Podcasts about summer reading program

Emily Lloyd of the Northfield Public Library talks about the kickoff for the 2025 summer reading program.

 Emily Lloyd of the Northfield Public Library talks about the kickoff for the 2025 summer reading program. 

Knoxville Public Library Children’s Librarian Holly Shelford previews the 2025 summer reading program.

This episode is bursting with creativity! In honor of this year's Summer Reading Program theme, Color Our World, we team up with our artsy neighbors at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts. Discover how this hidden gem next to the Barbara Bush Library brings color, culture, and kid-friendly exhibits to our community.Join Rebecca Burns and Samantha Aguilar from the Pearl as we dive into the vibrant world of color—its culture, its politics, and yes, its drama.PLUS: Hear shoutouts from your favorite authors recorded at the Texas Library Association Conference by our own Gabbing Librarian, Jennifer Finch. From Martha Wells to Saadia Faruqi and Bob Shea, it's a celebration of stories, art, and summer fun!

The Wilson County Public Libraries invite everyone to participate in the 2025 Summer Reading Program with “Stories to Listen To.” Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of this special digital storytime with the library staff are available now at wilsoncountylibrary.org. The final episode will be available on Tuesday, May 27.Article Link

The Summer Reading Program begins June 1! Kick it off with some new, adult fiction to help get in those minutes!

The Wilson County Public Libraries invite everyone to participate in the 2025 Summer Reading Program with “Stories to Listen To.” Episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this special digital storytime with the library staff are available now. Episode 5 will be available on Tuesday, May 20, and Episode 6 premieres May 27. All episodes can be found at wilsoncountylibrary.org.Article Link

This week on The Book Drop, we dive into the fun of the Summer Reading Program and share tips for enjoying all the events, activities, and books the library has to offer. This is The Book Drop.All the books and resources we talk about in this episode can be found here or by visiting omahalibrary.org/podcast. Happening at the Library: World Collage Day | Saturday, May 10, 1 to 4 p.m. at Genealogy & Local History RoomCalm & Centered: Practices for Stress Relief and Resilience | Wednesday, May 14, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Florence BranchTalk and Tote – Debut Authors | Thursday, May 15, 6 to 7 p.m. at Milton R. Abrahams BranchExplore all upcoming events at omahalibrary.org/events.

The Wilson County Public Libraries invite everyone to participate in the 2025 Summer Reading Program with “Stories to Listen To.” Season One, Episode One of this special story time with the library staff will begin Tuesday, April 22, and continue until Tuesday, April 29. Episode 2 will be available April 29 through May 6. The audio files will be posted at wilsoncountylibrary.org.Article Link

April/May 2025 | Hosts Holly Browning and Dylan Posa talk to Madi Staggs about the Summer Reading Program, and recommend: 'Dead Money' by Jakob Kerr 'Bomb' by Steve Sheinkin 'Witchcraft For Wayward Girls' by Grady Hendrix and 'Once Upon a Wardrobe' by Patti Callahan Henry

Welcome to Tales from the Waystone, Season 2 Episode 77; This is our last bit of content for The Kingkiller Chronicle for the foreseeable future. An indefinite pause to the era, I guess you might say. Please join us now for a breakdown of the Prologue to Doors of Stone, which was released by Patrick Rothfuss a number of years ago and gives us hope for a resolution to this story. Next time we start in on our Summer Reading Program with the first 1/7th of Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree For Apple Podcast listeners, please consider rating the show and leaving us a review! It'll help us be seen by more people! We have a Patreon, and right now we're running a free trial of our favorite tier! Patreon.com/waystonepod! Also!!! Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/ebDBWfrU9V

Youth Services Librarian Katie Dreyer recaps the 2024 Summer Reading Program at the Pella Public Library.

Hooray! Construction of the new road to the new library has begun!! Tune into this episode to catch up on all the good news from Mont Vernon and what's been happening at the library this summer.  JoAnn is wrapping up the adventurous Summer Reading Program and Amy has great book recommendations to get you to the end of summer! Happy August!! Amy's Book Recomendations Books I Read Recently That I Enjoyed First two books in Attica Locke's Highway 59 Series: Bluebird, Bluebird Heaven, My Home 3rd Book Guide Me Home comes out September 3rd I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley Sandwich by Katherine Newmann The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett - 1st book in his new series, Shadow of the Leviathan - 2nd book will be out next April, A Drop of Corruption. The Hunter by Tana French- 2nd book in series, 1st book is The Searcher Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino New Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd June 11 The Memo by Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling June 18 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore July 2 The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman July 16 The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer July 16 - she wrote The Wishing Game Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness July 16 Queen B by Juno Dawson - July 23rd 3rd book in the Her Majesty's Royal Coven series- other books are: Her Majesty's Royal Coven & The Shadow Cabinet Upcoming Books I'd Like to Read Worst Case by T.J. Newman -also wrote Falling and Drowning August 13 We'll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida September 3rd  

Howdy, today's a little different. We're chatting about what our plans are for the future of the podcast (since we're about 6-8 episodes away from the end of The Wise Man's Fear) Please join us over at Patreon.com/waystonepod or our Discord https://discord.gg/ebDBWfrU9V to help us decide on our next adventure!

The crew of the Great Big Podcast sat down with Rachel Bethel, Casey Memorial Library public services librarian, to discuss how the library provides much more than books and promotes reading for all ages. In addition to an impressive selection of works from numerous authors, visitors can also enjoy video games and free streaming services with access to movies, music and more. Learn all about the Summer Reading Program, how it promotes reading and literacy and how to get registered.SUBMIT: FortCavazosPAO@gmail.comFACEBOOK: fortcavazosarmy   INSTAGRAM: @fortcavazosarmyTWITTER: @fortcavazosarmy   All music obtained, royalty-free, through Filter by Songtradr: "Gun Metal Grey" - Delicious Allstars; "Learning By Doing" - Niklas Olovso.This podcast is a production of U.S. Army Garrison Fort Cavazos and Fort Cavazos Public Affairs.

In this episode librarians Andy and Sam discuss the dreaded "book hangover" as well as some of their recent reads. In this episode we talked about: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska by Warren Zanes Horror Movie by Paul G. Tremblay We also mentioned: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Stand by Stephen King A Court of Thorns and Roses Book series by Sarah J. Maas Red Rising by Pierce Brown Eragon by Christopher Paolini My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes Badlands (1973 movie) Starkweather: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree that Changed America by Harry N. MacLean The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay

In this episode, Marie and Katherine discuss going "fine free" for overdue library materials. They also chat about the Summer Reading Program for participants of all ages.

Summer is in full swing at the library and this month's podcast is aimed at supporting YOUR adventures! We'll chat with a friend who's out living their life on the road and RVing across the U.S.A., then we'll chat about the variety of sports that Texans just don't understand!Find more information about our Summer Reading Program at https://hcpl.net/summer-reading-program/ and find books about sports and Rving in our catalog, at www.hcpl.net/Created by the Podcast Team at the Harris County Public Library.www.hcpl.netPodcast Team Members include: Beth Krippel, John Harbaugh, Mary Mink, Dylan Smith, Sadina Shawver, Gisella Parker, Kara Ludwig, Delaney Daly, Jennifer Finch, Katelyn Helberg, Logan Tuttle, Darcy Casavant, Darla Pruitt and Nancy Hu Original Music created by Bryan Kratish

We are excited about this year's Summer Reading Program! Find out more about what's going on at the Independence Public Library this summer!

Summer is here, and La Plata County is asking residents to notify 911 dispatchers via a new form when planning a controlled burn. Make sure that you've signed up for CodeRED notifications, and if you have signed up, make sure your information is up to date if you've recently moved or changed your number. After a mountain lion spotting in early May, the Southern Ute Wildlife Division has tips and tricks for keeping safe and reducing the chance of encountering these elusive but dangerous animals. And the Ignacio Community Library's Summer Reading Program is off to a strong start, and it's not too late to sign up! By Hannah Robertson. Watch this story at www.durangolocal.news/newsstories/summer-safety-notices  This story is sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts and Serious Texas BBQ. Support the Show.

Civil rights icon & L.A. legend John Lawson Jr. has died. California's got a big wage theft problem, but the state is using money it has for the issue to address the deficit instead. The LA Public Library's annual reading program kicks off today. Plus, more. Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.com.   Support the show: https://laist.com

The end of the 2023-24 school year has arrived, which means it's time for learning a few final lessons, field days, yearbook signing, and looking forward to summer vacation. There will be limited after-school child care and activities all week - note that Boys & Girls Club has closed for the year; please check with your child's school for specifics on site-based programs - and the last day for students is Thursday, June 13th. This will be an early release day, meaning students will get out of school three hours earlier than normal. Lunch will still be available at all sites prior to release.  There are a variety of camps and activities available for students this summer, including the City of Hillsboro's Outpost free lunch and activity program at Shute Park and Shadywood Park. The Outpost runs Mondays through Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., June 24 through August 15. Children ages 1 through 18 can receive a free meal and enjoy giant bubbles, water Wednesdays, field games, arts & crafts, and more! Please note: there will be no lunch or activities on Thursday, July 4th. Free meals will also be available at Walnut Street Park, McKinney Park, Reedville Elementary School and Lincoln Street Elementary School from June 24th through August 15th, Mondays through Thursdays, with no service on Thursday, July 4th.  Want to keep up or enhance those reading skills? Then take advantage of the Hillsboro Public Library's free Summer Reading Program! Learn more and sign up at the library or at a Library on the Loose event.  For other summertime activities, please consult the City of Hillsboro's activities guide, and HSD's Calendar, Approved Flyers, and Student Opportunities webpages.  We hope everyone has a fun, relaxing, and healthy summer! We look forward to reconnecting with you in the fall.  Our featured event is high school graduations, which took place last week and were amazing! Please visit the Graduation page of our website to see photos and videos of the ceremonies, and please join us in wishing the Class of 2024 all the best in their future endeavors! Photos and videos will be posted as they are processed, and should all be up by Friday, June 14th. We are so proud of you! You are a prime reason why we are Proud to be HSD! This is our final issue of Hot News for the 2023-24 school year! We will be back with our first issue of the 2024-25 school year on Monday, August 26th. Rest assured that we will be working over the summer and keeping you posted on all the great things happening in HSD via our website and social media sites. Hot News is produced and emailed to HSD families and staff each week school is in session. Please add the address to your “safe sender” list to make sure you always receive the latest issue. Please also bookmark our district website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hsd.k12.or.us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to stay informed about what's happening in our district and schools.

In which Hannah and Caroline make their summer TBR your summer TBR, celebrate national donut day, and reveal the things that keep them up at night (endless TBRs, that me espresso, etc).Show Notes:- This episode is basically us reflecting and expanding on the recent Fated Mates Summer TBR episode! Plus, we've already read 10+ books off of their TBR*, so you'll get our thoughts on those as well.- Fated Mates S06.39: Summer 2024 Reads episode: https://fatedmates.net/episodes- The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love excerpt: https://reactormag.com/excerpts-the-ornithologists-field-guide-to-love-by-india-holton/Reminders:- Fill out this Google Form to receive Romance Your TBR + romance themed friendship bracelets from us! https://forms.gle/N9ZZFfzAm5nCfTnV9- Subscribe to Romance Your TBR on Substack to get monthly updates from your local spinsters, access to show notes and bingo cards, and exclusive newsletter giveaways!Intro: (00:00)- Fated Mates Summer TBR Followup - (8:25)- The Romance Your TBR Summer Reading Program - (23:26)Historical Romance TBR:- *You Should Be So Lucky, Cat Sebastian (May 7, 2024)- *The Prince's Bride, Charis Michaels (May 21, 2024)- The Scot Who Made June Hot, Fenna Edgewood (June 1, 2024)- A Bluestocking's Guide to Decadence, Jess Everlee (June 4, 2024)- *Isabel and the Rogue, Liana De la Rosa (June 4, 2024)- The Lady's Mistake, Cara Devlin (June 15, 2024)- A Shore Thing, Joanna Lowell (June 18, 2024)- *Lady Scandal, Laura Lee Guhrke (June 18, 2024)- *The Mistress Experience, Scarlett Peckham (June 25, 2024)- A Scandal in July, Kate Bateman (July 1, 2024)- The Ornithologists Field Guide to Love, India Holton (July 23, 2024)- *Viscount in Love, Eloisa James (July 23, 2024)- Untamed, Lisa Rayne (July 30, 2024)- Hot Earl Summer, Erica Ridley (August 6, 2024)- An Heiress for August, Kathleen Ayers (August 1, 2024)- You're the Problem, It's You, Emma R. Alban (August 15, 2024)- Good Duke Gone Wild, Bethany Bennett (August 20, 2024)- Confounding Oaths, Alexis Hall (August 27, 2024)Contemporary Romance TBR:- This Summer Will Be Different, Carly Fortune (May 7, 2024)- Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie, Jackie Lau (May 7, 2024)- *A Love Like the Sun, Riss M. Neilson (June 11, 2024)- Not in Love, Ali Hazelwood (June 11, 2024)- *The Love of My Afterlife, Kirsty Greenwood (July 2, 2024)- The Ex Vows, Jessica Joyce (July 16, 2024)- Not Another Love Song, Julie Soto (July 16, 2024)- Business Casual, B.K. Borison (July 16, 2024)- Cross the Line, Simone Soltani (July 23, 2024)- Jewel Me Twice, Charish Reid (July 23, 2024)- The Truth According to Ember, Danica Nava (August 6, 2024)- Haunted Ever After, Jen DeLuca (August 13, 2024)- *Love and Other Conspiracies, Mallory Marlowe (August 20, 2024)- Marriage & Masti, Nisha Sharma (August 27, 2024)Outro: (1:40:18)Socials:- Follow the podcast @romanceyourtbr on Instagram & Twitter & Youtube & Goodreads(Disclaimer: Caroline works for Forever Publishing; all opinions are our own and not affiliated with any other party. Image by Freepik.)

June is upon us and it's time to sign up for the  Summer Reading Program! Tune in to hear our plans for a BIG ADVENTURE at the library for children and adults.  June also means graduations and we are so proud to have the SHS 2024 Valedictorian Jackson Hipp, and Salutatorian Owen Stine as our special guest interviews. Both boys are from Mont Vernon and are wicked smart! Listen in to hear their plans for the future.  Have a great summer everyone! Keep reading!!

In this episode librarians Briony, Sam, and Sarah talk about their recent reads and what they're excited to read about this summer. In this episode we talked about: Shut Up, This Is Serious by Carolina Ixta The Duke and I by Julia Quinn The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn Maybe Next Time by Cesca Major Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld We also mentioned: Throne of Glass Novel series by Sarah J. Maas A Court of Thorns and Roses Book series by Sarah J. Maas Bridgerton Novel series by Julia Quinn Chicano Frankenstein by Daniel Olivas The Women by Kristin Hannnah Food to Die For: Recipes and Stories from America's Most Legendary Haunted Places by Amy Bruni Icebreaker by Hannah Grace Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan Crazy Rich Asiansl by Kevin Kwan The One and Only Family by Katherine Applegate The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate The One and Only Ruby by Katherine Applegate And Then, Boom! by Lisa Fipps Starfish by Lisa Fipps

Knoxville Public Library Children’s Librarian Holly Shelford discusses the summer reading program.

Parents and kids, take part in the Kewanee Library Summer Reading Program. Download the Beanstack App, in the App Store or on Google Play, on your Smartphone and you can track your Summer Reading along with your kids. Parents and kids are encouraged to participate together as a family for this year's Summer Reading Program. Meanwhile, the Kewanee Public Library has some events coming up including, on Tuesday, May 28th, an Ice Cream Social and meet and greet with the new Kewanee Public Library Director, Cynthia Maxwell. The event is a chance to get to know the new library director while you enjoy a sweet treat from 4 Pm to 6 Pm at the Kewanee Public LIbrary. 

Knowing how to make reading fun for our kids can be exasperating! As a kid, I spent hours every day reading in the summer. I'd come home from the library with stacks of books. I was so jazzed when I got my "personal pan pizza" from Pizza Hut after I completed the Summer Reading Program. Do you remember those days? My kids are not quite as easily motivated. With summer coming up, I want to find ways to get them into books, but it will take more than the promise of a pizza to get them to dive in. They like to read but don't love it like I did as a kid. That's why I'm truly grateful for this interview with reading expert Janssen Bradshaw. She gives strategies for how to make reading FUN this summer. Fun is something my kids can get on board with! I'm excited to share Janssen's wisdom with you! For full show notes, including the three takeaways, click here. *** Announcement: Visit 3in30podcast.com/savvy and use code 3in30 for $25 off the life of your subscription! Related Episodes:  145: How to Make Reading with Your Kids More Fun & Less Stressful// Janssen Bradshaw 281: Your Brain is not Mush: How to Continue Learning as a Busy Mom // Alli Roper 234: How to Stay Sane with Kids Home This Summer // Jamie Cook Episode sponsors: Vionic Shoes: Go to vionicshoes.com and use code 3IN30 for 15% off your order. BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to betterhelp.com/3in30 to get 10% off your first month of online therapy! Lume: New customers GET $5 OFF a Lume Starter Pack. That equates to over 40% off your Starter Pack when you visit LumeDeodorant.com and use code 3in30 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Week of 5/19/24 at the Library - Summer Reading Program | Hosts Dylan Posa and Barb Leitschuh go over upcoming events, talk about the Summer Reading Program, and for "Barb The Bookie" recommend 'Tap Code' by Col. Carlyle "Smitty" Harris (Ret.).

Youth Services Librarian Katie Dreyer previews the annual summer reading program at the Pella Public Library.

The Kewanee Public Library is eager to get kids and parents involved in Summer Reading. The Summer Reading Program is getting underway soon at the Kewanee Public Library and kids and parents can take part and earn prizes for their Summer Reading. Sara Billiet from the Kewanee Public Library joined Wake Up Tri-Counties on Thursday to invite kids and parents to download the BeanStack App on their Smartphone and to start tracking your reading for the Summer Reading Program. Sara also talked about the upcoming meeting of the Science Book Club and an upcoming welcome open house for the new Kewanee Public Library Director happening on September 29th at the Library. 

Week of 4/14/24 at the Library - May 2024 | Hosts Dylan Posa and Barb Leitschuh go over upcoming events, talk about our big May month, and for "Barb The Bookie" recommend 'Eleanor & Park' by Rainbow Rowell.

This episode we will look at the influences on Japan from the continent, starting with what was going on between the archipelago and the peninsula with tribute--in the form of birds and even books--as well as conflict.  We'll start to look at what sorts of knowledge was being passed over to Japan in the form of various books, and hopefully set the stage for changes that we will eventually see in the form of the Yamato government, itself. For more, check out our blog post at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-94 Rough Transcript   Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 94: Magpies, Buddhism, and the Baekje Summer Reading Program This is one of a multi-part series discussing the late 6th and early 7th centuries during the reign of Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennou.  Last episode, Episode 93, I did a very quick overview of just what is going on and some of the players involved.  This episode I want to start deep diving into some of the topics, and we're going to start with looking at the relationship between Yamato and the Continent, primarily, but not exclusively, through their relationships, the gifts and tribute that was going back and forth, and immigration—primarily from Baekje and Silla—and the importation of new ideas, not just Buddhism.  This in turn would would eventually lead to a formal change in the way that the Yamato state governed itself and how it came to see itself even as an equal to that of the Sui court, which had unified the various kingdoms of the Yangtze and Yellow River Basins in the area of modern China. To begin, we'll go back a bit, because this dynamic isn't simply about Kashikiya Hime, Soga no Umako, or any one, single figure—though that is often how it is portrayed.  To start with, let's cover some background and what we know about the archipelago and the continent. As we went over many, many episodes back, the early Yayoi period, prior to the Kofun period, saw a growth in material cultural items that were from or quite similar to those on the Korean peninsula.  There had been some similarities previously, during the Jomon period, but over the course of what now looks to be 1200 to 1300 years, the is evidence of people going regularly back and forth across the straits.  It is quite likely that there were Wa cultural entities on both sides in the early centuries BCE, and there are numerous groups mentioned on the Korean peninsula, presumably from different ethno-linguistic backgrounds, though typically only three areas get much focus: The Samhan, or three Han, of Mahan, Byeonhan, and Jinhan. Later this would shift to three Kingdoms:  Baekje, Silla, and Goguryeo, and they would  get almost all of the press.  Still, we know that there were groups like the Gaya, or Kara, confederacy, and likely other small, eventually isolated groups that did not have their stories written down anywhere, other than mentions in the Chronicles of Japan or of one of the other three major Kingdoms of the peninsula. These groups continued to trade with the continent, and as the archipelago entered the period of mounded tombs, they were doing so as part of a larger mounded tomb cultural area that included both the archipelago and the Korean peninsula: First the funkyubo, which is to say burial mounds, with multiple burials, and then the kofun, the singular tomb mounds for an individual and possibly their direct relatives.  This tradition reached its apex with the distinct zenpo-koen, or round-keyhole style, kofun, an innovation that was rooted in continental practice but at the same time distinctly a part of the archipelago. Many artifacts came over throughout this period, and a fair number of them came with a new innovation: writing.  There is debate over the earliest forms of “writing” to be found in the islands, with evidence of characters on pottery being questioned as to its authenticity.  However, it is hard to question the writing that appeared on the early bronze mirrors and other such artifacts that showed up. Early writing on the archipelago is more decorative or even performative—crude attempts to copy existing characters that often demonstrate a lack of understanding, at least by the artisans that were making various elite goods.  Though, based on the fact that even obvious forgeries with nonsense characters made their way into tombs as grave goods, we can probably assume that most of the elites were not too concerned with writing, either, other than for its decorative, and possibly even talismanic qualities. In the fourth and fifth centuries, this began to change.  We have specialists and teachers coming over to the archipelago, often there as tutors for the royal Baekje princes who were apparently staying in Yamato as part of a diplomatic mission.  No doubt some Yamato elites began to learn to read and write, but even at this point it seems to have been more of a novelty, and for several centuries reading and writing would seem to have remained largely the purview of educated immigrant communities who came to Yamato and set up shop. Though, along with things like the horse, writing may have nonetheless assisted Yamato in extending its authority, as speech could now, with a good scribe, be committed to paper or some other medium and then conveyed great distances without worry about something begin forgotten. So, at this point, writing appears to mostly be utilitarian in purpose.  It fills a need.  That said, we have discussion of the Classics, and as reading and writing grew, exposure to writings on philosophy, religion, and other topics expanded.  After all, reading meant that you were no longer reliant on simply whom you could bring over from the continent.  Instead, you could import their thoughts—or even the thoughts of humans long dead—and read them for yourself.  In the early 6th century, we see Baekje sending over libraries worth of books.  These are largely focused on Buddhist scriptures, but they also include other works of philosophy as well.  It is unclear to me how much the evangelical nature of Buddhism contributed to this spread.  Buddhism exhorts believers to share the Buddha's teachings with all sentient beings.  Even during the Buddha's lifetime, his disciples would go out and teach and then gather back with their teacher during the rainy season. Buddhist teachings, coming over in books—the sutras—came alongside of other writings.  There were writings about philosophy, about medicine, and about science, including things that we might today consider magical or supernatural.  Those who knew how to read and write had access to new knowledge, to new ideas, and to new ways of thinking.  We can see how all of this mixed in the ways that things are described in the Chronicles.  For example, we see that many of the rulers up to this point have been described in continental terms as wise and sage kings.  Now, as Buddhism starts to gain a foothold, we see Buddhist terminology entering in to the mix.  In some ways it is a mishmash of all of the different texts that were coming over, and it seems that things were coming more and more to a head. In addition, there were things going on over on the continent as well, and this would come to also affect the archipelago.  For one thing, this was a period of unification and consolidation of the various state polities.  Baekje and Silla had been consolidating the smaller city-states under their administration for some time, and in 589 the Sui dynasty finally achieved what so many had tried since the time of the Jin—they consolidated control over both the Yangtze and Yellow River basins.  They set up their capital, and in so doing they had control of the largest empire up to that point in the history of East Asia.  The Sui dynasty covered not only these river basins, but they also had significant control over the Western Regions, out along the famous Silk Road. The Sui could really make some claim to being Zhongguo, the Middle Kingdom, with so many of the trade routes passing through their territory.  They also controlled the lands that were the source of so much of the literary tradition—whether that was the homelands of sages like Confucius, or else the gateway to India and the home of Buddhism.  It is perfectly understandable that those states in the Sui's orbit would enter a period of even further Sinification.  For the archipelago this was likely through a lens tinted by their intermediaries on the Korean peninsula, but even they were clearly looking to the Sui and adopting some of the tools of statecraft that had developed over in the lands of the Middle Kingdom. During the early years of the Sui, Yamato had been involved in their own struggles, and at the end of the previous reign Yamato had an army in Tsukushi poised to head over and chastise Silla for all that they had done to Nimna, but then Hasebe was assassinated, and it is unclear what actually happened to that expedition.  Yamato started gathering an army in 591, and Kishi no Kana and Kishi no Itahiko were sent to Silla and Nimna, respectively, as envoys, and then we are told that in 595 the generals and their men arrived from Tsukushi.  Does that mean that they went over to the peninsula, fought, and then came back from Tsukushi?  It is all a little murky, and not entirely clear to me. Rather, we are told that in 597 the King of Baekje sent Prince Acha to Yamato with so-called “tribute”—the diplomatic gifts that we've discussed before, re-affirming Baekje and Yamato's alliance.  Later that same year, Iwagane no Kishi was sent to Silla, so presumably Yamato and Silla relations had improved.  Iwagane no Kishi returned back some five months later, in 598, and he offered a gift from the Silla court of two magpies to Kashikiya Hime.  We are told that they were kept in the wood of Naniwa, where they built a nest in a tree and had their young. Aston notes here that magpies are plentiful on the continent but not in Japan.  Indeed, their natural range is noted across eastern China and up through the Amur river region, as well as a subspecies up in Kamchatka, and yet it seems like they didn't exactly stray far from the coast.  In modern Japan, the magpie, is considered to be an invasive species, and the current populations likely were brought over through trade in the late 16th century, suggesting that this initial couple of birds and their offspring did not exactly work out.  Even today magpies are mostly established in Kyushu, with occasional sightings further north—though they have been seen as far north as Hokkaido.  Perhaps Naniwa just was not quite as hospitable for them.  There is also the possibility that the term “magpie” was referencing some other, similar bird.  That is always possible and hard to say for certain.  That said, it is part of a trend, as four months later, in the autumn of 598, a Silla envoy brought another bird:  this time a peacock. Not to be outdone, apparently, a year later, in the autumn of 599, Baekje sent a veritable menagerie:  a camel, two sheep, and a white pheasant.  Presumably these were sent alive, though whether or not there was anyone in Japan who knew how to take care of them it is unclear.  I can only imagine what it must have been like to have such animals on board the ship during the treacherous crossing of the Korea strait—for all we know there were other exotic gifts that were likewise sent, but these are the only ones that made it. And if this sounds far-fetched, we have plenty of evidence of the exotic animal trade.  Animals such as ostriches, and possibly even a giraffe or two, were somehow moved all the way from Africa along the silk road to the court in Chang'an. There were also “tribute” gifts sent from parts of the archipelago, though I suspect this was quite different from the diplomatic gifts shared between states.  For example, there was a white deer sent to Kashikiya Hime from the land of Koshi in the winter of 598.  It was no camel or magpie, but white or albino animals—assuming that wasn't their normal color—were considered auspicious symbols. Also, in 595 there was a huge log that washed ashore in Awaji.  A local family hauled it up and went to use it as firewood when they noticed that it gave off a particularly sweet smell.  Immediately they put out the fire, as they suddenly realized what they had:  it was a log of aloeswood.  Aloeswood is well known as one of the most highly prized aromatic woods, and it famously does not grow in Japan.  In fact, it is a tropical wood, growing in Southeast Asia.  For a log to have washed ashore is almost unbelievable—perhaps it was part of a trade shipment that sank.  It isn't impossible that a log somehow fell, naturally, into the ocean and followed the currents all the way up to Japan, which would have been quite the journey. And so, with such a rare gift, the people offered it up to Kashikiya Hime.  This was probably the best course of action.  They could use it for themselves, but that likely wouldn't have done much other than help perfume the air for a time.  Or they could have tried to sell it—but given the rarity, I'm sure there would have been questions.  In both cases, I suspect that they would have been at risk of some elite getting wind and deciding that they should just take it for themselves.  By offering it to the court, publicly, they received the credit for it, at least—and it probably put them in favor with the court at least for a little while. Logs like this would be treated with immense respect.  Small pieces would be taken, often ground down and used sparingly.  A piece much like this called “Ranjatai” came over as a gift from the Tang dynasty in the 8th century, and was later preserved at Todaiji in the 8th century, and is still there as part of the Shosoin collection. The story of this particular one is interesting in that knowledge of aloeswood and the tradition of scent appreciation likely came over from the continent, probably from the Sui and Tang dynasties, as part of the overall cultural package that the archipelago was in the midst of absorbing. Despite the apparently good relations indicated by gifts like magpies or peacocks, it is clear there were still some contentions with Silla, especially given that nobody had forgotten their takeover of Nimna, and it didn't help that in 600, we are told that Silla and Nimna went to war with each other--again.  It isn't clear just how involved Yamato was in this, if at all—by all accounts, Nimna has already been under Silla control.  Was this a local rebellion?  An attempt by Yamato and Baekje to split it off?  Or something else?  Or is it just a fabrication to justify the next bit, where we are told that Kashikiya Hime sent an army of 10,000 soldiers under the command of Sakahibe no Omi as Taishogun and Hozumi no Omi as his assistant, the Fukushogun?  They crossed the waters over to Silla and laid siege to five of Silla's fortresses, forcing Silla to raise the white flag.  The Nihon Shoki claims that Silla then ceded six fortified places:  Tatara, Sonara, Pulchikwi, Witha, South Kara, and Ara. Since Silla submitted, the Yamato troops stopped their assault and Kashikiya Hime sent Naniwa no Kishi no Miwa to Silla and Naniwa no Kishi no Itahiko to Nimna to help broker some sort of peace.  Interestingly, this seems quite similar to the account of 591, when they sent “Kishi no Itahiko”, with no mention of Naniwa.  Presumably it is the same individual, and I have to wonder if it isn't the same event, just relocated and duplicated for some reason. A peace was brokered, and the Yamato troops departed, but it seems that Silla was dealing in something other than good faith: no sooner had the Yamato troops gotten back in their boats than Silla once again invaded Nimna, again. I'd like to stress that there is no evidence of this at all that I could find in the Samguk Sagi, and it is possible that some of this is in the wrong section, possibly to simply prop up this period, in general.  However, it is equally as likely that the Samguk Sagi simply did not record a loss to Yamato—especially one that they quickly overturned, setting things back to the status quo.  As such, the best we can say is that Silla and Yamato around this time were less than buddy buddy. With Silla going back on their word, Yamato reached out to Goguryeo and Baekje in 601.  Ohotomo no Muraji no Kurafu went to Goguryeo, while Sakamoto no Omi no Nukade traveled to Baekje.  Silla was not just waiting around, however, and we are told that Silla sent a spy to Yamato, but they were arrested and found out in Tsushima.  They arrested him and sent him as tribute to the Yamato court. We are told that the spy's name was “Kamata”, and he was banished to Kamitsukenu—aka the land of Kenu nearer to the capital, later known as Kouzuke.  And there are a few things about this story that I think we should pull on. First off, that name: Kamata.  That feels very much like a Wa name, more than one from the peninsula.  We aren't told their ethnicity, only whom they were working for, so it may have been someone from Wa, or possibly that is just the name by which they were known to the archipelago.  There likely were Wa who were living on the peninsula, just like there were people from Baekje, Silla, and Koguryeo living in the archipelago, so that's not out of the question.  Furthermore, it would make sense, if you wanted to send someone to spy on Yamato, to use someone who looked and sounded the part. The punishment is also interesting.  They didn't put him to death.  And neither did they imprison him.  In fact, I'm not sure that there would have been anywhere to imprison him, as there wasn't really a concept of a “prison” where you just lock people up.  There may have been some form of incarceration to hold people until they could be found guilty and punished, but incarceration as a punishment just doesn't really come up.  Instead, if you wanted to remove someone, banishment seems to have been the case—sending them off somewhere far away, presumably under the care of some local official who would make sure that they didn't run off.  Islands, like Sado Island, were extremely useful for such purposes, but there are plenty of examples where other locations were used as well. They probably could have levied a fine, as well, but that seems almost pointless, as he would have been free to continue to spy on Yamato.  Instead they sent him about as far away from Silla and Silla support as they could send him. This also speaks to the range of Yamato's authority.  It would seem that Tsushima was at least nominally reporting to Yamato, though given that he was sent as “tribute” to the court, that may indicate that they still had some level of autonomy.  And then there must have been someone in Kamitsukenu in order to banish someone all the way out there, as well. Of course, given all of this, it is hardly surprising that Yamato was back to discussing the possibility of making war with Silla again.  And so, in the second month of 602, Prince Kume was appointed for the invasion of Silla, and he was granted the various “Be” of the service of the kami—possibly meaning groups like the Imbe and the Nakatomi, along with the Kuni no Miyatsuko, the Tomo no Miyatsuko, and an army of 25,000 men.  And they were ready to go quickly—only two months later they were in Tsukushi, in the district of Shima, gathering ships to ferry the army over to the peninsula. Unfortunately, two months later, things fell apart.  On the one hand, Ohotomo no Muraji no Kurafu and Sakamoto no Omi no Nukade returned back from Baekje, where they likely had been working with Yamato's allies.  Kurafu had been on a mission to Goguryeo and Nukade had been sent to Baekje the previous year.  However, at the same time, Prince Kume fell ill, and he was unable to carry out the invasion. In fact, the invasion was stalled at least through the next year, when, in about the 2nd month of 603, almost a year after Prince Kume had been sent out, a mounted courier brought news to Kashikiya Hime that he had succumbed to his illness.  She immediately consulted with her uncle, Soga no Umako, and the Crown Prince, Umayado, and asked them for their counsel.  Ultimately, she had Kume's body taken to Saba in Suwo, out at the western end of the Seto Inland Sea side of western Honshu, modern Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the prince was temporarily interred, with Hashi no Muraji no Wite, possibly a local official, overseeing the ceremony.  Later, Wite's descendants in the region were called the Saba no Muraji.  Kume was finally buried atop Mt. Hanifu in Kawachi. A quick note here about time.  It is sometimes difficult to figure out just what happened when.  This is all noted for the fourth day of the second month of 603.  Clearly it didn't all happen in one day, so what actually happened on that day?   Remember, Kume fell ill in the 6th month of 602, and we are now in the 2nd month of the following year.  So did he fall ill and then was wasting away for 8 months before he passed away?  Or is this the date when the court learned of his death?  Or is it the date when his body was finally buried?  There is a lot going on, and they don't exactly provide a day-to-day.  My general take is that this is when the news arrived at the court, which is when there would have been a court record, while the rest was likely commentary added for context, even if it happened much later. In addition, this whole thing holds some questions for me, not the least the name of this prince:  Kume.  Presumably, Kume was a full brother to none other than the Crown Prince, Prince Umayado.  He was also a son of Princess Anahobe and the sovereign, Tachibana no Toyohi, and we have seen then name “Kume” before as a name, or at least a sobriquet, for someone in the royal family.  However, it also means “army”, which seems surprisingly on the nose, given that all we are given about him is that he was supposed to lead an army.  It makes me wonder if this wasn't one of those half-remembered stories that the Chroniclers included without all of the information.  Then again, maybe Kume really was his name, and this is all just a coincidence. I also would note that it was not typical to have a royal prince leading an expedition like this.  Typically, the taishogun would be someone from an influential family, but not a member of the royal family, themselves.  That this army was being led by a royal prince also seems to speak to how this was seen as significant.  Perhaps that is why, when Kume passed away, they chose as his replacement his older brother:  Tahema. [Look up more on Tahema and if I can find out about him] Tahema was selected to take over for his younger brother on the first day of the 4th month of 603, and 3 months later, on the 3rd day of the 7th month, he was leaving out of Naniwa.  He didn't get very far, however.  Tahema embarked on this adventure along with his own wife, Princess Toneri.  We've seen this in past episodes, where women were in the camp alongside their husbands, directly supporting the campaigns.  Unfortunately, in this case, Princess Toneri died shortly into their journey, at Akashi.  This is recorded as only three days after they had departed, which likely means it happened quickly.  They buried her at Higasa Hill, but Tahema, likely grieving his loss, returned, and never carried out the invasion. Five years later, things may have improved with Silla, as there were a number of immigrants—we are only told that they were “many persons”—came to settle in Japan.  What isn't noted is whether or not this was of their own volition.  What forces drove them across from the peninsula?  Did they realize that there were opportunities to come and provide the Yamato elites with their continental knowledge and skills?  Were they prisoners of war?  If so, where was the war?  Or were they fleeing conflict on the peninsula?  Perhaps political refugees?  It isn't exactly clear. While things were rocky with Silla, relations seem to have been much better with the Baekje and Goguryeo.  While exotic animals may have been the gift of choice in the early part of the period, by 602, Baekje and Goguryeo were both sending gifts of a different sort.  These were more focused on spiritual and intellectual pursuits.  And so, in 602, a Baekje priest named Kwalleuk—or Kanroku, in the Japanese pronunciation—arrived bringing books on a number of different subjects, which three or four members of the court were assigned to study.  We don't know exactly what the contents of each book was, but based on what we generally know about later theories, we can probably make some educated guesses that much of this was probably based on concepts of yin and yang energies.  Yin and yang, were considered primal energies, and at some point I will need to do a full episode just on this, but during the Han dynasty, many different cosmological theories came together and were often explained in terms of yin and yang.  So elemental theory is explained as each element has some different portion of yin and yang, and similarly different directions, different times of day, and different times of the year were all explained as different proportions of yin and yang energies, which then contributed to whether certain actions would be easier or more difficult—or even outright dangerous. The book on calendar-making, or ”koyomi”, was assigned to Ohochin, whose name suggests that he may have been from a family from the continent, and he was the ancestor of the Yako no Fumibito.  Calendar-making was considered one of the more important roles in continental sciences, although it never quite took off to the same degree in Yamato.  Still, it described the movement of the stars and how to line up the lunar days with various celestial phenomena.  It also was important for understanding auspicious and inauspicious days, directions, and more—arts like divination, geomancy, and straight up magic would often provide instructions that required an understanding of the proper flow of yin and yang energies, as represented by the elements, and expressed on the calendar in terms of the elemental branch and stem system, with each day being related to a given element in an either greater or lesser capacity, usually related as the elder or younger brother.  Events might be scheduled to take place, for instance, on the first rat day of the first month, and so the calendar maker would be the one to help determine when that would be.  Also, since the solar and lunar calendars were not in synch, there would occasionally be a need for a “leap month”, often known as an extra-calendrical month, which would typically just repeat the previous month.  This would happen, literally, “once in a blue moon”, an English expression referring to a solar month with two full moons.  In fact, we just had one of those last month, in August of 2023. This isn't to say that the archipelago didn't have a system of keeping track of seasons, etc.  Clearly they were successfully planting and harvesting rice, so they had knowledge of roughly what time it was in the year, though there are some thoughts that a “year” was originally based on a single growing period, leading to two or three “years” each solar year.  Either way, farmers and others no doubt knew at least local conditions and what to look for regarding when to plant, and when to perform local ceremonies, but this was clearly a quote-unquote, “scientific” approach, based on complex and authoritative sounding descriptions of yin and yang energies. Closely related to the calendar-making studies, another book that the Baekje priest Kwalleuk brought over was one on Astronomy, or “Tenmon”, a study of the heavens, which was studied by Ohotomo no Suguri no Kousou.  For perhaps obvious reasons, astronomy and calendar-making were closely aligned, since the change in the stars over the course of the year would often have impacts on the calendar.  However, this was also likely very closely aligned with something akin to astrology, as well, following the celestial paths of various entities, many of those being things like planets.  If you aren't aware, planets, though they often appear in the sky as “stars”, have apparently erratic movements across the heavens.  The stars generally remain fixed, and from our perspective appear to “move” together throughout the year.  Planets, however, take funky loop-de-loop paths through our sky, as they, like the earth, are also orbiting the sun.  Furthermore, different planets orbit at different speeds.  All of this leads to some apparently strange movements, especially if you envision the sky as a round dome over a flat earth.  There are also other phenomenon, from regular meteor showers to comets, and even eclipses, all of which were thought to have their own reasons.  Some of these were considered natural—neither auspicious nor inauspicious—while others were thought to impact the flow of yin yang energy on the earth, thus potentially affecting our day-to-day lives. Kousou was apparently trying to get the special bonus for the summer reading program, because he also studied another book that came over from Baekje on a subject that Aston translates as “Invisibility”, or “tonkou”.  This is a little less obvious an explanation.  I don't think that they were literally studying, ninja-style, how to not to be seen.  In discussions of kami we've talked in the past about visible kami and, thus, conversely, invisible kami.  It appears to be based on a type of divination to help better understand auspicious and inauspicious signs, and is based on a blend of various theories, again connected to a large yin-yang theory. Finally, there was another volume that was studied by Yamashiro no Omi no Hinamitsu that Aston translates as straight up “magic”, or “houjutsu”.  Of course, in the worldview at the time, Magic was just another science that we didn't understand.  By understanding the flow of yin and yang, one can affect various things, from helping cure disease and heal the sick to causing calamity, even to the point of possibly learning the secrets of immortality. Much of this would fall into the terms “onmyoudou”, the way of Yin and Yang, and there had been some work on that introduced earlier.  That it was being introduced by a Buddhist priest demonstrates what I was saying earlier about just how interconnected it all was. Other Buddhist gifts were much more straightforward.  In 605, for instance, the king of Goguryeo sent 300 Ryou of what they call “yellow metal”, possibly an admixture of gold and copper, for a Buddhist image.  Five years later they sent two priests.  One of them, Tamchi, is said to have known the Five Classics, that is the Confucian classics, as well as how to prepare different colored paints, paper, and ink. All of this is interesting, but it is the usual suspects.  Yamato had been siphoning off culture and philosophy from the states and kingdoms of the Korean peninsula for some time, and in that time, they began to adopt various continental practices.  In later centuries, much of this would be attributed to the work of Shotoku Taishi, aka Prince Umayado, especially the transmission of Buddhist thought, although for the most part we haven't actually seen a lot of that in the Chronicles themselves, which we'll get to. However, later stories paint him as one of the main forces pushing for reform in the court, especially when they would eventually push for a new, 17 article constitution, based on principles pulled from a variety of sources—both Buddhist and Han philosophical foundations.  Along with that constitution, the court also instituted a 12 rank system for court ministers.  This ranking system would remain in place, eventually replacing entirely the kabane system that ranked individuals based on their family in favor of ranking one for their individual achievements.  Furthermore, it wasn't just a status symbol.  Rank would come into play in all aspects of courtly life, from the parts of the palace you were allowed to be in, the kinds of jobs you could do, and even the amount that you were paid for your service, making the families of the land part of and dependent on the bureaucracy. And with such a system in place, there was only one natural thing for it:  The Yamato court would reach out beyond the Korean peninsula and go directly to the source.  They would send envoys to the court of the Sui Emperor himself and establish relations with the Middle Kingdom directly, leading to one of the most famous diplomatic incidents in all of the early Japanese history. And that is where I'm going to have to leave it for now, because once we get into that rabbit hole we are going to have a whole other episode.  And so now we are fully grounded in our foundation.  We can see Yamato importing people and also ideas from the continent, through the peninsula, and those ideas are taking root.  They are causing changes, at least at the Yamato court, but those changes would eventually make there way throughout society, and forever change Japan and even how they see themselves.  The lens of what is commonly seen as Buddhist and Confucian thought would be a powerful tool that would shape the ideas to come. Until next time, then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

The BZC Summer Reading Program concluded in September with a conversation with Chenxing Han, author of  Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists. Dharma Teacher Sarah Dojin Emerson introduced the event, and Chenxing was in conversation with Kaishin Victory Matsui, Director of Ancestral Heart Temple.

We're celebrating 10 years of summer reading with Miss JoAnn and our teen volunteers. Listen in for our Summer Reading Program wrap up and catch our interview with two of our top teen volunteers Evie & Charlotte. Don't miss Amy's  final book recommendations for the last days of summer.  Thank you to our community for a magical summer at the library! Newer Books: The Housekeepers by Alex Hay Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano The House is On Fire by Rachel Beanland Older Books: Spare by Prince Harry Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson The Thursday Murder Club Series by Richard Osman Newly Purchased: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller And Yet by Kate Baer New Releases: The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney Reign- American Royals 4 by Katherine McGee    

Tomorrow is the last day the Wet Zone will be open for the season, head on over between 12-6pm to get the last swim in before school starts!  On Monday, August 7, the intersection of miller road and Chiesa will be closed for several weeks to complete earthwork preparation and concrete paving. Visit rowlett.com for more info on both phases of this project!  We've released another episode of the My Rowlett Podcast! Tune in to learn more about how Rowlett recently became a GO TEXAN partner and the fun things that are happening in Downtown Rowlett! Listen on your favorite podcast platform today!  We want to take a moment to thank everyone who made this year's Summer Reading Program a great success. Overall, we had: 2,093 total participants (a 20.7% increase over last year) 23,875 total hours read Your favorite Liberians are scaling back children's programming this month to plan some great programs for you this fall! Stay tuned to their social media!  And finally, if you haven't taken the Rowlett Parks and Rec master plan update survey yet, we want your input to update this community plan! Visit rowlett.com for more info!

It's been hot, hot, hot at the library!  We're half way through the summer with still tons of Summer Reading Program fun to go.  Catch up with the library staff for the latest town news, summer reading updates and awesome beach read recommendations.  Grab a good book before you head on vacation.  Have a great summer! Amy's Book Recommendations Beach Reads The Five Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand You Are Here by Karin Lin-Greenberg The Beach At Summerly by Beatriz Williams Drowning by T.J. Newman   Other Books Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper   Looking forward to: The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and A Dangerous Obsession by Michael FInkel – June 27 The St. Ambrose School For Girls by Jessica Ward – July 11 Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno Garcia – July 18 The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George -  July 25

Three authors featured in the ReadME statewide summer reading program, and their book recommendations

Sara Billiet from the Kewanee Public Library was our guest on Wake Up Tri-Counties on Thursday, June 22nd. Sara joined WKEI to talk about the ongoing success of the Summer Reading Program and how you can still get involved. Sara also discussed several upcoming events at the Kewanee Public Library heading into the month of July. Events on Mindfulness as well as Yoga for Parents and Kids are part of the upcoming schedule at the Kewanee Public Library. You can hear all about it in our conversation with Sara Billiet from the Kewanee Public Library. 

This week on The Book Drop we share what we've been reading lately, ponder death and imagine beloved video game characters made out of food.Check out the OPL events calendar for these upcoming events: Summer Reading Program is here! Sign up between now and July 31st.Read to receive great prizes and enjoy free, fun activities for all ages all summer long. Discovering Witches: The Real Records and Manuscripts Seen in Movies, Books & TV Shows (Virtual)Thursday, July 22, 5-6PMAll the books, movies, TV shows and resources we talk about in this episode can be found here.Check out the next query of the week here...  https://bit.ly/BookDropQuery

True Crime is coming to the Kewanee Public Library as Dave Clarke is joined by WKEi's very own Sean Kernan for Murder We Wrote, a presentation on Kewanee's True Crime cases. Dave and Sean presented Murder We Wrote on the Regional Media Podcast, Kewanee Back When earlier this year. Now, on June 20th, at 6 PM, Dave and Sean will take another look at the cases featured on Kewanee Back When including Sean's research into the still unsolved murder of Sandra Brown from August of 1978. That's one of many things the Kewanee Public Library has planned for the month of June. Plans that include continuing the Summer Reading Program and having a booth at this weekend's Pride Festival in Kewanee. Sara Billiet from the Kewanee Public Library was our guest on Wake Up Tri-Counties on Thursday morning. 

Igniting Imagination: A Journey into Kids Summer Reading with Author Rae Rankin Discover the magic of Kids Summer Reading as we sit down with award-winning author Rae Rankin in this captivating episode. Rae's deep love for writing and reading has led her to become an influential figure in the literary world, inspiring young readers through her enchanting stories. Embark on a captivating adventure into the realm of Kids Summer Reading as we sit down with accomplished author Rae Rankin. With a deep passion for writing and reading, Rae has crafted an impressive collection of books and is dedicated to inspiring young readers. In this episode, we delve into the enchanting world of storytelling, the significance of summer reading programs, and the impact they have on children's lives. Join us as we uncover Rae's insights, experiences, and the magic of Kids Summer Reading.   Episode Highlights: Rae's introduction as an award-winning author with a passion for inspiring young readers. Unveiling the goals and objectives of Kids Summer Reading programs. Exploring the benefits of participating in a summer reading program for children's literacy development. Delving into specific activities and initiatives within Rae's program. The inspiration behind starting the program and the personal experiences that shaped its vision. Discussing the role of reading in children's educational growth, particularly during the summer months. Opportunities available for authors to get involved and contribute to Kids Summer Reading. Talking about other authors such as Sam Finden and Janet Barrett who have been on the show. Links for podcast Website: www.wereadhorsebooks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/horsebookssummerreading Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/kidssummerreadingprogram Summer Reading Log: https://bit.ly/3WecO7x Optional Alphabet Challenge Summer Reading Log: https://bit.ly/3WaYtce Become a Participating Author: https://wereadhorsebooks.com/become-a-participating-author/ Current list of participating authors (as of 5/17/2023): Corinne Joy Brown https://corinnejoybrown.com/ Cressida Burton https://www.cressidaburton.co.uk/ Kacy Burke https://www.buckaroobeau.com/ S. Damonhttp://facebook.com/E.S.DamonEquine Rennie Dyball https://www.renniedyball.com/ M.J. Evans http://www.dancinghorsepress.com/ Terri Farley https://www.terrifarley.com/index.shtml M.D. Ford https://whisperinghorsebooks.com/ Laura Holt-Haslam https://lauraholthaslam.com/ Elaine Heney https://elaineheneybooks.com/ Ann Hunter http://amazon.com/author/annhunter Dr. Piper Klemm http://www.theplaidhorse.com/books Brittney Joy http://www.brittneyjoybooks.com/ Maria Langella Sorgie https://www.marialangellasorgie.com/ Kerri Lukasavitz  https://www.kerrilukasavitz.com/ Lori McIntosh http://www.lorimcintosh.com Christine Meunier https://christinemeunierauthor.com/ Valerie Ormond https://valerieormond.com/ Rae Rankin https://www.raerankin.com/ Jenny Roman https://jennyroman.wordpress.com/ Laurie Salisbury https://lauriezkidz.wixsite.com/mysite J.L. Williams https://www.facebook.com/jwilliamswriter Brianna York https://www.booksbybriannayork.com/ Links heard on the Show We Read Horse Books Kids Summer Reading Program Website Join the Journey Whether you're a seasoned horse owner or just starting out, we invite you to join us on this journey. Share your challenges, triumphs, and everyday experiences with others. We believe these stories can help others in their horse journey. If you have a story, you would like to share, you can reach out to us through our Facebook or Instagram page. Alternatively, you can email John@WhoaPodcast.com to be a part of the show. Thanks for listening. John & Ranae Episode #218 Support the Whoa Podcast with this Amazon Link. Checkout My YouTube Channel John Harrer & Horses  

The Richmond Public Library's Summer Reading Program begins Saturday; Last month, Richmond city council finalized the $2.4 Billion dollar Diamond District redevelopment plan, but steps remain to fund the project; Two members of the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors say that the political affiliations of the school's student body and faculty should be tracked to ensure diversity; and other local news stories.

Piedmont's Summer Reading Program starts with the book or Haggai as Daniel walks us through considering our ways and getting us to work.

Piedmont's Summer Reading Program starts with the book or Haggai as Daniel walks us through considering our ways and getting us to work.

There are so many resources that you can access with your FREE Rowlett Public Library Card! And getting a Library card is SO easy!    In this episode of the My Rowlett Podcast, Host Hannah Rabalais sits down with Nancy Chevalier & Colton Lytle to talk about the upcoming Summer Reading program and resources you can access with your Rowlett Public Library Card.    Summer Reading- Camp Beyond-A-Book Information: Pre-register the whole family for Summer Reading starting May 15 through May 31. More info: bit.ly/3OEyVCu    Summer Reading Challenge for 2023 includes reading books, eBooks as well as listening to audiobooks. So, you could listen your way to winning a Summer Reading prize!   Kick Off: June 3 @ 11 a.m. Week 1: STEAM Camp (June 5-10) Week 2: Sleepaway Camp (June 12-17) Week 3: Animal Camp (June 19-24) Week 4: Scout Camp (June 26- July 1) Week 5: Culinary Camp (July 3-8)  Week 6: Band Camp (July10-15) Week 7: Space Camp (July 17-22) Closing Ceremony: July 29 @ 10 a.m.   Resources Shared: STEAM Kits- STEAM Kits include hand-selected learning tools and games that teach Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math skills. Each collection contains fun activities for learning independently or as a group! More info: bit.ly/3MFnPe2    Free Udemy Access: bit.ly/433UQHL    cloudLibrary app: bit.ly/3Wz7hZA    Chilton Auto Repair: bit.ly/423Tc7x    Additional links and helpful information: Library Card Info: https://bit.ly/3FX4tPC  Library Catalog: https://bit.ly/3tbBAHN  Calendars & Newsletters: https://bit.ly/3FXkSU6  Friends of the Rowlett Public Library: https://bit.ly/3Ed1rFM    Follow the Rowlett Public Library on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RowlettPublicLibrary  Follow the Rowlett Public Library on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rowlettpubliclibrarymain/    Rowlett Public Library Hours of Operation:  Monday - Thursday 9:30 am - 8:30 pm Friday - Saturday 9:30 am - 5:30 pm   Rowlett Public Library Address:  3900 Main Street Ste 200 Rowlett, TX 75088   We will be sharing more Library resources on the My Rowlett Podcast. Stay tuned and subscribe!    If you wish to suggest a topic, guest, or have a question- Please email Hannah Rabalais at podcast@rowlett.com or reach out online:    rowlett.com/podcast    https://www.facebook.com/CityofRowlettTexas    https://www.youtube.com/user/RowlettTexasVideo    https://www.instagram.com/cityofrowletttexas    https://twitter.com/RowlettTexas    https://www.linkedin.com/company/city-of-rowlett/ 

Tune in for a mini episode of the Tiny Town Library Podcast to recap all the magic that happened at Wizarding Week!  We will also be announcing the theme of the 2023 Summer Reading Program on this episode.  Miss JoAnn has gone rogue this year and has created her own theme!!  She will be making the magic here at the library all summer. A special thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make Wizarding Week a success.  Be sure to click on the link below to visit Earl Riche's photo albums onFlicker that captured the entire experience at Wizarding Week!   Wizarding Week Photo Albums: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mvfotog/  

The Summer Reading Program gets started soon... Mathew tells us all about it!

Check out the latest episode of Your Child's Brain. Join Dr. Brad Schlaggar President and CEO of Kennedy Krieger Institute and his guests Heidi Daniel,  president and CEO at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, and Dr. Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, a developmental neuroscientist at Kennedy Krieger Institute as we discuss children's reading, literacy, and the impact of technology on both. Links to visit: Enoch Pratt library Summer Reading Program https://www.prattlibrary.org/summer-break The Neurobiology of Reading podcast https://urlisolation.com/browser?clickId=796DE2A7-3F7F-4DA8-A057-296FDC84DFF0&traceToken=1682690228%3Bkennedykrieger_hosted%3Bhttps%3A%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DS&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DS_7brlIMa_k Dr. Brad Schlaggar (BS): Welcome to Your Child's Brain, a podcast series produced by Kennedy Krieger Institute with assistance from WYPR. I'm Dr. Brad Schlaggar, pediatric neurologist and president and CEO of Kennedy Krieger Institute. One of the most distinctive features of the human brain is its capacity for language. Arguably, our brains have evolved to produce spoken and heard language. But exactly when that capacity emerged in humans is debated, in the scientific literature, spoken language likely emerged no less than a couple of 100,000 years ago and perhaps as long ago as one million or more years. On the other hand, the invention of the written form of language and therefore the origins of reading, came roughly 5,000 years ago. Simply put, while our brains evolved for spoken language, reading and writing are far too recent to have been drivers for the evolution of our brains. It has only been in the last several 100 years that human society has put such a premium on the value of reading that large portions of society learned to read. That said, in Maryland and in the US as a whole and while estimates vary, roughly one in five adults has very low or absent literacy skills, contributing to significant challenges for the health and welfare of those individuals. For some, reading difficulty is largely the consequence of lack of access to quality education while for others, the issue is dyslexia or a reading impairment, despite sufficient intellectual ability and access to quality education. For so many reasons, it is critically important for us to understand the full complexity of how our brains learn to read and how factors in our children's life, like screen time, for example, impact the development of this crucial skill. Today, I'm joined by two guests, both with expertise that is highly relevant to a discussion of reading development and literacy. Dr. Tzipi Horwitz-Kraus from the Department of Neuropsychology at Kennedy Krieger Institute is an international leader in the neuroscience of reading development. She's an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She's also an associate professor of education and science and technology and in biomedical engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. For full disclosure, Tzipi and I are research collaborators on the neuroscience of reading development and we published several papers together. Heidi Daniel is the president and CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, a true gem in Baltimore, Maryland, where she has been at the helm since July of 2017. Welcome, Tzipi and Heidi. Heidi, you're completing your sixth year leading the Enoch Pratt Free Library. I know that literacy is one of the pillars of the library's strategic plan, especially focused on digital literacy and pre-literacy. Tell us about the library's approach to literacy. Heidi Daniel (HD): The library approaches literacy the way we approach most things through the lens of access. You mentioned having access to high-quality education and high-quality materials is really important for the development of reading and literacy in our population. The library's focus is really on making sure that we're approaching learning and reading as a whole person way of looking at it. We're very focused on family literacy and for our pre-literacy skills and wanting to make sure that we're empowering parents and caregivers and the community around children to be fully literate themselves, to have the skillsets that they need to develop literacy in the children and their families and their care and their communities. Then giving access to high-quality materials to help them develop. That looks like a lot of things. It could be providing access to programming around development of brain, development of reading. It's modeling, it's doing programs that model, seeing, read, play with your children. It's providing play rich environments where children have the opportunity to play and explore while also having a lot of rent around them integrated into their play scape. Because we know that children learn through play. It's also that digital literacy piece. As we recognize that digital literacy is critical to the communities that we service and through really our whole world. We're all connected to devices and screens. How does that play out when we start to talk about children learning to read and children's brain development. Even in our teens, how does that interact with their continued growth and development? We really want to make sure that parents are educated on the impact of devices, and that they have access to high-quality apps and materials on those devices. We're not telling people to stay away from screens and only take out print books. If you know anything about the library, we've got tons of electronic resources for folks to access. But what we want to make sure is that caregivers feel empowered to make decisions around high-quality electronic usage. What apps are really educational and useful? How much screen time kids should be having? Really looking at all of the things that come into play when we talk about the interaction of literacy and devices and that they know how to correctly use them for empowerment so that it's not just that junk food approach, doing what feels good, but maybe what isn't like super nutritional for your brain. We take that approach as well as connecting families to all the additional resources they might need to support growth and learning in their home. BS: That sets us up so well for the discussion that we're about to have. Tzipi, tell us a bit about your work on understanding how our brains learn to read. Tzipi Horwitz-Kraus (TH-K): I've been working on the neurobiology of reading for I think 15 years now. I started coming out from a very personal place with having several family members with dyslexia, with the basically difficulty in reading, struggle with reading along the years. I saw that aside to wonderful thinking skills, great intelligence, right ability to manage in your environment. It struck me, how can it be, how can these intelligent individuals struggle with this ability that most of us are doing so naturally? I started digging in and doing the academic journal that I'm having for many years. I started looking for biomarkers, for reading difficulties, and we started looking at different neuroimaging tools or tools that helps us to understand how the brain works. We found that individuals with dyslexia, when they are adults, their brain basically does not recognize that they're making reading errors. Then we said, let's see if this is modifiable. Can we train them to better recognize words and can their brain actually realize that they made reading errors? We found that the brain is plastic, so we moved on to kids and we found that the kid's brain, even if they have dyslexia, is even more plastic than the adult brain that has dyslexia. In the past years, aside to work that we are doing with children with dyslexia and reading difficulties, and we will talk more about it, we started looking at younger kids at pre-reading age and we're trying to see whether we can minimize reading difficulties, and for better effect, not only reading difficulties, let's make all kids love reading because this is one of the most enjoyable activities that kids can do themselves and definitely can do with their parents. BS: As I mentioned earlier, human spoken language dates back on the order of probably 100,000 or a couple of 100,000 years ago. But written language and therefore reading, it's really been around just 5,000 years. What are the implications of how relatively new reading is for the human experience? How does that affect the way you think about investigating the way the brain learns to read? TH-K: This is an amazing question and there is a lot of literature about it that relates to this whole process as recycling these brain networks that were originally aimed to listen, to see, to pay attention to things in order to work together, so reading is accomplished. I think when we're talking about recycling these networks. This is a term coined by a researcher named Dehaene 2009. We kind of understand that maybe not all people can recycle these networks and maybe these brain networks cannot be recycled as easily for everybody. That only emphasizes how much this process is not really intuitive. Which means that in order for these networks to be active together, in order for us to see the words, to listen to the words in our thought and to pay attention to the words, then the timing of this activity needs to be very, very precise. The teaching or the tutoring of this process needs to be very explicit. So it's not intuitive for all kids. BS: Along those lines, what does the research tell us about the best approaches and at what ages it's best to introduce a child to reading? TH-K: Oh, wow. If we go back to the American Pediatric Association, they will tell you that a child should be exposed to reading from birth basically. If we talk about these brain regions that are related to reading, which are visual regions, auditory listening regions, attention regions, meaning, so language and vocabulary these brain networks are really ready to perceive this information at birth. I think that a fine stimulation of these brain regions using storytelling in a different way that matches the child age, using different methods like as batteries or speaking in a voice or reading the story and the voice that the young child can listen and process and then when the child is older, showing the words with the finger that the parent is reading is a great way even at early ages. We do see some of our studies that are looking at children at pre-reading age that are exposed massively or even not massively, are exposed to more hours of stories told by their parents and that they're exposed to more books in their household that even in their close environment basically show greater engagement of brain regions related to imagination when they just listen to stories so they're not seeing anything, but they can imagine the stories. BS: So Heidi, along those same lines of this early exposure, can you talk about some of the programs that you've implemented at the Enoch Pratt Free Library for early reading opportunities for young children. HD: As we talked about, it's really important that caregivers feel less self-conscious about doing anything right and use these intuitive techniques that come naturally to us when we're working with small and young children reading in a calm voice, letting them take breaks and walk away, letting them come back. Singing, playing with them while you're reading, letting them touch the words, pointing out the words. We do all of that naturally through our programming that we do with young children that is family-oriented. We have what people call the traditional story time at the library, we still have all of those. Then we also do some extra programs. We have a program called Books For Me that's been quite successful that really focuses in on groups of parents that partake in a cohort together and from their child's very young, we love to start at birth, right through as their children get older and even including older siblings and the experience of coming together and reading. The program really focuses on that modeling of using different techniques and there's five or six that the American Library Association really encourage parents to use that include things like singing, playing rhyming. Rhyming is really important. Showing the words doing left to right and focusing in on that phonological awareness. A lot of that can happen best through print. We also, through part of that program built home libraries because it's really important that children have access to literature and quality books in their home. I think a lot of studies show that the number of books in the home correlates with better educational outcomes later in life. So for us, we recognize that the cost of books is a big barrier and obviously we want you to come to the library and take out as many books as possible. But so many of our programs now focus on also building that home library for young children and then also even during our summer break programming for older kids and adults as well. Because it's also really important for young children to see the adults in their life reading as well so that they see that this is something important, this is something enjoyable. As the library we love to focus in on, like let your child love to read, especially as they get older, don't worry quite so much about that reading level. Obviously, there's markers and signs that you want to be thoughtful of if they're not developing correctly. But also really just let your child read books. My son is a reluctant reader and he loves Captain Underpants and I let him read that well past his level of reading, he was well beyond it lexical wise, but he just enjoyed reading them and it was the same with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Just let them have fun and enjoy it. That's part of the beauty of reading is you get this wonderful experience out of it and it develops empathy and kindness in our brains, and really the ability to think about other people. I think sometimes when we work with parents at the public library, we have the privilege and ability to be able to say, make this a really enjoyable bonding experience with your child. Even if you're making up part of the story and they were walking away and they're coming back, it is okay, the idea of the written word being an enjoyable experience, it's also really important and having a lot of print rich environments for your child to explore is also a key development piece. BS: We've used this term dyslexia a couple of times now. So Tzipi, let's talk about it. What is dyslexia exactly? Why do some children have difficulty learning to read, despite all the other efforts being made to enhance the environment, access to education, intellectual ability, all of that. Why still do some children have difficulty learning to read? TH-K: Let's start with the definition for dyslexia. Dyslexia is defined as slow and inaccurate reading despite average IQ and higher. The typical exposure to written language. The reason for dyslexia is neurobiological. It's basically a brain that is active differently. Based on what we said at the beginning of the recycling of these networks that we're actually supposed to see and listen and pay attention to something that is happening in your visual field or when you hear something, there's really not surprising that there are situations that individuals just have difficulties reading. In our studies, this is exactly what we research. Is there a specific brain activity that we see in individuals with dyslexia? Can it be modified? Do we have different profiles of children with reading difficulties? Those who have attention difficulties in reading difficulties, are they the same as those with just reading difficulties? Because this reading network is so complex, it is really not surprising that reading difficulties can occur due to error sort of say, in different places in the network. We see children with epilepsy that suffer from reading difficulties, those with autism disorder, that suffer from reading difficulties and many, many more. I can say that the classical finding that was replicated by several researchers is that individuals with dyslexia show a greater engagement of the right side of the brain when they read as opposed to the average population, the children engagement of the left side of the brain when they read. This is a pattern that we're seeing in several studies, regardless or in most languages, I would like to say. BS: How early can reading issues such as you're describing be identified in a child? Can you talk about pre literacy skills and whether difficulty attaining those reading skills, those pre literacy skills predicts difficulty reading. TH-K: I think that Heidi touched upon some of these early markers. If we think about reading, as I said, I think that reading start developing when the child is born because the infrastructure for reading start developing right there and even beforehand in the uterus. I would say that early markers for future reading difficulties or for the occurrence of future reading difficulties would be related to the awareness to the tiny little sounds in language, the ability to repeat a word that you're hearing, the naming of the letters was found that the ability to name letters fast and accurately, which together is called automatically, is a marker for a future reading achievement. These kind of markers would probably predict the occurrence of feeding difficulties in future .BS: A significant direction of your work and something that you and I have collaborated on over the years is the role of executive function in reading. You talked about attention so broadly, executive function and how that influences reading development. Can you talk about how executive functioning is linked to reading issues and does treating executive dysfunction improve reading outcomes for example in children that have both ADHD and dyslexia? TH-K: Executive functions might be a term that not everybody are familiar with, and also in the field of psychology, this is like an umbrella term for many sub cognitive abilities that are related to learning from our own mistakes for example these include working memory, which is our ability to capture several items in our memory and to manipulate them. Speed of processing. How fast we process information and inhibition our ability not to respond immediately, but to hold that thought and wait with it. Some also referred to attention as part of executive function and some do not. We think, and what we find our studies is that executive functions might be the synchronizer of the reading system. What do I mean by that? We talked about the visual system that we see that is related to the ability to read words orthographically. To read the words holistically without decoding each letter at a time. We have the auditory system that is located in a different region in the brain that is related to the phonological processing steps. The ability to be aware that the tiny little sounds in language and also to decode letter and sound. In order to have a fluent reading, these two systems must be active in a synchronous manner. What we see in our studies is that executive functions or brain regions that are related to executive functions usually mapped to the frontal lobe but my neuroscience fellows will absolutely not like what I'm saying now, because this is an overall simplicity of this situation. But for now, let's just say in frontal regions of the brain, these regions basically synchronize the visual and auditory regions in our brain and we think that this is a critical role of executive functions. In a way, we can think about a metaphor of an orchestra where you have lots of tools in your orchestra, but you have the conductor who synchronize them altogether into a nice melody and we think that this is what executive functions are doing during the reading process. BS: One of the topics that has come up already, we've talked about screen time, different types of technology of how we are now viewing the written word. What do we know about how the use of technology or screen time affects the developing brain and pre literacy, learning to read? TH-K: This is a question My kids always tell me, please mom do not talk with my friends about screen, please. I can only speak for what we know scientifically. Let's put all our belief aside. What we found in several very innovative neuroimaging studies that are looking at neurobiological correlates for screen time. That children already at the age of three to five years when they're exposed to higher screen time. And that involves tablets and smartphones and television and all kinds of screens. The greater the time is, the less organized the white matter tracks in the brain. What are these white matter track? These are basically, we can think about them as the roads that connect the cities and if we're talking about cities, let's talk about the visual and the auditory regions that we just talked about and the executive functions related regions. These are the cities. They communicate with each other by roads that connect them. These are exactly the white matter tracks that I'm talking about. What the research shows is that the higher the screen time is, the less organized these roads are. If you're driving in a less organized road and you have a bump or you have a hole or you have whatever during your ride, the information or the car will move much slower than what we find is that for 3-5 year old kids, the higher the screen exposure is, the lower the organization is in these white matter, we also see that the cities themselves or the gray matter of regions that are part of the visual, auditory and executive function system is different. It's less thick. The cortex is less thick in these regions and this is in pre literacy age. We do not really know what is happening earlier in a younger age group. BS: I was going to ask you about these younger age group because we know that multiple guidelines from professional societies, medical, psychological and others, they recommend no screen time for children less than two years of age. That's a pretty stark recommendation. What is the level of evidence that we have at this time for zero screen time for under two years? TH-K: I think that unfortunately we cannot have a definitive answer for this question because in order to be able to answer this question, we will have to have longitudinal studies tracking screen time from birth onwards and see how that affects the child's brain. However, birth to five years old is really the critical time for brain development. There are different processes like the synaptogenesis. Where these synopsis are created and the pruning where it's cut when it's not being used, so many processes in this. Within these five years, if our results from 3-5 year old kids show this dramatic effect, I can only assume that kids that are younger than that, screen exposure will not be beneficial for them. BS: Right. I think it's reasonable to say that we should limit screen time. The research is not there yet to be really determinative. It is also fair to say that it's okay to FaceTime with grandma, it's okay to read back and forth, pointing to the words on a screen with your child if you're engaged in reading. It's not that all screen time necessarily is aversive to the brain's development, but we do know and we can extrapolate is that large quantities of screen time are probably to be avoided. We've been talking about reading off the screen. Does it even matter? Does it matter if you're reading off of the printed page or off of a screen in terms of how the brain is processing the printed word? TH-K: This is an excellent question that we really wanted to answer using MRI. MRI is this tube and this huge magnetic field. It's really hard to get a book inside the MRI to really see how your brain is active when you read a paper-printed based book, but you can use other tools for that. You can use EEG, electroencephalogram, which is this cap with the electrodes that measures brain electricity signal from your scalp. This is what we've done, a really freshly published paper that looked at brain activation of children that are 6-8 years old that are reading from the computer screen versus reading from a printed paper. What we found is that when children were reading from the screen, their brain activation looked like a brain activation of a distracted person. Patterns that look like a cognitive overload that's probably related to the way the individual is screening the screen, so the pattern of actual reading while reading from the screen, and there are behavioral studies supporting that. That there is a greater cognitive overload when you read from a screen versus when you read from a paper, both in adults and both in children. This is what we found. Again, would love to run greater studies compared to that one. BS: Heidi, how do you approach this question, reading from the screen versus the printed page? HD: We approach that in the same way. Start with the professional guidelines and the research which does show that young children tend to be more distracted when they're reading from screens and that there's less exchange verbally between the parent and the child also when they're reading from a screen or looking at images on the screen than when they're reading from print. It reduces that exchange of words between the caregiver and the child and it also means that there's less bonding going on, less intimacy in their reading experience. But it's very distracting when you're reading from the screen because there are things that come along, that are pop-ups, they're ads and that again gets to the quality of what you're putting on the screen in front of your child as well. Most of our children's librarians have taken a lot of media literacy classes to learn how to vet and evaluate apps. If we're loaning devices, the apps that are on those devices have been prevented to make sure that they don't have pop-ups, or distracting graphics, or things that would take away from the experience of reading with the child. Again, it gets back to what I said earlier about that junk food approach. Not everything is created equal just because you can access it. We recognize that a lot of parents are looking for those free apps, so a lot of times we will purchase the app, load up a device, and let parents borrow them so that we're ensuring that they're getting higher-quality experiences with their children that are appropriately aged 3-5, for that screen time so that it's more quality screen time as well. As a mom, like I can tell you I've handed my child a device in the shopping cart just so that I can get my things done, but we want to make sure that what we're giving them is high quality exposure. TH-K: To your point, Heidi, you were talking about destruction and I wanted to share really interesting study that we conducted looking at the effect of smartphone existence and text messages that are sent to the parents while they're reading a book to the child. Let's say you decided to read a book to the child. Great. Good for you. You're reading it dialogically, so with a lot of excitement in the air. Then all of us parents, we have our phone and we just got a text message, so we're just peeking at it. What is happening to this dialogue and to this interaction that we just had with the kids? Luckily, neuroimaging data can reveal what is happening between these two brains. What we found using a really interesting neuroimaging technique that is called hyperscanning, so we collect data both from the parent and from the child while they're reading a book, we saw that the ability of the parent and child to pay attention to each other, what we call joint attention, that we can actually measure looking at the brain correspondence of these two goes down. For us, it was striking because it opened up so many questions. Does it go back? Do we go back to synchronization with the child after it is interrupted by the device? If you are choosing to read a book for the child, put the phone aside for a couple of minutes. [LAUGHTER] BS: Exactly. Heidi, the library has rolled out some programs including with the summer coming, I know Summer Break Baltimore. Can you describe that program, how does it work, and what are some of the early outcomes from it? HD: This Summer Break Baltimore program is really our new take on the classic summer reading program. We changed the focus because it's not just about reading. We also include a lot of experiences in that program as well. There's rewards for attending programs, there's rewards for going to cultural places throughout the community. But the idea is that you keep your child or the child in your care engaged throughout the summer because it combats that summer slide. The fact that children lose usually about a grade level of reading in the summer if they're not engaged in some learning activity. We want to make sure that those levels stay up, so we try to engage children in a wide variety of activities. We have camps during the summer for all age groups, and the earliest readers even get to be read to and get rewards and parents can get rewards for reading as well because we know that that's fun. We really focus on the rewards being building your home library. We give away a lot of books during the summer. The outcomes have been pretty great actually. We had seen quite a dip in summer reading over the years because people are engaged in camps, they're engaged in a lot of activities. Rarely now, as time has changed, you see the two parent, one parent at home available to take their kid to a program at 10:00 AM. It's a lot busier and kids are engaged in a lot more activities. We started going out to camps as well as having camps. We've gone to rec centers, we've partnered with the schools, and we really take this program out so that this way we can incorporate reading into every single piece of the summer experience throughout the community. What we've seen is our numbers were slipping, we had in the low thousands of families participating, and last summer, we had over 20,000 families that finished. We're really excited about how families are engaging with this and I think that piece of also building a summer library, having those books in your home to keep have been really an important piece as well because parents realized that having those books around for children to go back to over and over is really valuable in your child's learning journey. It's been great. We hope more families will engage with it or continue to engage with it so that we can keep those summer scores up. BS: If we can, let's put a link to the library summer books program on our website or web page for this episode so we could direct families to it. The other thing I'd like to link, if we could, is I know that the two of you were part of a webinar through the library that was recorded on April 17th. It's probably a similar conversation I would imagine, but perhaps a bit longer and more in-depth, but I think we should be able to link that webinar to the web page for this episode as well. That would be great. TH-K: Definitely. BS: Thank you both. I want to thank our guests for this fascinating discussion on reading development. We hope you our listeners have found this topic interesting and informative and that you'll consider sharing this podcast and rating it. You can check out our entire library of topics on Your Child's Brain at Wypr.org, KennedyKrieger.org, Wypr.org/studios, or wherever you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Your Child's Brain. Your Child's Brain is produced by Kennedy Krieger Institute with assistance from WYPR and producer Spencer Bryant. Please join us next time as we examine the mysteries of your child's brain.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Ross interviews Programming Manager Kim Ottesen about our upcoming Summer Reading Program, themed “All Together Now!” Join us for a sneak preview of programming and prizes.  Summer Reading Kickoffs: Sharon Forks - May 30, 2023  Post Road - May 31, 2023  Cumming - June 1, 2023  Hampton Park - June 2, 2023 Important Dates: Summer Reading registration starts on May 1, 2023.  Summer Reading begins on May 25 and ends on July 30. August 3 is the last day to apply tickets to the prize drawings. Grand prize drawings will take place on August 4. The final day to pick up prizes is August 14.