Lisbon Library and Cole Library held kick-off parties for their summer reading programs.

Cole Library’s kick-off party was Saturday, May 30, at Cole Library. Snow Cones, face painting as well as bubbles and planting seeds were among the activities at the event.

On Thursday, June 4, Cole Library hosted the llamas from Prairie Patch Farms.

The llamas arrived in a van, right on time.

Prairie Patch Farms is a wildlife refuge near Shueyville that houses llamas and alpacas.

Kahle Boutte described the distinctions between llamas and alpacas.

“Alpacas are smaller than llamas,” Boutte said. “Alpacas also have more pointy ears. Llamas tend to have more banana shaped ears overall.”

Both animals are native to the Andes Mountains in South America, and are related to camels.

One thing that Boutte said was that while llamas and alpacas spit, that’s a defense mechanism.

“Usually happens when another animal invades their personal space or they’re in a fight,” Boutte said. “And it can progress to some really nasty spit.

Attendees were then able to pet both the alpaca Simon and llama Bootleg Benny.

Lisbon

The Lisbon Public Library hosted their annual Summer Reading Kickoff at Lisbon City Park on Thursday, June 4, at 7 p.m., in which families were invited to play games and enjoy spooky storytelling around a campfire.

As families filed into the park, families were able to roast s’mores, look at a table full of spooky stories, and mingle with others. However, it wasn’t long before previous Lisbon Library director, Amy White, began sharing a spooky story.

Once the story was over, and the spooky twist of a spider being under the covers was revealed, the children got to share what their spooky twist under the covers would’ve been, including things like ghosts and zombies.

Although White was done with her first story, the children were eager for more, so Lisbon Public Library’s youth librarian, Meredith Nehring, read from a book called “Creepy Carrots!” Nehring’s storytelling kept the children engaged and even had them stomping around along with the carrots in the book.

However, even after hearing two spooky stories, the children still wanted to hear more. Nehring went on to read from one more book, “In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories” before the children were given glow sticks and played “Mr. Crocodile.”

Once their game of “Mr. Crocodile” was complete, the children were encouraged to get more s’mores and settle in for one more spooky story told by White. This story, however, was an interactive one. Alongside White and Nehring, the children acted out the actions of the story by stomping and running and shouting at the scary things along the way.

After the final story had ended, Nehring gathered the kids to play “Sharks and Minnows” to round out the night.