7.08.2008

Summer Reading


Oakville Public Library - Central Branch

Does anyone else remember the Book Mobile? It was a bookishly pimped out cube van that would appear each summer in random neighbourhood parking lots.

I grew up in a library visiting family and always thought it was a most excellent place (especially since the library was a pretty fair distance away for a kid). It was a special spot filled with windows, row upon wooden row of books and most memorably, a huge octagon shaped table deep in the heart of the children's book section.

I still have a very clear memory of standing in the library around the age of 10 and contemplating the possibility of reading every single book in the library, one by one ( for the record, I never came close).

But every summer the Book Mobile brought books even closer to home and gave us kids an easy chance to explore a scaled down selection on our own. In the late afternoon heat, parked like a mirage just beyond the public swimming pool, was this oddball vehicle filled with books and manned by a lone library gypsy (and her date stamp).

Another great seasonal ritual was the summer reading program. You read a bunch of topical books throughout the summer, collected stamps to mark your progress and...well I can't honestly remember what happened at the end...which must mean that I really enjoyed the reading part of the program.

And with all of these great summer reading memories, it's really no wonder that I took my own kids to the library for the start of summer story time this morning. There was lots of storytelling, dancing and singing to be enjoyed; no octagon table, but plenty of computers (which admittedly seemed to be a main attraction). But after all that stimulating and updated library action, my little reading gal still came home with a stack of books. Our ride home was enlivened by her systematic reading of Jonathan London's Froggy books (Froggy Plays in the Band, Froggy Learns to Swim, Froggy Goes to School, you get the idea).

And how cool is it to discover that the TD Summer Reading Program (that's right, it's stepped all the way up to corporate sponsorship) still lives on.

http://www.opl.on.ca/summer_reading.php

So what's on your summer reading list? I'm firmly committed to finishing a certain book this week (um, yes, I'm still on The Master, yikes). Then I`m looking for something highly entertaining (because it`s taken me far too long to read The Master).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

now I think was a little after you time...but there was also the adult reading summer activity through the book company?(the one under the sherway food court) where you had to figure out where the quotes were from...suggestion - Friday Night Knitting Club. I still haven't finished it but I strangley want to read it, andthis is me so it must be good...;o)