{"id":38551,"date":"2026-07-16T18:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38551"},"modified":"2026-07-16T18:19:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:19:39","slug":"library-is-destination-for-kids-and-teens-to-stay-cool-and-have-fun-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/library-is-destination-for-kids-and-teens-to-stay-cool-and-have-fun-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Library is destination for kids and teens to stay cool and have fun this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Local students and their families showed off their green thumbs last week as the Aurora Public Library hosted a summer launch for its new Seed Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held on Wednesday, July 8, it was a chance for people to bring in their plants, swap them for others, borrow seeds to start a new seedling of their own, and bring some seeds into the collection to help pay it forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If young gardeners were able to show off what makes their garden grow, there are plenty more opportunities for personal growth \u2013 and memorable fun \u2013 as the Aurora Public Library becomes a summer destination for youth once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APL CEO Jodi Marr describes the Library as a \u201chip hub for teens and children now that school is out \u2013 and for all ages.\u201d The fact that it\u2019s air conditioned in what\u2019s turned out to be a summer of heatwaves only sweetens the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer is always a busy time at APL and the Library has a full range of activities and resources for people of all ages, including their Friendly Chess Tournament drop-in every Monday, traditional reading clubs, and even the opportunity to learn from the professionals how to make shawarma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur main thing for summer for children is that it always be fun,\u201d says Polly Ross-Tyrrell, Manager of Customer Opportunity for the Aurora Public Library. \u201cOur menu of programs is fairly diverse. We have art, we have science, we have Maker activities, very hands-on activities \u2013 and, of course, we have book-focused activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These activities vary from day to day, but some days of the week have specific themes to help guide patrons through all the Library has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maker Mondays, for instance, is perennially popular \u2013 as are Fantastic Fridays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn Maker Mondays, they\u2019ll get to go home with something they made just the way they wanted to,\u201d says Ross-Tyrrell. \u201cWe have Fantastic Fridays, which is everything from monsters and dragons to fairy tales, but the most important thing is we want it to be fun for kids. We want to make it fun and enriching for their lives; whether they are coming to learn science or seek a fun explosion, they will learn things. If they are coming to our Reading Adventures, our book-focused program, they will learn some great books to check out on their way out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to meet children where they are. For teens, we meet them around volunteer hours, mostly. We know that\u2019s what teens want for the summer, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re here to give them. We have lots of opportunities; they can come help out with the children\u2019s programs, they can come run the summer reading desk, and they can sign up for various other things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Summer Reading desk is sure to be a busy spot through July, August, and into September, as reading programs for youth of all ages help them prepare for the schoolyear ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a Teen Summer Challenge where they can participate in different activities, check out books, and earn tickets towards some really cool prizes, and we also have our TD Summer Reading Club for Children, and our Read and Bead,\u201d says Ross-Tyrrell, noting they have added some \u201creally, really fun prizes\u201d into the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe launched Read and Bead about seven years ago where children read for an hour and they get a bead to put on their necklace. It\u2019s a concrete way for them to see how many hours they\u2019ve read and the really little kids like it \u2013 so do our older kids \u2013 and at 10 hours of reading they can pick a prize from our prize pack. At 20 hours of reading, they can pick a free book, and then the top three readers will get bigger prizes. The feedback from where we go into the schools in June is so positive, they\u2019re so excited about it. Aurora really shows up for this program and I think it really makes a difference \u2013 we all love it, too. We have a staff version and we Read and Bead along with the kids and have a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, APL\u2019s summer programs aren\u2019t simply focused on words on a page, but providing a \u201cwhole experience\u201d for local youth, including a partnership with Ka-Ba-Ba, a restaurant on Yonge Street, just south of Wellington, where kids can register for a spot to learn how to make their own signature shawarma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe try so hard to offer a well-rounded experience for children,\u201d says Ross-Tyrrell. \u201cIf they come to everything, I think they really will step forward a little in their development. If they read lots, they won\u2019t get behind when they go back to school. That’s, of course, a huge part of summer reading club \u2013 preventing the fear of \u2018summer slide,\u2019 where you end up in Grade 3 reading when you were in Grade 4 reading when you left school. We want to help them explore the world. And if even five or 10 of the hundreds of children who come through our doors go, \u2018Oh, that’s something I didn’t know,\u2019 \u2018That’s really cool,\u2019 or \u2018I want to learn more about that,\u2019 that’s a reward for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a full roster of summer programs at the Aurora Public Library, visit aurorapl.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local students and their families showed off their green thumbs last week as the Aurora Public Library hosted a summer launch for its new Seed Library. Held on Wednesday, July 8, it was a chance for people to bring in their plants, swap them for others, borrow seeds to start a new seedling of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-16-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-a1N","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 20:20:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38553,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38551\/revisions\/38553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}