Library To Get Kids Moving and Shaking - On The Bookshelf

Library to get kids moving and shaking

ON THE BOOKSHELF

BY LEAH DUMOUCHEL

The Ann Arbor News

I love the title of this year’s Ann Arbor District Library summer reading program: “Local Motion.” It manages to squeeze activity, localism and a pseudo-double-entendre all into two short words. Completely library-worthy.

And then there’s the reading bit. Elementary and middle school students and “read-to-me listeners” will get stickers after six books and a paperback after 10, and the older kids will get a pedometer to track all that moving and shaking.

The program for middle and high school students leans a little harder on the “motion” and offers a list of activities that includes cool stuff like watching a sporting event, listening to a podcast, posting to a district library blog, teaching geezers like me how to play a video game and, of course, reading books. Cross 10 of those off the list and get a pedometer and a library coupon. Grownups aren’t left out either: if you can squeeze five books into your busy summer, you’ll get a pedometer and a library coupon along with a coupon from Great Harvest Bread Company.

You can register at all AADL locations starting on Friday, or you can get your “local” jumpstarted with a kickoff concert at The Ark on Tuesday, June 16, at 7 p.m. Registration materials will be available and family favorite band Gemini will perform alongside Ann Arbor Public School students and their original songs.

If that’s not enough summer challenge for you (and good for you!), Friday is also the day you can pick up contest rules for the library’s fourth-annual Lego contest and a manga drawing contest for youth and teens. So I don’t want to hear any “I’m booooooooooored” this year, got it?

Author appearances

■ “Incidents in an Educational Life” follows John Swales’ international scholarship on English for Specific Purposes. Shaman Drum Bookshop, 311-315 S. State St., hosts a reception on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

■ Bonnie Jo Campbell’s “American Salvage” and “The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit,” by Michael Zadoorian, are both set in Michigan. The authors will be at Shaman Drum Bookshop on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Discussions

■ The Book Bunch discusses “The Secret,” by Beverly Lewis, and “Gardens of Water,” by Alan Drew, on Monday at 1 p.m. at Milan Public Library, 151 Wabash St.

■ Gene Alloway, co-owner of Motte & Bailey Booksellers, leads the History Readers Group in a discussion of “The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America,” by David Hajdu, on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the bookstore, 212 N. Fourth Ave.

■ Jeanne Mackey moderates a discussion of “The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience,” by Rob Hopkins and Richard Heinberg, on Friday at 7 p.m. at Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tearoom, 114 S. Main St.

For youth

Dexter District Library, 3255 Alpine St., kicks off its summer reading program on Friday at 11 a.m. with O.J. Anderson’s Laughin’ Loud comedy show. For details, visit www.hvcn.org/info/ddl or call 734-426-4477.

Sales

■ The Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library Book Sale is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the downtown library, 343 S. Fifth Ave. Hardcovers and trade paperbacks are $2; mass-market paperbacks are 50 cents.

■ The Friends of Milan Public Library Used Book Sale is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Four Corners Main Street, at Main and Wabash streets. Bargains on books for kids and adults. Rain date is Saturday, June 20.

“On the Bookshelf"publishes local news of interest to readers. E-mail items to dtrevor@ annarbornews.com.