"No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!"

"No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!" I remember singing this Alice Cooper song when I was a kid.

Yes, school was out for summer. No more homework, no more getting up early to catch the bus. All the way home I fantasized about playing outside all day with my friends - staying up late at night watching movies rather than doing homework.

Yes, my summer was planned, and I thought I would never get bored. However, that idea was short lived. By mid June, several of my friends were away at camp or on family vacation. I had nothing to do, and nowhere to go. All I had left was to stand on my head and spit wooden nickles, as my mother suggested.

That was until I went to my local public library and found out they were running a summer program for middle schoolers. The library was going to put on a puppet show, and we got to make the puppets and the stage. I signed up immediately and went to the first meeting and had a great time. I made some new friends. I learned all about puppets and made one of my own. We read Pinocchio as a group read.

The last day we had a big party, and we performed our puppet play for the smaller children and our parents. That summer made a difference in my life. Ms Patty was the library assistant, who was a college student working at the library for the summer. She was cool, and she was fun, so she made the library cool and fun, too. I was always a reader, but this experience made me a library user for life. That was back in the days of tie dye and bell bottom jeans, back in a time when we thought summer lasted forever.

Now this may be the 21st century, and kids today may have so much more to occupy their time, but I still hear kids telling their moms they are bored, that they have nothing to do. So my suggestion is to get them down to your Library and sign up for the free Summer Library Program. Let us help make your kids library users for life.

PreK - Grade 5

We are offering something for everybody in the family. One World, Many Stories is for children from preK through grade 5, You Are Here is for tweens and teens from grade 6 through 12, and Novel Destinations is our Adult program. We will have special guests and speakers to read stories and share interesting facts about different cultures. There will be games, crafts, and prizes. Most importantly, the kids will keep up their reading skills and make new friends while having fun learning.


So don't get stuck standing in the corner spitting wooden nickels all summer come see whats happening at your local library.