Best Summer Ever! (At least until next summer...)

We handed out a lot of Library Champion signs this year -- 241 of them to be exact.

We've had a busy summer at the Mentor Public Library.

We dug for dinosaurs, made fairy gardens, hosted a half dozen concerts (and still have two more coming,) built catapults, started installing our Little Free Libraries, tested your ninja-ness (ninja-osity?) and learned about everything from the Battle of Gettysburg to Lake Erie shipwrecks to the Cleveland mafia.

Oh, and we're still trying to get the paint out of our clothes from Holi.

And it looks like you've had a busy summer at the library too.

We had 1,440 children sign up for our Dig Into Reading program. They read (or were read to) for a whopping total of 17,364 hours this summer.

Another 434 adults and 209 teens signed up for their respective summer reading programs at the library, as well.

The adults read 2,516 books; the teens, 1,214.

And all of those numbers -- the number of participants and how much they read -- are record highs for Mentor Public Library.

As a point of comparison, kids read about 4,000 hours more than last year's 13,443 hours -- which was, until this year, the most we've ever had. That's right, kids. You topped your best ever by more than 4,000 hours!

This was, in every measurable way, the biggest summer reading program the library has ever had.

We thank you for spending your summer with us and want to invite you to our End of Summer Carnival at the Read House on Thursday, August 15.

There will be games, refreshments and kids will find out if they won any of our grand prizes (which includes, as you may recall, a $100 gift card to Toys "R" Us.)

Also, we can't talk about our summer reading program without thanking all of our generous sponsors. There's no way more than 2,000 people would sign up for summer reading without your support.

By the way, our summer reading program may be over but that doesn't mean the fun or the learning is finished. We still have a lot of cool programs and events slated for the rest of August and all throughout autumn.

You can check them out on our website.

Never stop learning!

Kids' Stuff at the Library: Cosplay, Pool Noodle Games & Hunting for Jewel Fish

More than 1,300 children have already signed up for our summer reading program.

And those kids have already read about 4,500 hours in the last month.

In addition to reading, they also built catapults, met some of Outback Ray's exotic animals and made good use of our karaoke machine.

But they've also done a lot of other cool things that I neglected to post here. (Please forgive me. I've been distracted by the concerts, Little Free Libraries and Cleveland Mafia.)

So allow me to catch up in the most effective fashion -- with photos of awesome kids doing cool stuff.

Who dares challenge Sasori of the Red Sand to a noodle-eating contest?

This is Vince. Vince is awesome for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, Vince is dressed as Sasori of the Red Sand from Naruto. He wore this to the most recent meeting of our Anime Club, the members of which (you may remember) like to get dressed up.

Furthermore, Vince devoured five bowls of Ramen to win one of our noodle-eating contests at the meeting.

The moral: dressing like Sasori gives you powerful, digestive abilities. Also, Vince is awesome.

By the way, teens, if you love anime, our next club meeting is July 27. We'll be making duct tape swords.

Kim Sidorick, our children's services manager, shows a couple of members of our American Girl Book Club how to make a God's eye

Speaking of our clubs, our American Girl Book Club met Julie Albright -- a young girl growing up in the 1970s -- during their most recent meeting last week. They also learned how to make a God's eye.

The club's next meeting is Aug. 7 where the girls will meet Kirsten.

Jared Hines and Manav Malik search for scarabs, jewels and stoned with hieroglyphs in the backyard of the Read House during the library's Dig Into Egypt program.

During our Dig Into Egypt program, kids tried to catch a jewel fish (like in the Graeme Base book, The Jewel Fish of Karnac.)

They started their search by digging for special stones. Then they traded the stones for tools or won them by playing mancala. Finally, the kids used their tools to go fishing.

In hindsight, it was kind of like Legends of the Hidden Temple -- y'know with fewer palace guards and no Olmec.

We have more photos from the Dig Into Egypt program on our Facebook page, if you want to check them out.

You think croquet's tricky with a mallet? Try it with a pool noodle.

Finally, at last week's Fun Day Monday, kids used pool noodles as paintbrushes, croquet mallets and tic-tac-toe game boards. (It's incredible to see how creative children's librarians can be when coming up with games.)

We host Fun Day Monday every Monday at 1 p.m. in the backyard of The Read House, which is next door to our main branch on Mentor Avenue.

You don't have to register your kids for Fun Day Monday. Just come out and play!

We have a lot more fun programs coming this summer -- activities with fairies and dinosaurs and ninjas. (These are separate programs. We don't have a Fairy Ninja Dinosaur Party on the docket, though that sounds pretty incredible.)

Check out our calendar and see what's coming up. I bet you'll find something your kid will love.

I mean, who doesn't like dinosaurs?

Ain't No Party Like A Summer Reading Party Because A Summer Reading Party Don't Stop

In 11 days, more than 600 children and about 250 teens and adults have already signed up for the summer reading programs at Mentor Public Library.

But we want more. We want to get as many people as possible excited about reading. So we're throwing a soirée.

The kickoff party for our summer reading programs will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, June 14, in the backyard of the Read House, which is next door to the library’s main branch at 8215 Mentor Ave.

Everyone's invited to sing karaoke, take snapshots in the photo booth, play Wii and check out previews for upcoming kids’, teens’ and adults’ programs.

Many of the activities at the party serve as a preview for library programs that are happening later this summer. For example, people can make an origami craft at the party in anticipation of a special presentation by the Ohio Paper Folders on July 8.

We'll have the Wii out as an appetizer for our Wii Wednesdays, which will give teens a chance to relax and play video games at the library. (There's nothing wrong with taking a break from summer reading.)

Even the karaoke serves as a preview for the many concerts the Mentor Public Library’s Main and Mentor-on-the-Lake branches will host this summer. (For a sample of our concert series, watch this video of the Sunset Country Band performing at the main branch earlier this month.)

And -- of course -- children, teens and adults can all sign up for our summer reading programs during the party, as well.

Kids who are entering the sixth grade or lower can register for the children’s Dig Into Reading program.

For every hour children read or are read to, they will receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of the library’s awesome grand prizes. Plus for every five hours read, up to 15 hours, children will receive a prize. After completing five hours of reading, children will earn a free Lake County Captains baseball game ticket. Fifteen-hour readers will receive a “Library Champion Lives Here” yard sign (one sign per family.)

If a child reads 20 hours, they get a golden ticket for a chance to win a $100 Toys “R” Us gift card. Champion readers will also have the opportunity to have their picture posted on the library website.

Likewise, teens and adults can sign up for the our Beneath the Surface summer reading program.

For every book they read or library program they attend, adults and teens will receive one raffle ticket for a chance to win one of the library’s grand prizes – a Nook e-reader – or to redeem at the Mystery Box, which is filled with gift cards and coupons from local restaurants and other businesses.

(By the way, I need to pause here and thank all of our wonderful sponsors. We sincerely could not do this without you.)

Children, teens and adults can still sign up for summer reading programs at any of the Mentor Public Library’s branches up through and until, Saturday, Aug. 10. Grand prize winners will be posted at the library’s End of Summer Carnival at the Read House on Thursday, Aug. 15.

For more information on programs and events this summer at the Mentor Public Library, call (440) 255-8811 ext. 247 or visit www.mentorpl.org.

See you at the party!