{"id":11291,"date":"2025-09-09T08:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/11291\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T08:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T08:21:11","slug":"mcpls-blank-canvas-filled-summer-with-record-reading-and-hundreds-of-free-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/11291\/","title":{"rendered":"MCPL’s Blank Canvas filled Summer with Record Reading and Hundreds of Free Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another personal favorite for Bainbridge comes earlier in the process: unboxing the prize books in the spring. She compared it to the joy of Christmas morning, when staff get their first look at the titles and prepare displays for the season.<\/p>\n

Preparing for next year<\/p>\n

Planning for summer reading begins months in advance. By March, staff will review data from the prior year to determine how many books they need to order for each age group. Bainbridge explained that headquarters provides lists of potential titles, but each branch chooses the options that best fit the community and their interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Douglas added that preparation also includes the Librarian\u2019s Reading Challenge, where staff focus on reading youth titles so they\u2019re ready to recommend them to patrons when summer arrives.<\/p>\n

Upcoming events<\/p>\n

While summer remains the busiest season, the Excelsior Springs branch<\/a> will continue offering story times and special events into the fall and winter. Weekly story times take place Tuesday through Thursday at 10:30 a.m., with seasonal versions around Halloween and Christmas.<\/p>\n

Upcoming programs include:<\/p>\n

Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m. \u2013 Kansas City Symphony\u2019s Mobile Music BoxOct. 8 at 10:30 a.m. \u2013 The Great Pumpkin Playdoh ActivityOct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. \u2013 Operation Wildlife Presents: MigrationNov. 1 at 3 p.m. \u2013 Kids STEAM Brick Building<\/p>\n

Winter programming will open for registration on Nov. 1. Highlights include Dungeons and Dragons for teens, Grinch and Santa story times, and sculpture-creating activities for kids.<\/p>\n

Though the Blank Canvas theme has wrapped and is considered a success for 2025, Douglas explained that the library\u2019s work doesn\u2019t slow down. \u201cSummer is certainly our busiest time,\u201d she said, \u201cbut we offer fun story times and programs to keep our families and patrons engaged with the library all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another personal favorite for Bainbridge comes earlier in the process: unboxing the prize books in the spring. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-11291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}