ANDOVER – The north lawn at the Andover Public Library was crowded with patrons late Saturday morning as the summer reading program kicked off with a visit by Melissa Goodwill with the Tamarack Wildlife Center in Saegertown, Pa., and her bird-of-prey friends.
As Goodwill jokingly grossed out the children asking them to imagine eating the caterpillars, grubs, grasshoppers and mice her American kestrel Watson would in the wild, Maria Firkaly, community relations coordinator with the library, explained that the summer reading kickoff is one of Andover’s biggest community events and has become a sort of unofficial beginning to the summer season.
Summer reading activities begin Monday, June 1, and run through Saturday, July 11, with activities for all ages throughout the week.
On Mondays, the library will feature an adult crafting activity and on Tuesdays there will be a similar program for children ages 6-11.
Wednesday mornings will be set aside for toddlers and preschoolers up to age 6, with a story time, activities and crafts. In the evenings, the library will feature speakers giving presentations on this summer’s theme, “Unearth a Story,” according to Firkaly.
Examples she gave are an amateur paleontologist speaking on adventures in fossils, a NASA solar system ambassador who will speak on the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event – when the massive Chicxulub asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs.
Another speaker will present on geomythology, the study of how prescientific cultures used oral traditions, myths and folklore to explain natural phenomena.
“Every culture has dragons – why is that?” Firkaly said. “Well, if you correlate their different types of dragons, you’ll see their skulls plus other fossils that they found that they would put together.”
The week of Independence Day will have a patriotic theme in the run up to the 250th anniversary of the singing of the Declaration of Independence.
Dr. Bradley Keefer of Kent State University at Ashtabula will make a presentation on the 104th Ohio Infantry Regiment, which saw six of its soldiers win the Medal of Honor in the 1864 Nashville Campaign during the American Civil War.
Thursdays are Library on the Go, when staff will visit the townships in the Andover Public Library’s service area with a free craft for all ages. There will also be a teen craft at the library in the evening.
One of those crafts is in partnership with the Steeple Stitchers at the First Congregational UCC in Andover, who will teach the youth to use a sewing machine to make a chicken nugget pillow.
On Fridays, there will be a matinee movie showing in line with the summer reading theme and on two of the Fridays, Pawsitive Therapy Dogs will bring out their animals for patrons to read to.
Close to 600 people have signed up for summer reading as of kickoff, according to Firkaly – about half youth and half adults.
For a full list of summer reading events, visit andover.lib.oh.us.
