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Summer Reading, 2005: Dogs, Pigs, and Harry—Oh My!
Appearances by a make-believe canine and coyote as well as piggy-bank creations highlighted a summer of reading programs at libraries nationwide. Libraries also organized parties, read-ins, trivia games, and costume contests to celebrate the July 16 release of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the popular children’s series.
Reading was the goal and pigs were the prize at Selby Public Library in Sarasota, Florida, where 5,000 kids decorated and took home their own personalized piggy banks filled with stickers earned from reading books.
In Poughkeepsie, New York, Mid-Hudson Library System staffers sort the 800 books donated by Scholastic that were distributed to area children in the “Tune In @ your Library” program.
Star Wars celebrity Darth Vader joins the “Reading Robots Rock” final program July 30 at Miami-Dade (Fla.) County Public Library’s Sunny Isles Beach branch, where more than 30 children enjoyed such events as face painting.
The San Antonio Spurs Coyote entertains a crowd of more than 200 July 13 at the Tye (Tex.) Preston Memorial Library’s “Go Wild—Read” program finale, where 12 bicycles were presented to grand-prize winners.
Clifford the Big Red Dog visits Fargo (N.Dak.) Public Library June 10 for a program kick-off event, cosponsored by the local Barnes and Noble, which drew more than 55 area children.
DaNasia Lynn, Anthony London, and Michael Crumpton shake up vanilla ice cream July 27 at Onondaga County (N.Y.) Central Library’s “What’s the Scoop? Reading Is Cool.”
Crystal Gill and James and Kaylee Roach display halfway-mark-winning T-shirts for their Pasco County (Fla.) Library System reading contract.
Two youngsters join 670 other participants June 13 during a carnival kickoff of “Dragons, Dreams, and Daring Deeds” at Fargo (N.Dak.) Public Library.
Brookfield (Conn.) Public Library staffers promote the “Dragons and Deeds” theme with their first-ever parade float.
Readers’ Services Assistant Linda Knorr stands in front of a Psycho shower scene display, which is part of Des Plaines (Ill.) Public Library’s “Villains” adult program and contest.
An art rendering of boxcars with a circus theme, designed by staff member Russell Godfrey, adorns the cover of the “Discover New Worlds” brochure for Sequoyah Regional Library System in Canton, Georgia.
Potter-Palooza
Library Assistant Deborah Sachs dons the sorting hat at a Boca Raton (Fla.) Public Library event.
Librarians Marily Ackerman, Allison Henden, and Michael Santangelo are surrounded by some of the 1,155 copies—a record-high book order—of the new Harry Potter selection at Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library.
Poplar Bluff (Mo.) Public Library staff dress as book characters for an event that transformed the facility into a Hogwarts-style fantasyland.
Fifteen minutes past midnight, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County teen advisory board members display copies of the just-released book at the Madeira branch launch party.
Over 2,500 Potter fans converge on Rockford (Ill.) Public Library's main branch to create magic wands, wizard hats, and glasses, as well as to participate in a trivia contest.
Hagrid and the Weasleys pause for the cameras in Daigon Alley, the transformed parking lot of Allen County (Ind.) Public Library's Georgetown branch, where nearly 3,000 participants received Hogwarts Handbooks, complete with a Galleons and Sickles section that pointed them to such activities as the fortune teller and the tattoo parlor.