The first day of school is such an exciting time for kids. By the time school starts, kids are sick of summer. All the fun stuff they’d had to look forward to-vacation, camp, lessons, etc.- is over. They’re sick of the pool. It’s too hot. There’s nothing good on TV. They’ve read all the books in the whole library and gotten their Summer Reading Club prizes. They can’t wait for the novelty of the first day of school with new classes, new teachers, new stuff to learn and new friends.

The people at the library couldn’t wait for school to start when we were kids, too. We fondly recall our own first day of school memories:

Nichole, a shelver, recalls that in fourth grade, her parents went to “meet the teacher” day prior to her first day of school. The teacher had each parent write a letter to their child, which she then collected. The letters were waiting for the students in their desks when they arrived for the new school year. While she doesn’t remember exactly what the letter contained, Nichole does remember it was so sweet, it made her cry!

Reference associate Celise remembers that, starting in junior high, she wore a white button up shirt and cool new jeans on the first day of school every year.

Mark, our circulation manager, remembers that he always enjoyed the first day of school because it meant new shoes. They had to last the whole year, but they were new and exciting that day!

Our children’s associate, Diana, was a teacher before she came to work at the library. She has more memories about the first day of school from the teacher’s side of the desk than the student side. She remembers how scary it was to think about meeting all those new kids. They know your name, but you don’t know most of theirs.

And me? I always remember that while I looked forward to the start of school, I really didn’t much appreciate the first day. The first day of school was filled with all those administrative items: filling out paperwork, getting textbooks, learning the new rules. I always found it tiresome to have to be told “No gum in class this year. Here’s where we keep the hall pass.” I like the second day of school better, when you cracked open the new texbook and starting learning something new!

Add your favorite first day of school memory in the comments, please!

Have you had a chance to stop by the Fairborn Library in the past few weeks? In addition to our children’s summer reading programs, we have also begun an adult summer reading program. Now grown-ups can join in the fun and model good reading habits for their children!

The wonderful thing about the adult summer reading program is that takes very little effort to join. You don’t even have to sign up. When you finish a book - and this could be any book, fiction, nonfiction or audiobook - you just fill out a ticket with the name of the book you read, the author, your name (phone number, too, so we can contact you if you win something) and a brief sentence about the book; then drop the ticket in the box. You will be entered into a weekly drawing for a bag full of goodies from the library. At the end of the program, all the entries (winners included!) will be combined, and there will be a drawing for a grand prize.

Tickets and the entry box are located on the front wall of the library next to the check-out desk. Along with a few good books you may want to read, there is also a contest you can enter for more chance to win prizes! The contest will change regularly, so keep checking back, you could win lots of stuff!

The wait is almost over. Number fourteen on the Stephanie Plum hit parade is set to drop June 17^th. The problem is, what do you do while you wait? We have some suggestions.

First, did you know that starting a couple of months before the publishing date of her newest book, you can go to Janet Evanovich’s web site (www.evanovich.com), where she will have posted the beginning of the book? Get a jump on all your friends!

Second, we just received a book called Perfectly Plum: Unauthorized Essays On the Life, Loves, and Other Disasters of Stephanie Plum, Trenton Bounty Hunter. It’s a book of essays, written by authors who are also Plum fans, which addresses such burning questions as, Morelli or Ranger? Could Lula possibly be considered a role model? and, something we’ve all wondered at some point or another, How does this woman get car insurance!?

I know, having read the beginning of Fearless Fourteen online, that Steph has made it through the first ten pages or so without having a single car blow up, catch on fire, or get smushed by a burning garbage truck. If you’ve read the whole series, you know that’s a situation that’s unlikely to last. Just to get you ready for the inevitable mayhem, we’ve assembled a list of the most memorable automotive crashes, smashes, and burns in the Stephanie Plum series. Your challenge is to match the crash to the book. There’s one accident per book, and we’ve included the holiday novellas. Read each description, print out the entry form, fill it out with the title of the book in which each crash appears, and drop the completed form in the contest box at the Fairborn Library. You may win your own copy of Fearless Fourteen! Contest will end on June 17th, so make sure you get your entry form to the library before then. Happy hunting!

Download the Entry Form. (It’s a .pdf)

Click the link below to read the quotes.

P.S. There is another Fearless Fourteen contest at the library. When you bring in your form, make sure to check it out. You could win a Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpet like Stephanie always eats!

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How can you not be excited about a new Indiana Jones movie? How many archaeologists, do you suppose, entered the field because Indy made it look so…cool. Yes, a professional archaeologist will tell you that most of what they do involves painstakingly digging holes to retrieve broken pots and other stuff that ancient people threw out; that they’re not treasure hunters but highly trained professionals trying to shed light on our common human heritage. Yeah, yeah, but how many of them wish they had a little Jones in them? Maybe have the hat in their closet?

For the next generation of Indy-inspired budding archaeologists we offer the following titles:

Gods, Graves, and Scholars: the Story of Archaeology by C.W. Ceram is a classic history of the field. He covers all the great early digs: Pompeii, Troy, Mycenae, Crete, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Sumer, and Central America.

Stones, Bones, and Ancient Cities: Great Discoveries in Archaeology and the Search For Human Origins by Lawrence H. Robbins covers some of the same ground, but adds finds from paleontology, as well as underwater archaeology, and early astronomy.

Eyewitness To Discovery: First-Person Accounts Of More Than Fifty Of the World’s Greatest Archaeological Discoveries, edited by Brian M. Fagan gathers together 55 vivid accounts of great discoveries by the people who found them.

Vanished Civilizations: The Hidden Secrets Of Lost Cities and Forgotten Peoples and Lost Cities: 50 Discoveries In World Archaeology both offer glimpses into cultures and civilizations from every continent, and from Stone Age Turkey to Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

One thing about ruins is that they tend to all look alike. What’s cool about Virtual Archaeology: Re-creating Ancient Worlds is that it gives computer reconstructions of ancient sites, using archaeologists’ best guesses about how places like the Temple of Karnak, the Acropolis, Teotihuacan, or Pompeii once looked.

The new Indiana Jones movie is set in a lost city in the Amazon jungle; the closest thing in real life is probably the long-gone civilization of the Maya, in Central America. To learn more about them, A Forest Of Kings: The Untold Story Of The Ancient Maya by Linda Schele and David Freidel, is a good place to start.

And yes, there are such things as crystal skulls scattered in museums around the world, and yes, we actually have a book about at least one of them. It’s called The Crystal Skull: The Story Of the Mystery, Myth, and Magic Of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull Discovered In a Lost Mayan City During a Search For Atlantis by Richard Garvin. Truth can be stranger than fiction.

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

–Henry James

It’s unfortunate that afternoon tea never really caught on in America; it’s so much more civilized—and probably healthier—than grabbing a soft drink and a candy bar from a vending machine, and, since tea and scones are hard to eat on the run, it allows you time for a proper break from your daily routine.

The Fairborn Library is hosting a High Tea on Monday, May 19^th, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. (which is quite late for tea, but we wanted to allow as many people as possible to come). Members of the various Library book clubs will be present to answer questions and sign up new members. Please call to register at 878-9383, ext.4312.

In case you are not able to come, but are inspired to add a little tea time to your life, here are some books on the subject:

Loving Tea: A Tea Lover’s Guide to Types of Tea, Brewing & Preparation, Herbal Teas & Health, Ceremonies & Parties, by Jane Resnick
The Book of Tea & Coffee, by Sarah Jane Evans and Giles Hilton

If you want to know more about tea as ceremony, you might want to read:

The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea: The Art & Pleasures of Taking Tea, by Helen Simpson

The Afternoon Tea Book, by Michael Smith. Rock Cakes with rose petal jam, anyone?

If rock cakes aren’t your cup of tea (sorry, couldn’t resist), we have lots of books with recipes for biscuits, muffins, quick breads, etc.Two you might consider are:
Scones, Muffins & Teacakes: Breakfast Breads and Teatime Spread

Totally Teabreads: Quick and Easy Recipes for More Than 60 Delicious Quick Breads and Spreads, by Barbara Albright and Leslie Weiner

There are those who love tea so much that they enjoy collecting teapots. If you are among that number, you might take a look at
Collectible Teapots: A Reference & Price Guide, by Tina M. Carter

Many of us had our first tea party as little girls. If you know a little person who would love to have a tea party, perhaps inviting some friends, perhaps only a few stuffed animals, here are some books:

Teatime with Emma Buttersnap, by Lindsey Tate

Winnie the Pooh’s Teatime Cookbook, inspired by A.A. Milne

Let’s Have a Tea Party: Special Celebrations for Little Girls, by Emilie Barnes