We'd like to thank the  following generous donors who contributed to the Youth Services summer reading program.  Without their support we could not have the program that the children of Highland Park enjoyed this year.  Please let them know how much their support is appreciated when you patronize their businesses.

This summer sure has gone by quickly - Summer Reading is over, and August is just around the corner.  We gerbils want to thank all of our Summer Readers - aged from just a few months old to entering 9th grade - for participating in our favorite part of the year!

As we dictate this blog entry to our fast-typing librarians, we have just had our tank cleaned & are happily running around in our exercise balls! What a fun way to blog!

Summer Reading
* All summer long, we've been giving you lots of great statistics about Summer Reading... but we haven't mentioned that you can STILL sign up! You can even sign up on the very last day of Summer Reading (July 28) if you like. You can be a Highland Park resident, you can be a non-Highland Park resident. You can come every day from now until the end, or you can come just once. If you'd like a refresher on how the program works.... our friend Antony is here to help!

ALSC & LEGO/DUPLO Read! Build! Play! Project

Summer Reading
* We're at the halfway mark... can you believe it's July already? We gerbils sure can't.
* Our paper food pantry is nearly full after a great week of generous token & teen credit donations - the total amount of money raised is now $36.21!  Don't worry if the paper pantry fills.  We plan to start stacking the cans, and maybe we'll even expand the pantry.

Summer Reading
* We gerbils cannot believe there have been three weeks of Summer Reading already! Wasn't it only yesterday we were telling you how excited we were for it to start? (We do have poor rodent memories... but still. It's been a fast summer!)

Summer Reading
* The second week of 2012 Summer Reading is already over! Can you believe it? Since we last posted, 209 more kids have joined our Summer Reading program, and 466 more online reviews have been written. 

Reading Level: Grades 1 - 2

Max and Mo are a pair of school hamsters who remind us of certain library rodents we know you all love. Max and Mo share a habitat in the school's art room and watch the children participate in class. In each book they sneak out of their cage to have some fun of their own using a few basic art supplies. Each book has directions for an art project at the end. The only way this series could be made better would be if Max and Mo were gerbils instead of hamsters.