Summer Reading Program and Coloring Contests

The Mad Professor would like to offer his most sincere apologies to those who entered the coloring contests for April and May. No winners were announced because they haven’t been judged yet!
Speaking of coloring contests, this year our Summer Reading Program “Be Creative @ our Library”, has a coloring contest.

Here are links to the program calendar as well as forms to fill out for preschoolers (a) and school age children (b) if you want to enter the Summer Reading Program coloring contest.

There shall be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winner for both age groups, so be sure to try your hand at coloring. Color sheets can be picked up any time at the Gulfport Temporary Library, but Mr Geoff would especially encourage you to be creative by making your very own coloring design.

The Wizard of Oz Discovers the Library!

The Gulfport Temporary Library’s 2009 Summer Reading Program started off with a bang on Saturday 30 May 2009.

At the 2nd annual Summer Reading kick-off at the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, Mr. Geoff and the other children’s librarians from the Harrison and Jackson library systems got together for craft activities and a play written by Liz Catalano (Margaret Sherry Library) that was a lot of F.U.N. The play, “The Wizard of Oz Discovers the Library”, was based on Frank Baum’s famous novel “The Wizard of Oz”. From left to right: Mr Geoff (Tin Man), Wendy Allard (the Librarian), Dede Wallace (Dorothy), Missy Douglas (Scarecrow), Liz Catalano (Cowardly Lion), Mary Ann Louviere (the Wizard).

Here are some pictures of our Earth Day story time, when we cleaned up the Gulfport Temporary Library’s back and front lot. Afterwards, we had a lot of fun with an Earth globe purchased by the Mad Professor. The globe is actually a beach ball printed with NASA photos of the earth as seen from space. What’s really cool is when you expose the globe to full sun and then bring it to a dark room (we all went into the bathroom), spots where the city areas are (like coastal North and South America, China and Europe) light up from day-glow paint.






By the way, the black-eyed susans are thriving. Once they start blooming again, pictures will follow!

A Titanic Story Time

On Saturday 2 May 2009, we had a lot of fun with a Titanic story time in which we talked about that famous ship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1912 after it hit an iceberg. There are many books available, and one of the ones we read was “Voyage on the Great Titanic: the Diary of Margaret Ann Brady,” about a young girl who survived the ship’s sinking.

Below are is a photo of the model the Mad Professor built of the Titanic, which took some (count ‘em) 8 months to build altogether. The model is currently on display at the library, and if you ask nicely, Mr. Geoff might let turn the Titanic’s lights on!



Mr. Geoff loves to make models (he’s been making them since he was 10 years old), and future story times may include the following:


Santa Maria



Revolutionary-era British sloop,



an ancient Egyptian boat


and a shrimp boat.


Make your own animation

Happy Earth Day 2009!

It's Earth Day today, 22 April 2009, and the Mad Professor's monkey (still nameless!) wants to wish everybody "ickeee ackawakabamba ieeyuuuieya!", which translates to something like "wisheee you good day-ee, take good care of planet-oh and yourself too and eat lots of bananas"

This Saturday, 25 April 2009, the Mad Professor & co will read about some fascinating facts about the Earth, our home (for most of us anyway), and afterwards help clean up the Gulfport Temporary Library's "yard", plant some flowers and afterwards relax with something cool and refreshing and play some F.U.N.games with a special kind of beach ball that, thanks to NASA, looks just like the Earth seen from space!

Gloves and trash bags will be provided for the clean-up!

Easter Egg Hunt Thank You

Thanks and warm wishes to all who participated in the Gulfport Temporary Library's second annual Easter Egg Hunt. Especially Destiny and Christian, who helped the Mad Professor set things up!

Holes 'n Kites

This Saturday 21 March 2009 the Mad Professor & crew will watch "Holes", the movie based on Louis Sachar's book by the same name.

Not to give too much of the story away, "Holes" is about a boy who gets put in a detention camp in the middle of a Texas desert, where all the children have to dig five foot holes in the ground (hence the title of the book).

Because the movie lasts longer than the time given for one story time, we will watch the rest of the movie the following Saturday.

If time allows we will fly some kites after each part of the movie!

Popcorn and kites will be provided!