SUMMER READING
Rensselaer County libraries celebrate ‘a universe of stories’ summer reading theme
RENSSELAER COUNTY, N.Y. » Every year, New York chooses a theme for libraries across the state to use for their children’s summer reading program.
This year, the theme was “A universe of stories,” in celebration of 2019 being the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing.
Libraries in Rensselaer County came up with a variety of special ways to celebrate the completion of their summer reading programs, with special shows and activities that were “out of this world.”
At the Troy Public Library, children were treated to a show by Jackie Reynolds, otherwise known as BeeBee the Clown. BeeBee performed sleight of hand, ventriloquism, and even taught the children how to make balloon animals.
At the end of the show, she passed out magic kits to the children and taught them how to use their new tricks. The children then had “space cookie” snacks, received reading certificates and goodie bags, and got to pick a free book.
Alex Kuzmin, 6, of Troy, enjoyed BeeBee’s show. “I liked it. It was really funny,” he said. Out of all the books he read over the summer, Alex thought his favorite one was “Paw Patrol Rescue.”
At the Brunswick Public Library, children attended Astronaut Training Camp and worked their way through a variety of stations with outer space and astronaut themes. Some of the activity de
scriptions also included fun facts about NASA.
“This is the second year that we’re running an adult reading program alongside the children’s program,” explained Sara Hopkins, the library director in Brunswick. “We’ve had a lot of people log over 100 hours this year. A lot of us did this when we were kids, so it reminds us of those times.”
From adding stickers to the community murals (one sticker for each hour read) to trying to drink water out of a bag just like astronauts in space, children of all ages enjoyed themselves.
“She loves it here,” said Victoria Galvin, from-Brunswick, of her 15-month- old daughter Ada. “She’s been coming to the tot classes all summer.”
“They have a great program here,” added Ada’s grandmother, Robin Jones.
Pyper Rafferty, 6, of Johnsonville, was very proud of having read for 117 hours this summer. Her favorite book was “Llama Llama Red Pajama.”
After thinking hard for a moment when asked what her favorite book was, Rebecca Teichnner, 5, of Melrose, proudly announced, “All of them!”
The East Greenbush Community Library hosted their end- of-summer-reading celebration across the parking lot at the East Greenbush YMCA.
There, Jeff Boyer, treated the enthusiastic audience to Bubble Trouble, an hourlong show celebrating, creating, and popping bubbles. Boyer used a variety of tools to make bubbles of all sizes, quantities, and even colors.
Also available during the event were cake, coupons for a free book for the next time the children visited the library, and raffle chances. The raffle winners were drawn after the Bubble Trouble show. Prizes were gift cards to assorted stores and attractions around the Capital Region.
At that time, Molly Chatt, head of youth services at the East Greenbush Community Library, also had an exciting announcement to make.
“We are going to put out 1 Lego for every book read this summer for you guys to play with during the last week of August,” she told the crowd. “When we checked today, we had almost 14,000 books read, and I think if we add the adult books into that we’ll get close to 15,000. So we’re going to have almost 15,000 Legos available for you.”
Chatt explained after the event that the library had held a 10,000 book challenge as part of the summer reading program.
“The challenge was for kids, teens, and adults,” she said. “This was our first year doing a library-wide goal. We’re going to do it again next year, and now we know to set the goal higher.”
Taniya Paul, 8, of East Greenbush, had a good time at the show and said she enjoyed reading all summer.
“I just finished a book today!” she bragged. Her favorite books over the summer were “The Puppy Place” and “Bella.”
“We love the East Greenbush Library,” her mother Kasturi Paul commented. “We are really lucky to have it.”
At the Rensselaer Public Library, children settled in to watch a performance of Ron Cain’s Martian Magic Show. As he waited for the show to start, Cain chatted with the children already there about outer space, asking them questions from a book he picked up about the planets.
His magic show included background music from the “Star Wars” movies, illusions and sleight of hand tricks, and facts about the solar system.
For the show’s grand finale, Cain introduced the children to “Orbit the Bunny,” a flat rabbit cutout. He and his assistant put the cutout through the “magic decompressing machine,” and then from out of the machine, Caine pulled a live white rabbit.
Many of the children lined up to pet Orbit after the show. Each child also received a “lucky alien,” and then got to choose free books to take home.
Aisha Saadat, 6, of Rensselaer, enjoyed getting to pet Orbit. Her favorite book this summer was “Pete The Cat.”
The Place brothers, of Rensselaer, also had a good time watching the show. Evan, 8, decided that his favorite book was “Horrible Harry,” which he had just finished reading. Brad, 6, said his favorite book was “Off to First Grade.” And Jordan, 4, loved reading the “That’s Not My . . .” series touchy-feely books.