The Sundance Worked!

Despite warnings of a looming thunderstorm, the sun peaked out at 11:00 and our summer reading roundup party went off without a hitch! It was a great event to celebrate the accomplishments of all of our summer readers. We had a duck pond, a ball toss, sidewalk chalk art, kites, and refreshments. We had over 75 people attend! It was a great afternoon. I would like to give a special thanks to the Friends of the Takoma Park Library, the library staff, and last, but certainly not least, our awesome customers! Thanks for making today so special.

This Week at Takoma Park Library

Since it is the first week of school, the library is taking a little breather from programming during this week. We only have one regular program scheduled. However, we do have our Summer Reading Roundup Party this weekend. All of those summer readers who completed the program (read 6 books or more and turned in their reading lists to a librarian) are invited to attend our party. There is no rain date for this party, so if we have rainy weather the party is canceled. This celebration is just for those participants that registered at Takoma Park.

Wednesday, August 26

Program: Preschool Story Time

Time: 10:30 a.m.

Ages: 3-5

Description: Joins us in the children's room for stories, songs, rhymes and more!

Saturday, August 29

Program: Summer Reading Round Up - Summer Readers Party

Time: 11:30-1:00

Ages: Summer Readers of All Ages who completed the Summer reading Program

Description: Celebrate your summer reading achievements with games, cake, and fun. We will have a duck pond, sidewalk chalk art, a ball toss, cake, and of course, prizes! We hope to see you there!

I Collect Spores, Molds, and Fungus...

Its that time of the year again when teachers are getting their classrooms ready and children are getting all those school supplies together. September is just around the corner. You know what that means! Wait...did you say back to school? Well, yeah, it means back to school. But, really, what I was going to say, is that when I think September, I think MUSHROOMS!

That's right, mushrooms! September is National Mushroom Month. Not only are mushrooms a great addition to sauces, salads, and stews and make a great topping on pizzas, but they also provide plenty of imagery in literature. Stories about magic, folklore, fairy tales and picture books all have their share of mushrooms and toadstools. During September we encourage you to come in and scope out our wide array of vegetarian cookbooks to find some great mushroom themed recipes. After you give the recipes a try, be sure to check out some after dinner reading as well. May we recommend Unexpected Magic by Diana Wynne Jones, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Mushroom in the Rain by Mirra Ginsburg, or any of our wonderful non-fiction books for those interested in finding out more about mushrooms and other fungi!

This Week at Takoma Park Library

Here is our weekly events calendar at the Takoma Park Library. We hope to see you stop in this week!

Tuesday, August 18th
Event: PJ Story Time
Time: 7:00 pm
Ages: 0-6 with and adult
Description: Snuggle up with stories, songs and snacks. Feel free to wear your pjs and bring your stuffed animal or lovey.

Wednesday, August 19th
Event: Preschool Story Time - Back to School Theme
Time: 10:30 am
Ages: 3-5
Description: Join us in the children’s room for stories, songs, rhymes, and more.

Event: Art in the Afternoon
Time: 3:30 pm
Ages: 6+
Description: We discuss art from the picturing America Series, practice art techniques, drawing, and sketching. After each session we have library staff and customers vote for their favorite masterpiece of the afternoon.

Saturday, August 22
Event: Crafternoon
Time: 3:30 pm
Ages: 6+
Description: Join us in making simple story inspired, seasonal, or fun/funky crafts.

The Library Rocks

We will be having guitar hero today for teens at 2:00. It seems only fitting to have a guitar hero event this weekend in honor of guitar legend and genius inventor Les Paul's passing. Les Paul, one of the quintessential influences in the guitar world, is known not only as an early innovator of the solid body guitar and the world famous Les Paul model of Gibson guitars, but also because he was just a freaking awesome good guitar player. To read a tribute article, go over to Guitar World magazine.

If you are interested in guitars, guitar playing, and some awesome rock and roll, feel free to come into the library or check the online catalog. We have guitar instruction books, a huge assortment of CDs, from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones, AC DC to ZZ Top. We not only have classic rock, but also a good selection of new rock as well. No matter what, we want to get the community to not only read, but to rock.

How Puzzling

It's a lovely day in the library and we have children coming out of our ears. To get those hands busy I spilled out a 1000 piece puzzle. We started at 1:00. Do you think we will finish by the end of the day? If you stop into the library today come and give us a hand. Let's see if we can get the pirate ship sailing before closing time!

This Week at Takoma Park

Its that time of the summer where we are ready to announce the winners of the summer reading prize packs. We will be pulling a winner (randomly) from the raffle box this week. There will be three prize pack winners for the Be Creative program for kids 0-14, one in each category: 0-5 yrs, 6-8 years, and 9-14 years. We will call the winners later this week. For those who don't win the prize packs, you can still continue to read and earn prizes until the end of August.

Here are the programs coming up this week at Takoma Park Library.

Wednesday, August 12
Program: Preschool Story Time - Fox Theme

Ages: 3-5

Time: 10:30

Description: Join us for stories, songs, rhymes and more.

Thursday, August 13
Program: Young Adult Art Contest

Ages: Teens

Time: 7:00

Description: Come in and take part in a manga/comic drawing contest.

Saturday, August 15

Program: Expressin' Out Teens

Ages: Teens

Time: 2:00

Description: Join Miss Heather for a creative program (theme to be determined).

Two Great Teen Programs in August

Thursday, August 13 @ 7 pm
Manga Drawing Contest
Winner receives a pizza giftcard from Dominos!











Saturday, August 15 @ 2 pm
Guitar Hero Contest
Come break in the library's new Guitar Hero set!









Programs for teens ages 12 - 17

Scary As You Like It

I just wanted to share the news that I am collaborating with another coworker on a different type of blog. Nick Hirsch, from Watha T. Daniel Library, started a blog dedicated to fun and freaky books that walk on the dark side. I will be co-authoring the blog with him, and perhaps others in the future.

Spooky Books For Strange Children is dedicated to all things strange. It is for "the strange at heart, children and adults, who share a love of books bizarre, scary, terrifying, odd and, well, spooky!" We will post reviews for children and teens in different genres, with our main focus being on horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. It is our intention to create a blog that looks at scary and odd books from picture books, to easy readers, to chapter books and everything in between. We will compile subject and age-specific reading lists, post book reviews, and we look forward to discussion.

Go check it out today and start following our posts. Stay Scary!

This Week at Takoma Park!

Registration for summer reading is now closed, but that doesn't mean there is no reason to come into the library! Those who already enrolled can still read and earn prizes throughout August. For those who didn't enroll, feel free to come in and enjoy some of our weekly programming, check out some books, or surf the Internet.

This week, we have a few upcoming programs:

Wednesday August 5th
Program: Preschool Story Time - Elephant theme!
Time: 10:30
Ages: 3-5
Description: Join us in the Children's Room for stories, songs, rhymes, and more!

Program: Art in the Afternoon
Time: 3:30
Ages: 6+
Description: Join us for art techniques, art book exploration, art discussion, drawing, and sketching. This program now features a new piece from the "Picturing America" series each week. After each session staff and customers vote for their favorite artistic masterpiece.

Thursday August 7th
Program: Daniel Barash - Puppeteer
Time: 1:30
Ages: 4-8
Description: Learn the art of shadow puppetry & watch a puppet show.

Saturday August 8th
Program: Be Creative Saturday
Time: 2:00
Ages: 6-12
Description: Join me for an afternoon of amazing arts and crafts. This week we will be making bird masks. We'll look at birds in picture books and nature books to get inspired, and then we will create our own feathered-friend personas through the art of mask making. Let's get glued and feathered!