Diary of a Renovation

It has been a great summer. Thanks to our bookmobile staff, Bernal participated in SFPLs summer reading effort Read in the Wildest Places. More thanks go out to The Friends of SFPL for funding our special events held at Red Hill Books and Junipero Serra School. And last but certainly not least-- thanks to Red Hill Books and J. Serra School for giving us their space and time.

The summer kicked off with Nick Barone’s puppets. Nick set up his portable stage and sound system in a shady corner of J. Serra's schoolyard. The afternoon’s entertainment was a rendition of The Enchanted Forest. A noisy, hot playground quieted down into an audience of delighted kids and adults. In July, J. Serra once again played host – this time to The Bubble Lady. And once again a hot day cooled off as the audience was showered, encased and delighted by The Bubble Lady’s antics.

Red Hill Books hosted the August events-- Elizabeth Falconer’s Kotoworld and Bernal’s own Familia Peña-Govea. Since both concerts were early evening performances, some audience members were sporting pajamas! Ms. Falconer played her 6 foot long “dragon” and told mouse tales. Later, the kids were invited to come up and explore the 23-stringed instrument. Later in the month Familia Peña-Govea held forth with a program of global music. Their concert extended from one hour into two, closing the bookstore down with a very happy attendance.

HATS OFF TO THE KIDS IN J SERRA'S SUMMER PROGRAM. Eighty children (grades 1 -5) signed up for Read in the Wildest Places. The enthusiastic group made great use of the bookmobile-- ALL 80 COMPLETED OUR SUMMER READING LOG. 100% is not a bad return... Finally, I need to relate an incident that truly made my summer. Mid-summer I visited the first-graders to see how they were coming along. Upon my entering their room, the kids burst out into a rambunctious chant “I love my library card, I love my library card!” (no prompts from their paraprofessional either.) As Bernal's children’s librarian, it just doesn’t get much better. --Valerie