Read to the Horses!

We've tried Read to the Dogs, so why not Read to the Horses?  Thursday afternoon, a quartet of Deb Murphy's miniature horses - Star, Rascal, Lindsay and Faith - stepped off a horse trailer into the auditorium.  They were so gentle and sweet.  After getting a nametag and choosing a book, we learned a little about horses, and then dispersed to four stations for one-on-one reading sessions.  We also enjoyed making horse masks with Clay Foley from the Champaign County Humane Society.  Check out pictures from the event below! 

 

Rascal considers a book.

Lindsay inspects the pictures.

A surprise kiss!

Star enjoys a rub at a page break.

Leanin' on a friend.

Listening to Henry and Mudge... and nibbling some shorts?!

Piggie and Elephant is o.k.  But what about books about horses?!

 

A reading break - and time for a special nuzzle!

For some more horsin' around, try these books!...

A Friend for Einstein: The Smallest Stallion by Charlie Cantrell and Dr. Rachel Wagner

Oh, Harry! by Maxine Kumin

Stable by Ted Lewin

 

 

 

 

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by Erica Silverman

 

 

Happy Reading!  -Elaine B.

Free Children's Books!

Thank you to everyone who has supported the Friends of the Library Booksale this weekend!  All proceeds support library programs, like the Summer Reading Program.  Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. the booksale begins the Free Giveaway.  That's right - as many as you can carry in boxes, bags, and boats...  (Okay, a boat may be stretching it in Central Illinois.)  There are still a lot of great children's books - paperbacks, hardbacks, board books - for the taking.  But come at 9 - they go quickly!  -Elaine B.

Summer Reading Program Wrap Up

Unbelievable as it seems, the end of the summer reading program is here. If you've read your books or completed your "Read to Me" log you need to come in this week to collect your prize. There are still many excellent books to choose from compliments of The Friends of the Library and great food and activity coupons for our readers. We will be holding our raffle drawing for other prizes on Wednesday, August 31 so all books need to be logged and raffle tickets submitted by 9:00pm on Tuesday, August 30. We had a record number of participants this year and great prizes and coupons given by the following businesses:
Common Ground Food Cooperative
Courier Cafe
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
Curtis Orchard and Pumpkin Patch
Dairy Queen
Fazoli's
Little Caesars Pizza
McDonald's
Meijer
Old Chicago Pizza
Original House of Pancakes
Papa John's Pizza
Papa Murphy's Pizza
Perkins Family Restaurant
Putt Zone Fun Center
Savoy 16 Movie Theater
Strawberry Fields
Urbana Park District
Walmart

Thanks for another great summer of reading! --Rachel V.

Have you finished your summer reading yet? Come on in and write down the names of the books you've read! After reading 10 books, you get to pick a free book, then for every 5 more you read, you can enter our raffle. And don't forget to get those raffle tickets in before our drawing on Saturday, August 28! Lynn

Monster Fun

Meet Zoe's monster. This is just one of the many monsters that were created during "Monster Collage" at the library in June. We read There Was an Old Monster by Rebecca Emberley and imagined what other monsters we could make with found materials. If you missed "Monster Collage," there are still tons of great programs yet to come this summer, including Percy Jackson's Camp Half-Blood, Furry Friends Overnight and Monster Fun and Games. -Elaine B.

Scare Up a Good Book!

It's time once again to think about summer activities for kids. Some of the best can be found in our Summer Reading Program, Scare Up a Good Book! which will begin on May 24 and end on August 24. We will be visiting the Urbana elementary schools during the last week of May to promote the program with a great auditorium skit. Along with our regular fare this summer, we will have some programs in the "scary" category but they will include a pretty wide range - dinosaurs and dragons, bats and spiders, monster, mysteries and more.

We will also be promoting some great books like the one you see posted here. In "Miss Smith and the Haunted Library," the teacher grabs her incredible Storybook and takes the class down the street to a dark and creaky building nearby - the public library. Virginia Creeper, the librarian, picks up the storybook and reads a little from her favorite scary stories. With a thunder of hooves the Headless Horseman leaps out of the book, followed by Captain Hook, the Wicked Witch of the West, and a host of villianous characters. The kids love it and after a great party with all the characters; Zack, one of the students, finishes each story to "read" them back into the book. At the end, just like at our library, each kid picks out a books to checkout and take home. Barb L.