What are your summer plans this year? Are you leaving the city for an exotic destination? Or is your family having a stay-cation. Either way, I hope that you will be participating in the Library's summer reading program. Register your family members at www.summerreading.com and start reading. Have a lighthearted competition to see which family member can read the most books.

The Library has a recommended reading list, but children can read whatever they like. As always, reading should be fun. Pick a story for your family to share together even if your children can read on their own. Find time every day to read a chapter or two. A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole, for example, is a great read aloud with wonderful drawings. If you are going on a road trip, check out or download an audiobook.

Don't forget to keep track of all the books your family reads over the summer. Keep track on-line or come by to pick up a paper log. Stop by the Children's Center and take a look at what Waldo has been reading this summer. His reading log is posted on our bulletin board. Here are a few titles that he has checked out:

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Dodsworth in Paris by Tim Egan
1, 2, 3 Suddenly in Brazil by Cristina Falcon Maldonado

Waldo has been busy reading his way around the world on his bicycle. I hope that you will join him and explore the many stories that await you at the New York Public Library. Have a great summer.

Bicycle created by Maria Colon and Jenny Rosenoff

Thank you to Candlewick Press for the great Waldo poster.