Mexico Flag

Children between 7 and 11 years old, related to Mexico, are asked to participate in the 11th Children’s Drawing Contest 2007. The purpose of the contest is to motivate children from all over the world to express what Mexico means to them. Submit a 12 x 12 size painting or drawing by August 24 to your nearest Mexican Embassy or Consulate.

Show in your drawing whatever your imagination says about Mexico:
· What you know about Mexico?
· What have your parents, grandparents or friends told you about Mexico?
· Why are you proud to be Mexican?
· What you know about its heroes, culture, art, architecture…..?

Follow the guidelines link for further information or visit the Intituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior website.

Domo Kun: NTT DoCoMo's mascot

Don't forget to break out your best in anime, manga, videogame character finery to enter the Cosplay Contest this Thursday, August 2 @ 7:00 PM at the Downtown Library. Prizes will be given in 2 categories: Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12 - in the form of gift certificates to Wizzywig in the amounts of $35, $25 and $15 respectively. Play DDR in character or come and watch the contest and play DDR.

Mark your calendar for the final Animanga Club of the summer on Monday, August 13 | 2:00-4:00 PM @ the Downtown Library. Make an authentic Naruto headband eat food/drink and have a chance to win cool Naruto merch and a $10 Wizzywig gift certificate based on your Naruto knowledge...

Storytime this week is all about food. Come see how the Mighty Asparagus causes a whole heap of trouble, and join us for our final round for the summer of "Knees Up Mother Brown."

Harry and the Potters

Celebrate Harry Potter's Birthday in style by rocking out with the bands Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys. The Downtown library is turning our William St. parking lot into a rockin' stage on Tuesday, July 31 from 6-8 PM. An incorrect date has been printed in the local Ann Arbor newspaper, so make sure you don't show up with your party hat a day early!!

Game Theory

On July 15th, some 60 or so Malletts Creek library patrons got treated to an informative and entertaining presentation by Professor Yan Chen on Game Theory. Some even went home with cold cash for playing in her demos., besides learning a few strategies for biding on eBay and other auction giants.

By popular request, she has posted her slides online at her website, (listed as Classes: SI 625 AADL Public Lecture on Game Theory 7/15/2007). Select from her slides,or her auction experiments.

Dr. Chen's presentation was a program of the 2007 Summer Reading Game Figure It Out.

Do you know a three letter word for "the sound of water hitting a hot pan" or "what both Humpty Dumpty and Miss Muffet did?" If you're dying to find out the strategies of some of the most most adept and lovable crossword puzzle addicts, come to the Downtown branch tomorrow night, Tuesday, July 24 at 6:30 p.m. to watch Wordplay, the movie about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament run by New York Times crossword master, Will Shortz. The film will be introduced by Firefly Club owner, jazz singer and fellow word lover, Susan Chastain who welcomes people to the club every Wednesday to play Scrabble.

Egg

Tuesday, July 17 @Pittsfield Branch, 2-4 PM

Show us your mad engineering skills and create the perfect structure to safe your egg from a fate worse than frying on the sidewalk! All supplies including eggs will be provided, just bring your thinking cap. Building your egg structure will take place from 2-3. Preliminaries will start at 3 PM, when all eggs will be dropped. All eggs that make the fall intact will move on top the finals, where the three EGGcellent Engineers will be determined by how heavy their egg construction is. The lightest egg container win!

Start getting building ideas by checking out these great books: Build It!: Activities for Building Super Structures, and Structures. Or get inspired with Egg-Drop Blues by Jacqueline Turner Banks and Egg-Drop Day by Harriet Ziefert.

AADL-GT Pad Logo

It's late July in Ann Arbor, and that means (at least) two things; the Art Fair, and the return of the Super Smash Double Dash Championship Season! It will be a busy week at the library, and it all starts off with Pokémondays, this time at Malletts Creek Branch on Monday, 7/16, from 1-5 PM for players of all ages and Pokémon level 51 & up.

Then, come see us at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair main stage next to the Belltower for DDR on Wednesday 7/18 and Friday 7/20 from 1-4 PM. There will be some prizes for the very best players, but you can also just come to show off in front of the crowd. You know you want to.

Finally, it's the end of the arduous off-season, as the clans converge on the Downtown Library on Saturday, 7/21, from Noon - 5 PM for the long-awaited Super Smash Double Dash Preseason Event! We'll have single and team kart and smash, and an opportunity to try out some new methods, recruit members for your clan, and size up the competition, and eat pizza. Hope to see you all there!

This week at preschool storytime it's all about stories in the dark. Baby Owl will try to convince us all that he's not cute, and there will be a few surprise guests during the telling of The Squeaky Door. See you this week at both the Downtown and Pittsfield branches!

What street do the Dursleys live on? What are Hufflepuff's house colors? Who owns the store where Harry Potter buys his wand? If you know the answer to all these Harry Potter trivia questions without looking them up in the books (or via Google!), be sure to come to our Harry Potter Trivia Night for Teens (grades 6-12) on Monday, July 16th, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Pittsfield Branch. Work in teams of up to 5 players to compete for the grand prize: $15 giftcards to Borders Books & Music. You can come with your own team of friends, or we'll assign you to one. All teens who participate will also be entered into a drawing to win one of two cool tote bags with the cover art of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.