In which we make a lot of noise at the library

This summer, Sapphire and Ezio participated in a reading program at the Manhattan Public Library. And, when we arrived in Paris and bought our membership in the American Library in Paris (ALP), they participated in the one there as well. For the last 7 weeks or so of the summer, the wrote down every book they read in a little blue booklet, and took it in to the library where they received kudos and stickers for their reading.

On Saturday, the ALP held their annual open house, with tours and other such things, and the kids celebrated the end of the summer and a successful summer reading program with a party. They started out by filling out leaves with their names, ages, a really great book they had read that summer, and a one or two word description of it. Then they turned it in to the children's librarian, who gave them a reading certificate, a bookmark to decorate, and let them pick a new book to keep. After all of the leaves had been handed in and all the bookmarks had been decorated, she cleaned up the markers and everyone sat down and faced front.

The librarian then introduced the afternoon's entertainment, a singer who lead the kids through an hour of silly songs, some at extremely high volume. The kids thought it was a riot. Even Cherry wanted to contribute when he asked for animals to put in the songs, until of course he called on her at which point she clammed up. After he was done, we picked some books (since most of the picture books had been moved out for the party, that was all Christmas books in Cherry's case) and headed home on the train.