Each year Cleveland Public Library helps bridge an important gap in children’s learning and reading levels by giving thousands of children an opportunity to participate in Summer Reading Club. This year, “Make it a Great Summer” Summer Reading Club will run from June 10 to August 2, 2013.

“This is the most important program we do all year,” said Felton Thomas, Director of CPL. “We want to keep children engaged in fun and creative ways to read during the summer, so when they get back to school, they have not fallen behind.”

“Make it a Great Summer” encourages children to imagine, build, and create through hands-on programs at their local branch. Each branch will offer unique programming, including:

·         Make Things Move: Put on your hard hat and get your inner engineer in gear! Kids will have the opportunity to build their own balloon rocket and a balloon-powered rocket car.

·         Make Machines: Imagination and creativity are at the heart of this program. Kids will create machines that will launch or throw a pom-pom as far as possible.

·         Make Movies: Kids learn all about movie-making while creating hand-held movies using flipbook animation. 

Summer Reading Club kicks off with two neighborhood celebrations. For the second straight year, NASA Glenn Research Center will join the festivities and bring larger-than-life costumed character, Eva the Inflatable Astronaut, to the party. Fans attending the kick-off celebrations can take home a free digital photograph from the "Picture Yourself in Space" photo booth. For kids, there will be quick and crafty take-home activities, such as edible comets, design your own Hubble telescope, and build straw rockets.

·         The First celebration is Friday, May 31^st at 6:00 p.m. a Walz Branch, 7910 Detroit Ave.

·         The second celebration is Saturday, June 1^st at 6:00 p.m. at Garden Valley Branch, 7201 Kinsman Road, Suite 101.  

These FREE events include games, activities, prizes, and are open to the community.

Children that successfully read and log ten books or more by August 2^nd will earn 4 FREE tickets to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for Cleveland Public Library Day on Saturday, August 17^th.

To register for Summer Reading Club, visit http://readingclub.cpl.org. For more information, call 216-623-2921.

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Revised: 06/04/13 20:09:40 -0700.