Kids Blog

It's almost time for the annual library Summer Reading Clubs, which run from June 1 - August 31. They are free to join and a great way to discover new favorite books, win prizes, and have a blast reading all summer long. Kids of all ages and teens will earn prizes based on the number of minutes that they read and enter into their online logs. Special summer events include nature classes, drop-in STEM activities, and fun festivals to wrap it all up.

Adults can submit book reviews and be entered to win a movie pass, 2 Bob Evans restaurant coupons, and other goodies. A grand prize winner at the end of the summer will receive a new EReader! Programs feature a special author visit, a writing camp, and our popular Music on the Steps summer music series.

Sign up will be available online and in the branches starting at 9 am on Saturday, June 1.

The Ojibwa trappers had come to trade with the villagers on Spirit Island, but what they saw caused them to turn their boats around and head for home as quickly as they could.  The entire island seemed empty of life. Smallpox, the terrible illness for which the Native Americans had little immunity, had wiped out everyone. Well, almost everyone. Still alive and crawling through the ruins was a baby girl, all alone.

Omakayas, or Little Frog, was soon adopted into another Ojibwa family on Lake Superior’s Madeline Island.  Her life is as rich and full as that of another beloved book character, Laura Ingalls, and there are many similarities between the stories, including the children’s delight in nature and wild creatures.. Omakayas’ family’s everyday activities and celebrations and tragedies are carefully set down, from season to season.  The Birchbark House is foremost a very well-written story with believable, lovable and intriguing characters, including Omakayas’ annoyingly greedy little brother and beautiful but sometimes cold-hearted big sister.  Older generations are also well-represented.  The grandmother, a gifted healer, shares stories of long-ago, and her dreams are filled with omens of things to come and solutions to real-life problems given by the spirit world.

On a Southern farm during the Civil War, a young girl finds a runaway slave hiding in the family's barn. She is frightened but must make a difficult decision. What does she owe to the runaway with frightened eyes? Unspoken, by Henry Cole, is the story of a choice she makes and the bond that forms between the two of them.

Throughout the book, the reader never sees the runaway slave's face, just an eye peering fearfully from among the stored corn stalks. The girl and the slave never speak. In fact, there are no words in the book. But though all communication is unspoken, the message remains powerful. Detailed graphite drawings convey the tension and emotions, as well as the strong connection that grows between the girl and the runaway.

There are many fantasy books that lead you to other places filled with wizards, royalty, and magical creatures. They provide an escape for their readers.  But what if the characters wanted to escape?  The Great Good Thing, by Roderick Townley, is about a princess who wants something more out of her fairy tale life—if only she can get the chance.  

For ages and ages, no one had opened the book. Just as Sylvia sat weeping in boredom by the edge of the lake, pleading for something to happen, a fan of light began opening in a corner of the sky, sending flashes of color across the water. "Rawwwk! Reader!" screamed an orange bird. "Boooook open! Ooopen! Boook open!" groaned a bullfrog.

Intrigue, spying, resistance fighters working behind enemy lines to sabotage the Nazis—Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, by Steve Sheinkin, has it all. The story is true, but it reads like a spy thriller.

Luciano Anastasini had been a circus performer from the time he was a child until the day he fell fifty feet from the high wire, ending his days as an acrobat. Stay: The True Story of Ten Dogs, by Michaela Muntean, is the story of how Luciano got a second chance at a circus career by giving stray dogs a second chance at life.

Bowser was a thief who could even open cupboard doors to steal food. Penny walked into walls. Stick was a stray, knocking over garbage cans for food. Tyke was just ornery, and Cocoa kept digging giant holes in her owner's yard. The one thing they had in common was that no one wanted them—until Luciano took them home to the circus.