Congratulations

Congratulations to Mary Margaret, winner of the Summer Sunshine Rays of Reading grand prize!

And thanks to all the kids who made our Summer Reading Program a big success. You guys did a great job reading this summer--altogether, you read 543 books!

Summer Reading Program Finale!

This is the last week to come in and report the books you've read this summer. Next Saturday, August 23rd, at noon, we will hold an End of Summer Celebration. Join us for a book signing with M.W. Penn, author of Sidney the Silly Who Only Eats 6; face painting; a craft activity; and of course, the grand prize drawing of a $50 gift certificate to The Alphabet Garden!

Mark your calendars now and plan to come out for this fun event!

Beach Reading

I'm going on vacation in a few weeks, and I'll need to stock up on a few good books for the beach. So tell me, what have you read this summer? Which books have you loved? What have you hated? I have some ideas, but I'm eager to hear your suggestions!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

So apparently there's a new Star Wars movie coming out? An animated one? I guess I'm a little out of the loop, because I didn't know about it until I checked all these books in. We have a Clone Wars Galactic Photobook, Clone Wars chapter books for two different levels, two early-reader books (levels 1 and 2), an activity book, a sticker book, a picture book, and The Clone Wars: The Visual Guide! Wow. My brothers would have gone crazy for these back in their Star Wars-obsessed phase.

Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig

Kate DiCamillo's latest addition to the Mercy Watson series arrived at The Alphabet Garden this week.

Mercy is up to her usual antics in book 5, driving Eugenia crazy and endearing herself to everyone else. In this book, Eugenia calls Animal Control to take care of Mercy once and for all. As this "Unmentionable Horror" approaches, the Watsons fret over how to save Mercy, who disappears to the neighbors' house for a tea party and, as usual, proves herself a "porcine wonder" who doesn't need rescuing!

I always love Kate DiCamillo's writing, but Chris Van Dusen's artwork is what really makes this book. He captures every character perfectly!

Booknaps

I just read this article (thanks to Fuse #8 for the link) expressing the comfort and importance of something I've never been able to accomplish: the booknap. Simply put, a booknap is when you read until you fall asleep. The article states, "If you set your book or magazine aside, rolled over and slept you have not booknapped. The experience should be seamless. One moment you are reading sleepily, the next you wake up with messy hair and a strange taste in your mouth." Like I said, this is not something I have ever experienced.

I remember once hearing an aunt say that she had fallen asleep while reading, and wondering how that was possible. I just can't let go of a story (even if I've read it many times before) enough to fall asleep in the middle. Am I missing out? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Summer Sunshine Rays of Reading

The sun is shining, birds are singing, someone is jamming on a guitar in the courtyard, and I've drawn the name of our first weekly prize winner for this year's summer reading program at The Alphabet Garden! Summer is one of my favorite times to work at The Alphabet Garden; I love it when kids come in excited to write down more books, and it's always fun to call the prize winners!

The Summer Sunshine Rays of Reading program is open to all students entering grades K-12 in the fall of 2008. For each book read between June 15th and August 23rd, 2008, a sun-shaped card with the name of the child and the name of the book will be added to our store window. Each sun with equal one entry for our prizes. Come in often to report books and earn chances to win weekly prizes. Weekly prizes will be drawn each Saturday, June 21st through August 16th, and the winner of the grand prize, a $50 gift certificate to The Alphabet Garden, will be selected on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008.

Stop by soon to register!