Stories program is exactly what it sounds like--kids will listen to selections from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz, and snack on edible campfires (go here to see approximately what it will look like!) We're having lots of storytimes too, so there's something for everyone here. Keep on scaring up good books, everyone :)

Summer Reading Is Here!

You've heard about the programs, and now's the time to sign up! Come to the library for the reading program this June and July. Count books or minutes and get prizes for completing your log sheet! We're offering lots of great prizes like toys, coupons for free pizza and ice cream, and more. Stop by the library or call us for more details.

We're also offering lots of great crafts and activities for kids in June and July. We'll have lots of storytimes, as well as programs that go along with our theme of "Scare Up a Good Book." We'll make monster hands, do a Band-Aid relay race at our Germs program, hear scary stories and make edible campfires, and much more. Pick and choose which activities sound interesting to you!

HarperCollins, the book publisher, has been sending me Advance Review Copies (ARCs) of some of their books. I'm thrilled to be able to look at some of the titles they'll be offering! One of them is called Goodnight Moon ABC: An Alphabet Book. It's based on Margaret Wise Brown's classic story, with pictures by Clement Hurd. I think parents and children who enjoy the original story will really like the illustrations, and this new book leads nicely into sleep as well. The letter "X" was approached in a novel manner: the children are prompted to find it within the illustration, rather than trying to stretch the text to accommodate the letter.

I got an ARC of Meg Cabot's Insatiable as well. Though it's not really for kids, and will go into our adult section rather than our Teen section, I'm sure that older teen fans of Cabot's will eagerly devour this offering, which is one part Dracula, one part Queen of Babble, and one part The Devil Wears Prada. I inhaled it in one sugary gulp! Cabot consistently offers a fun story with a likable main character and some laugh-out-loud moments, and this one is no exception.