A touch of magic falls upon Howard County Library’s Summer Reading Program

Midland magician Harlin Rhoades brought a touch of magic to the Howard County Library's Summer Reading Program Wednesday, as young readers celebrated the successful completion of the “Tails and Tales”-themed program.

Rhoades performed several feats of sleight of hand, often incorporating young members of the audience as volunteers in his illusions. The magic man worked the Reading Program's animal theme into his act using handkerchiefs with embroidered animals and introducing animal-based storybooks along with the show.

When Rhoades completed his act, Librarian Sandra Verdin announced the winners of the program's reading contest for the year.

Among babies/toddlers, Jolene Pfeil won the girl's prize, while Dale Allen won the boy's award.

In the Kindergarten through Second Grade group, readers were competing to win tickets to the Abilene Zoo. Mckenzie Whidden won the girl's prize with 569 minutes read, while Matthew Pollar won the boy's prize with 2,036 minutes read.

The prize for third through sixth grade readers were tickets to the Science Spectrum in Lubbock;

Braxton Gregory won the boy's prize with 4,500 minutes read. Braxton's sister, Nikki Gregory, turned in 5,040 minutes of reading during the program and the siblings shared a family pass to the Science Spectrum.

Since passes are distributed by family, the extra pass went to the girl who turned in the next-highest reading time: Elizabeth Raffini, who piled up 1,493 minutes of reading.

Additionally, each child present at Wednesday's program received an activity bag and had the opportunity to select a free book to take home.