Summer Reading Program

The kids get wild when they watch the show,

High energy

Mass participation

Whether it be music, juggling, balloon sculpting or exotic animals.

They laugh, shriek in mock terror, snicker, and dance.

Then after the show they spill out into the small town library,

Checking in their reading logs at the SRP table,

Vying for time on the computers, or roaming the beige metal shelves grabbing books.

The colors that usually dance solitarily on the covers now join the flash mob of the bright colored children’s clothes.

Excited chatter fills the small room and echoes up to the fluorescent lights high above

As they bump into each other, showing their finds and seeking parental approval of each found treasure.

Slowly at first, a few trickle out through the security scanners to the parking lot,

Anxious to leave the chaos and noise to a quiet house.

But within a few minutes – maybe 10 –

The torrential flood subsides as the families go about the rest of their day,

And the library reverts back to its previous quiet.