Poppies came from Linda W. in Pennsylvania today.  

Today’s mail brought the first batch of poppies — from Kathie L. in PA and from Kathy S. in Ohio.  Thank you both!        

Here’s my patch of nine poppy...

It’s time for winter reading in Australia. I sent four book blocks to Margaret today.

45 Summer Reading blocks were posted for June. Random.org chose two winners:  Margaret R. will get 23 and Gail will get 22. Watch for an email message from Sophie with allocation details (how many to send to whom) and mailing addresses. Thank you all for playing this month.  

You have two days to post your Summer Reading blocks for June. (I can hear it now:  “I just want to finish this chapter, Mom!”) Refer to the June tally post to be sure I have your blocks recorded.

I will try to keep this updated as you report your blocks. Nann — 4 Kathy S. — 8 Cathy K. — 6 Cathy L. — 3 Margaret R. — 4 Teresa — 3 Gail — 2 Mary B. — 1 Linda — 4 Kathie  — 1 Robin — 4 Julianne — 5

I mailed four rails to Texas and four to Michigan.  Have fun!

The book spine will work better if you cut it 7-1/4″ — that is, the same length as the book. And, yes, the block is 10″ UNFINISHED.  It’s an off-beat measurement but, as I noted, if you make the blocks for yourself you can trim them.

If you will be drawing templates for the Summer Reading block, note that the diagonal for the blue top and bottom pieces and the book cover pieces is 4-1/2″, not 4-1/4″.  [The width of the entire unit is 4-1/4″.] I’ve written the correction on the template sheet.  Block Lotto templates correction If you’re printing out the templates from the PDF you’ll be okay. Thanks to Julie W. for asking.  ...

In my 39 years as a public library administrator (six libraries, five states) I budgeted for, helped to plan, and participated in the annual Summer Reading Program.  Sometimes we came up with our own theme and sometimes we adapted the state- or systemwide theme.    Sports, travel, dinosaurs, dragons, myths, superheroes, all to encourage kids and adults to explore the riches of the library and delight in independent reading. Of course library...

Here are eight blocks for this...