Kick off Summer with Books, Bagpipes and Sword Dancers

What’s better than a good book on a hot summer day? Earning prizes and a party for all those adventures between the pages.

And what’s better than a Saturday with nothing to do? A Saturday filled with sword demonstrations, bag pipers and tarot card readings.

The Land O’ Lakes Branch Library’s Summer reading Club will kick off this weekend with a free medieval fair behind the library from noon to 4 p.m. on June 9.

 The Society for Creative Anachronism will do sword and armor demos, blacksmithing, cooking, sewing, and more, teen services manager Paul Stonebridge said.

“Plus, we will have Highland sword dancers, bagpipers, a tarot reader, a couple of games for the kiddies run by the teens, and snack sales for the Friends of the Library,” Stonebridge said.

There are three summer reading club programs based on age, and attendees can sign up on the spot during Saturday’s event, Stonebridge said.  

Read to Me is for ages 0-5, Dream Big! is for ages 5-10, and Own the Night is for ages 11-18.  

For Read to Me, parents commit to read 20 or more books to their kids by July 28.  For the other programs, registrants agree to read six or more books by the July 28.

“Land O’Lakes has a tween-specific fourth program called Light the Night for ages 9 to 12, though tweens still register for one of the main programs online based on their age,” Stonebridge said.  

To participate, readers sign up for a free account on the Pasco County Library System website, then log into that account between June 9 and July 28 to submit a two or three sentence commentary on each book they read.  

Children ages 5 to 10 get a prize for each of the first six books they read, plus they are invited to a party in August.  

Teens get a prize for each of the first six books—soda, candy bars, bubble wrap!— and a bonus prize when they hit their goal,  plus an invite to a pizza party in August or a lock-in for the first 40 teens.  They also are entered in a drawing to win an iPad 3, Stonebridge said.

Teens get an extra iPad drawing entry every time they read six additional books.

The Land O’ Lakes library also will host a free weekly program for each age group, Stonebridge said. The schedule for those programs is available at pascolibraries.org, as well as the library’s Facebook page.