- Visit the Photo Place

'Catch the Reading Bug' this summer with library's fun program

It's time to look forward to summer reading

Date published: 6/3/2008

S UMMER IS ALMOST here, and it's time for kids to put away those book reports and read whatever they want.

The summer reading club at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, available now, encourages kids to read for fun.

Children who sign up get a bag full of goodies, all decorated with our "Catch the Reading Bug" theme.

A newspaper activity sheet from The Free Lance-Star offers tickets to Liberty Lanes for kids who participate.

Sign up online at Kids Point.org or visit your closest branch to get your free summer reading kit and get the fun started!

Why not try a bug book this summer?

School-age children will enjoy "Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug," a wordless story from Mark Newgarden and Megan Montague Cash.

The story itself is simple. Bow-Wow, a yellow terrier, follows a little black bug around his neighborhood-- but the execution is intriguing. In simple cartoon panels outlined in black, the authors show the pup, nose to the ground, following the little bug through the streets of the city, meeting other dogs following other bugs, then coming upon a crowd of enormous bugs chasing tiny little dogs.

The mix of clever, surrealistic images and the homey little terrier will appeal to young "readers" who like following every detail of the pictures.

Bugs are crawling on every page of "Hey There, Stink Bug!" by Leslie Bulion.

Poems about caterpillars, ant lions, bombardier beetles and maggots emphasize the gross and gory aspects of the critters, but the poetic forms, including haiku and clerihews, are varied and inventive.

Linoleum block prints on every page add a playful note. In the end, as Bulion tells us, "This is / an insect world with humans in it. / We'll seize the day, but they will win it."

What is it about bugs and poetry? Douglas Florian's "Insectlopedia" is another collection of funny bug poems ("You don't need tickets/ To listen to crickets"), and Judy Sierra's "Thelonius Monster's Sky High Fly Pie" tells a rhyming story about a monster who delights his party guests with a pie made out of sticky sugar and, yes, flies.

For children who want just the facts about bugs, two compilations of information and photos should do the trick.

Follow us on

Date published: 6/3/2008