Summer reading is over!
I love the kids, teens and summer reading, but boy am I glad summer reading is over! I have to have enough enthusiasm for everyone. Trying to get some people to read, is like trying to pull teeth. Big fat teeth that have roots so deep that they are attached to their toe nails. Who is the big meanie that mad reading so freaking horrible. I’d like to pull a big book shelf full of… anvils right on top of their head.
I was actually able to convince about 300 people to sign up for summer reading, but no matter how many times I mentioned that they could win slices of pizza as big as their head or king chocolate bars, most of the kids didn’t go much farther than signing up. I used all sorts of ways to entice them: the food, prizes… I showed them books about poop for gods sake! Sometimes I feel its hopeless. However I will continue to buy comic books and books about poop, farts and boogers, because I am convinced that some day there will be hordes of children running into the library… not to use the internet to go on their myspace account or to play runescape, but to read all the wonderful books I buy for them.
Okay so its not all that bad. The kids that do participate read tons, but its sad that there are so few kids that see the joy of a book. I partially blame the parents. If kids don’t see parents reading, and if their parents don’t read to them, why should they bother reading? Kids want to do what their parents do. I should know by the way, because my 16 month old son tried to help me clean the toilet by grabbing the toilet brush. EEEEWWWW!
I had two end of the summer parties, one on Thursday for the teens and one on Friday for the kids. The one on Thursday was at Brockport. We had a reading competition between Brockport, Ogden, Hamlin and us at Hilton. Brockport and Ogden read over 2000 hours and even Hamlin read over a 1000. We read 750. PATHETIC! So we had the party at Brockport and two of my teens showed up. It really is sad, but it gave me a chance to share my exhuberance with other teens.
It also gave me a chance to meet the new children’s librarian at Brockport, who just graduated from University at Buffalo. She is super sweet, and I think that I will check on her to make sure that she’s doing well. Right now Brockport is having some staffing issues, and I hope that it doesn’t work on her nerves. I think that her enthusiasm is something that more librarians (besides a select few of us) need to have.
Friday we had our kids’ party. There were about 50 kids and we ate pizza and bagels and I gave them treasures. After they stuffed themselves, we had a very cute lady, Accordian Pat, who came and… played the accordian! That’s right, I bet you’d never have guessed it! Even some of the parents danced, so I think she was a hit.
Needless to say, I’m exhausted, but happy. Now I get to start all my planning for Fall programs. Yippee!