As summer fast approaches, we look forward to the longer days and begin planning on ways to take advantage of the inevitably short outdoor season.
It could mean practical concerns like gardening, yard work or a landscaping project. Hopefully, it will include enjoying one of our many local festivals like the Edmonds Arts Festival or the Chamber-sponsored Taste Edmonds in August.
In every case, it means perfect weather to spend outside locally or a means to get away on a well-deserved vacation.
Regardless, the Edmonds Library is preparing for summer with our longstanding summer reading program, “Explore Summer,” with a distinct space theme called “Universe of Stories.”
“Explore Summer” is geared towards students between ages 5 and 14, though younger children and older teens are welcome to participate. The idea is to help maintain and improve reading skills in a fun way and avoid the “summer slide,” which can occur when children forget academic material after a long break from learning activities.
With financial support from our generous Friends of the Edmonds Library, students will receive a free book for every 10 hours of reading. It is simple to join – sign up online or come to the library to pick up a printable reading log, read 10 hours filling in the stars to show how much you’ve read and, when done, bring the log to the library to select a free prize book and a “Keep Reading” bookmark.
There will be more information on registration and programs at sno-isle.org/exploresummer/liftoff/, and you have until Aug. 31 to redeem the free book prize.
In addition to the reading program, the library will have weekly events, with our summer kickoff Tuesday, June 18, at 4 p.m. with Space Quest from Idea Hatch, where you can test meteorites with robots and peer into an infinity star box or create a planetary object.
The rest of the Explore Summer events are Tuesdays at 2 p.m. starting July 9 and continuing through Aug. 13. Sno-Isle Libraries has partnered with the Seattle Storm basketball team, where those 18 and under are eligible to receive two complimentary tickets to a Storm game on either Aug. 2 or Aug. 8, based on the limited supply of ticket vouchers for the Space Quest summer reading launch event June 18.
On the teen side of “Explore Summer,” I would be remiss not to highlight “Four-Color Reality: How Comic Books and the Real World Shape Each Other” with T. Andrew Wahl Saturday, June 29, at 3 p.m. He will offer a fascinating discussion on how comics are a lens to view our past, present, and future.
I hope to see you reading and around the library this summer!