I just bought nine bags of popcorn, which should be enough to get us through the last two movie nights of the summer (Winnie the Pooh and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and it really hit home as I bought that popcorn that summer is almost over.  Sure, it’s ninety degrees and wicked humid out, but the summer reading program only has eleven more days to go, and kids in the town where I work will be heading back to school soon after that.

It’s been an interesting summer at the library.  The first several weeks of the summer reading program were intensely, crazily, ridiculously busy, with tons of kids coming in for prizes each day and waitlists for programs.  In those several weeks, I wasn’t able to do anything that wasn’t summer reading related, and I went home absolutely pooped each evening.  But a week or so ago, things got somewhat calmer, and I suspect that a lot of people have now gone on vacation, and that the remaining kids have moved past the prize-receiving threshold and are now working on their bookplate numbers.  Which is not to say that it’s been quiet at the library, because it hasn’t been, but I have been able to accomplish some other “action items,” like getting that order of new books completely sorted and shuttled down to tech services for processing.  And, as I think about it, some of the relative calmness in the last week at the library can easily be attributed to the road construction on the state highway that runs in front of the library (the state closed the road and sent motorists on unmarked detours, which is a whole ‘nother story).

So, with eleven days to go, here is the current summer reading hours total for the kids participating in the summer reading program: 3,498 hours read.  That’s very impressive, especially since I know that not everyone has gotten their hours entered into the online reading program.  And I’m impressed with my own summer reading hours, which currently stands at 35 hours – a personal best.

As for programs, there are still some great programs coming up at the library.  Tomorrow afternoon is the last summer meeting of the Lego club; Wednesday is a program for ages 6 and up on Wetlands and Watersheds, presented by a teacher naturalist from Audubon Ark; Thursday night is the Winnie the Pooh movie night; Wednesday the 15th is the Finale Picnic; and the day after that is the final movie night for the summer, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Not to mention the six remaining storytimes of the summer.  There’s still space left in all the programs (except for the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s), so call tomorrow if you’d like to sign up.

And now I’m going to do a little more work on my own summer reading hours, to finish up the excellent book Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Richard Bowers.