Jump right in! Head over to the Henrietta A. Landwehr Children’s Library Center for a summer full of reading and great activities at Mead Public Library! And it’s all free!

Pick one. and come in and join!
• Reading Club for children who can read by themselves, or
• Read-to-Me Club for children age 2 and up who are not yet reading.

An exciting new event for children, parents and anyone who loves children’s literature is coming to the greater Sheboygan area this fall and Mead Public Library will be one of the program sites. The first  Sheboygan Children’s Book Festival, October 15-17, will bring exceptional children’s book authors and illustrators to the community for a celebration of books, reading, writing and art. Save the dates!

Kids in grades 4 to 6 are invited to join us for a summer book discussion series featuring books by authors who will appear at the Sheboygan Children's Book Festival in October. Those attending should have finished reading the book by the date of the discussion. The next book is "The Underneath" by Kathi Appelt, and the program will take place on Friday, July 30, at 10 a.m. Call 459-3400, ext. 3404, with questions.

Next time you're in the Henrietta A. Landwehr Children's Library Center (soon, we hope....), take a look at our ship models which are on display until the end of August. They are replicas of boats that  navigated the Great Lakes. The model Lucia Simpson is an exact replica of the Lottie Cooper, a three-masted lumber schooner whose "skeleton" is located on Broughton Drive (pictured at right). In 1975 the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in lake Superior with 26,000 tons of ore. The tug Peter Reiss is also on display along with the Wabesi, the S.S. Reiss Brothers and the M&R Fish Tug.

'Central casting' at AdLit.org and Reading Rockets is looking for young, creative writers and filmmakers to star in the Exquisite Prompt Write It, Film It Video Contest.  To enter the contest, writers and film makers in grades 2-12 choose a prompt, create a narrative, then make a video of their story. In addition to a short video (no longer than 3 minutes) kids also submit original writing related to their video project, such as interview questions, storyboards, dialogues or scripts, in order to win fabulous prizes (Flip cameras, books, DVDs and movie tickets).  The prompts for the contest are inspired by the authors and illustrators participating in the Exquisite Corpse Adventure, the rollicking online serial story sponsored by the Library of Congress and the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.

Click on Tumblebooks to hear stories, play games, listen to audiobook classics and more! Tumblebooks are e-books for e-kids. Give it a try!

The American Library Association and the Association for Library Service to Children have selected some of the very best web sites for children in a variety of categories, including animals, the arts, history, literature, mathematics, science and more. You’ll find categories for authors and illustrators, games and entertainment, for kids by kids, science experiments, museums, sports, dinosaurs and so much more.

"Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online," a booklet for parents on talking to their children about how to navigate the online world safely and responsibly, was introduced today by a public-private coalition consisting of more than a dozen federal agencies, including the FCC, the FTC, and the U.S. Department of Education. The guide covers a wide range of topics, including social networking, cyberbullying, sexting, using mobile phones safely, and protecting the family computer.