off summer reading

By Kirsten Stanley/The Ironton Tribune

PROCTORVILLE — The Madcap Puppets are in Lawrence County for their annual invasion celebrating the end of the summer reading program at Briggs Lawrence County Public Library.

The puppets have been presenting “Monkey See, Monkey Do,” at all of the library branches this week, delighting kids with their wild and crazy antics.

Brenda Heffner, children’s librarian assistant, said the Cincinnati puppet troupe comes each year as a special treat for the youngsters who have made time for reading this summer.

“This rewards all the hard work they have done,” she said.

This summer, more than 800 youngsters signed up for the program entitled “Paws, Claws, Scales and Tails.” The amazing turnout continues to leave library staff in awe.

“It’s always great and it keeps getting better,” said Susan Spears, who also serves as children’s librarian assistant. “We love to keep the keeps reading throughout the summer. Many times, we introduce them to new books, stories they would not have read on their own.”

The summer reading program rewards kids with prizes for the books they have read, or, in the case of younger participants, books that have been read to them.

During the six-week reading program, Brenda Adkins has been traveling from Guyandotte, W.Va., to the Proctorville branch with her son, Griffith. Why? The answer is simple, she said.

“We just enjoy the programs over here,” Adkins said. “I love the Ohio libraries because they seem to get the kids more active.”

Friends and Fairland Middle School students Courtney Powers and Ashley Blofeld said summer reading has been fun and a good past time, in addition to the traditional activities of swimming and playing outside. The two share a love of scary books and have each read about five or six over the past few weeks, they said.

“We just came in here and we saw the sign for it (summer reading program) and we thought it would be fun,” Blofeld said.