Dunk Machine Grand Finale
The end or Radford Public Library’s Summer Reading Program will be celebrated with a Dunk Machine, Popsicles, Book Prizes and water games. Participants in the children’s reading program will have three chances to dunk somebody in the dunk machine for every five hours read. Kids who read 100 hours (and their parent/guardian is supervising and have signed a release form) can be dunked in the dunk machine. Popsicles for everyone. Kids who completed the reading program by reading 20 hours will get to pick their free book reward.
August, Friday the 13th at 2 p.m.

Storytime Finale! Family Music Extravaganza
Radford Public Library’s weekly storytime programs will take a break from Tuesday, August 17th until Monday, September 6th. But before our break everyone is invited to a best of storytime celebration. All of your favorite songs, nursery rhymes & tickles packed into a spectacular evening. Bring babies, toddlers, big kids, grandparents, mom, dad, cousins, uncles, the whole family to this special evening storytime. Regular storytime programs will resume after Labor Day.

Fall Storytimes begin Tuesday, September 7th

Wee Reads (0-24 months) Tuesdays & Thursdays at 10 a.m.
Toddler Time (2-3 years) Tuesdays at 11 a.m.
Lunchtime Stories (all ages) Wednesdays at Noon
Preschool Stories (3 and up) Thursdays at 11 a.m.

I’ve had fun the past few weeks reading Betsy Bird’s blog as she ran a poll on the Top 100 Children’s Books. You can see the complete list at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1790000379/post/1820053782.html
This list has inspired me to re-read some classiscs I haven’t looked at in too long (The Secret Garden) and to finally pick up older books that I’ve felt I should read for years, but just haven’t. There are too many good new books and not enough time to read old (and probably boring ones) was my excuse. Well no more. I read Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace last night and am in love. What friendship – kindred spirits – just like L. M. Montgomery’s Anne and Diana, so much so that they aren’t Betsy and Tacy, no they’re too close for an interfering and, they’re just Betsy-Tacy. The plot is hard to describe, almost nothing happens, just sweet short episodes where two five year old girls meet, become best friends, and engage in delightful imaginative play. Although they were written in 1940 they are set in 1897-1898 and the world is safe and small. Betsy-Tacy’s big adventure is climbing to the top of the Big Hill, the wonder of that being that they do it without grown-ups – which is just unimaginable today. Their world however, isn’t free of sadness, and Betsy’s take on birds and heaven made me smile while a bit teary-eyed. Every five year old girl should have this read aloud to her and then when she’s a bit older she’ll want to read it again by herself.

Betsy-Tacy was only #70 on the Top 100 Children’s Books, but I began my new resolution to read Children’s Literature classics with this one because it was mentioned, actually praised exorbitantly, at a session I went to on Book-talking Non-Fiction to Children at the Public Library Association Conference. Even though it was completely off topic, the speaker implored, “Please buy copies of this book, don’t let these books go out of print.” And I have to say, I completely agree.

Nine chapters, one for each inning in a baseball game, tell the story of the Negro Baseball League. Kadir Nelson, who is one of the most amazing illustrator/artists working today, has created a visually stunning book. His portraits of the great players leap off the page, but – amazingly enough – the stories in this book are even more incredible. Baseball today seems gentle in comparison to the rough play of the Negro Baseball League, and the writing flows off the page. It’s like listening to an old-timer tell tales about the great days of baseball. J796.357