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!

* 925 kids are participating in our program. Are you one of them? Those kids have written an astonishing 2465 online reviews.
* $63.61 has been donated for the Moraine Township Food Pantry from generous token- and credit-earners. One teen spent $2 on herself and donated her remaining $18.12 in credit to the food pantry last week!  Please remember that you can donate non-perishables during Summer Reading as well.
* The caterpillar is SO close to leaving the Inger Boye Room! We gerbils can hardly stand the wait. He now has 56 body parts from our budding Book Buddies!  He only needs about six more to leave the room.

Summer Reader of the Week
* Congratulations to this week's Summer Readers of the Week!
* This week's preschool winner is 3 year-old Meadow R. This summer, Meadow has enjoyed reading Our California by Pamela Munoz Ryan, Fancy Nancy: The Dazzling Book Report by Jane O'Connor, and Word Bird's Dinosaur Days by Jane Belk Moncure.
* This week's K-5 winner is Brayden R., another voracious reader going in to second grade this fall. Recently, he enjoyed reading Babe Ruth Saves Baseball by Frank Murphy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Jedi in Training by Heather Scott, and Strega Nona Takes a Vacation by Tomie dePaola.
* Great reading, Meadow & Brayden! As winners, Meadow and Brayden's names, and the books they enjoyed will be displayed on our Electronic Bulletin Board for the summer. Check back here next Monday or look up on our electronic bulletin board when you come in to see reads from future Summer Reader of the Week winners!

At the Library
* Stories Under the Stars meets Monday at 7:30pm in the clearing by the rose garden.
* Wednesday, July 18, The Magic Onion musical will be performed at 7pm in the auditorium. Blend a beautiful princess and her faithful dog, a wicked magician and his magic onion, a handsome prince, a hungry dragon, and a castle in an enchanted blue forest, and you have what looks like a typical fairy tale, but there's hilarious twists to the plot. Enjoy the music and songs. (waiting list)
* Outdoor Drop-In Chess on Saturday as usual!
* Check out photos from last week's Delicious Art program.

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

LEGO/DUPLO and the Association for Library Service to Children have joined hands to celebrate and support local libraries. The most nominated library in the Read! Build! Play! Project (vote here) will receive $5,000 for books and supplies. The top 200 libraries will receive a special LEGO/DUPLO Read! Build! Play! toolkit chock full of cutting edge early literacy programming that combines preschool books with a versatile collection of DUPLO bricks. You can vote once per day until October 1 & we hope you do! Share with your friends - thanks for your support!

Around the Web
* The Horn Book has released the 2012 Mind the Gap Award winners - books that should have won ALA awards... but didn't. Are there any you think are missing? What categories/books would you award in your own Mind the Gap Awards list?
* Mockingjay will be released as a two-part movie... anyone surprised?