Summer is quickly approaching and with it the busiest season of AADL’s year. Volunteers are needed at AADL’s four branches (Northeast, West, Malletts Creek, and Pittsfield) to sign up Summer Reading participants June 15-June 29. If you are interested and between the ages of 12 and 18, stop by the information desk at a branch and pick up some forms. Return the completed forms by June 11.

Jump in and lend a hand to make this our biggest summer yet!

Come to Nicola’s Books on Saturday, May 19th at 11 AM to meet the curious monkey himself. Make sure you read up on George before you go. Here are some of my favorites:

Curious George Learns to Count from 1 to 100
Curious George Takes a Job
Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon

Poor Elephant cannot get any sleep because grumpy Gecko is waking him up every single night to complain about the fireflies that flash outside his window. In this whimsical adaptation of an ancient tale from Bali, little does Gecko know that all his complaining will not help because “the world is all connected. Some things you just have to put up with.” Once again, the amazing storyteller Margaret Read MacDonald gets it just right, with a blend of old fashioned message and lots of laughs!

Before you get a new pet, FIGURE IT OUT and READ first. In June 2007 Malletts Creek Branch will host a quinea PIGnic with the 4-H Cavy Crew and their live pigs. Fun "pig lit" includes pet care and stories. Try listening to Tales of Olga DePolga on CD in the car. Twenty Is Too Many by Kate Duke can be read as fun or advice.
Great facts on pet care can be found in Silkies And Other Guinea Pigs and Guinea Pigs.

I figured out who my new favorite author is. Sara Pennypacker! After I read a review in School Library Journal, I read Clementine. Then I took home The Talented Clementine. Then I checked out Stuart's Cape and Stuart Goes To School. I LOVED these characters! They are strong contenders for fans of R.Q.(Ramona Quimby), H.H.(Henry Huggins), J.B.J.(Junie B. Jones), J.P.(Joey Pigza), F.D.D.(Franklin Delano Donuthead), and G.B.G.(Gooney Bird Greene).

400,000 people figured out how to put men on the moon with Apollo 11. Team Moon tells that story.

Library Staff figured out what to do for this summer, when school gets out. We are visiting schools now to let kids know they need to get ready.
Summer Reading Game is coming June 11 and the theme is FIGURE IT OUT: READ!
Watch blogs for titles being talked about.
Watch the web site for Summer Program Events.
We're gonna FIGURE OUT lots of things together.
Remember... Summer Reading is for ALL AGES. "Listeners", "Learning Readers", "Bibliomaniacs", "Student Researchers", and "Retirement Readers" are included.
Nobody ever gets turned away.

I’m personally wild about Ann Arbor’s Wild Swan Theater so I’m hoping to take my 10-year-old son to their performance of Twelfth Night this Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday (May 3-6) at WCC Towsley Auditorium. You’ll be glad to know AADL has plenty of good Shakespeare books for young people, such as The Riverside Shakespeare, which includes the play Twelfth Night.

The library recently purchased Spanish translations of the popular "Chronicles of Narnia" series by C.S. Lewis. There will be copies of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe/El Leon, la Bruja y el Ropero" at all branches and copies of all other titles at the Downtown Branch on both the Adult and Youth Foreign Language Collection shelves. Ask a staff member if you have trouble locating these areas. You can also put a HOLD on any of these books via your account in the online catalog. Follow the links below to see the records and call numbers for each book.

El Sobrino del Mago por C.S. Lewis
El Leon, la Bruja y el Ropero por C.S. Lewis
El Caballo y el Muchacho por C.S. Lewis
El Principe Caspian por C.S. Lewis
La Traversia del Viajero del Alba por C.S. Lewis
La Silla de Plata por C.S. Lewis
La Ultima Batalla por C.S. Lewis

Moon's father trusts no one - particularly the government. Moon and his father live in the forest in an extreme form of off the grid living. Moon has only known a life where they hunt, grow and forage for all of their food, make clothes out of animal hides and have contact with only the owner of a local general store. When Moon's father dies, Moon follows his father's last instructions: to travel to Alaska to find others like themselves. But Moon is soon caught and entangled in a world he doesn't know or understand, apparent property of the government he has been avoiding all his life. Moon encounters constables, jails, institutions, lawyers, true friends, and true enemies - and begins to wonder if his father's way of life is the one he wants to lead... An excellent debut by Watt Key.

You can be the guy with REAL information about growing up. Find these books, read up, and you'll be prepared to figure things out. Boy's Guide To Becoming A Teen; Teenage Guys Survival Guide; The Real Deal: A Guy's Guide To Being A Guy.