The Greenwood-Leflore Public Library System is gearing up for a summer of “Tails and Tales.”
The library will kick off its monthlong summer program at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the main branch with an event featuring children’s author Elnora Hubbard of Cleveland.
“She will be reading from her children’s books,” said Blinn Sheffield, youth specialist at the Greenwood-Leflore Public Library.
Sheffield said “Tails and Tales” is a national Collaborative Summer Library Program theme.
“Most libraries around the country are going to be doing that theme this year,” he said. He added that the programming, however, is all local.
“Tails and Tales” features a variety of activities for children from preschool age through sixth grade.
One of the program’s biggest events will be held at 2 p.m. Friday when the library will present Freedom Ranch, a nonprofit organization that holds a variety of events featuring live animals.
“Freedom Ranch is an organization in Hattiesburg where they’ll take animals around to schools, libraries, churches and just different places to let the kids meet live animals,” said Sheffield.
The event will be held outside, and Freedom Ranch will be bringing a hawk, an owl and a vulture for the children to meet.
The library will also hold other events featuring live animals.
The Leflore County Sheriff Department’s K-9 Unit will bring one of its K-9 officers for an event at 2 p.m. June 8.
That following week — at 2 p.m. June 15 — the Leflore County Humane Society will bring some of the dogs that are available to be adopted.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the live animals,” said Sheffield. “That will be the big draw for this summer.”
Other events featuring special guests include a visit from the Greenwood Fire Department at 2 p.m. June 17 and the Leflore County MSU Extension Office at 2 p.m. June 29 when 4-H agent Christina Meriwether will present a program on farm animals.
On Thursday, the library will hold a Rail Spike Hike, where participants can meet at the pavilion on the corner of Main and Johnson streets.
“We encourage families to come out to the Rail Spike Park pavilion and bring a book to read,” said Sheffield. “We’ll read for a little while and then take a walk down the path.”
The library will also hold a storytime in Clerico Park from 2 to 3 p.m. June 22.
Events will also be held at the Jodie Wilson Library branch throughout June.
Each Wednesday from 2 to 2:30 p.m. a program will be held, including “Adopt a Stuffed Animal,” “Make a Sock Animal,” “Animal Bingo” and “Pete the Cat Storytime.” A movie will be shown from 2 to 3:30 p.m. June 30.
Throughout June and July, the library will also hold two summer reading incentive programs — Summer Reading Bingo and Read and Bead.
For the younger kids, Summer Reading Bingo features a bingo card with different summer and reading activities to complete.
When every square is complete, children can turn in their cards at the library to receive a goodie bag with toys, restaurant coupons and entry in the grand prize drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. All bingo cards must be turned in by July 30. The bingo cards are available at the library.
Read and Bead will be held for tweens ages 10-12. Those participating can pick up a Brag Tag and keychain or necklace at the library’s front desk starting Tuesday. They will fill in a circle on their reading logs for every 15 minutes spent reading to earn beads to add to their keychains or necklaces.
The Read and Bead Store will be open every Monday in June and July from 2 to 4 p.m. Participants will receive solid color beads for 15 minutes of reading, glitter beads for 30, metallic beads for an hour, glow-in-the-dark beads for two hours and shaped beads for four hours. A movie will also be shown during the store hours.
Incentive programs such as these promote reading during the summer months when children are out of school.
“Studies show that when school’s out kids need to continue reading to keep up with their reading level,” said Sheffield. “If they don’t read during the summer, they are going to regress. ... It’s really important for them to be reading books as much as possible.”
Last year, the library had a virtual program with storytimes held on Facebook Live and a few programs held on Zoom.
“This will be our first full-fledged summer program in a couple of years,” said Sheffield.
He said he’s looking forward to this summer’s in-person programming.
“It’ll be great to have the kids back,” he said.
The library had been closed to the public because of the pandemic for most of the past year, except for a couple of months last summer before closing again in August and switching to curbside service. It reopened to the public in April, and patrons have slowly been trickling in.
Naomi Jones, director of the Greenwood-Leflore Public Library System, said she is also looking forward to a successful summer library program and getting more people visiting the library again.
“We want everyone to come see us,” she said.
Sheffield added, “We’ve got a lot of new books over the past year, and we really hope that kids and parents will come check them out now that everything is kind of getting back to normal.”
There’s no registration or charge to participate in any of the library’s events. A calendar of events is available at the library.
For more information about the summer library program, visit the Greenwood-Leflore Public Library System’s Children’s Department on Facebook, facebook.com/glplskids.
- Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7235 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
