Make Your Own Ancient Animal Clay Wall Hanging!

Wednesday, July 2 at 2:00pm

Kids will use ancient animal hieroglyphics from the Olmec, Maya and Aztec peoples to stamp the design onto their own clay wall hanging that they can take home. A teacher from The Museum of Craft and Folk Art will be leading the class.

For ages 5 and older.

Ghost Hunting for Teens

Ghost Hunting for Teens

Thursday, June 19 at 4-5:30 p.m

Ever wonder if ghosts are real? Want to learn how to capture ghosts on audio and video? How can you tell a real ghost from a fake? Learn about poltergeists. Is it true that teens tend to experience them more? A real ghost hunter from the San Francisco Ghost Society, Tommy Netzband, will talk about his experiences investigating ghosts and hauntings. He will also share some ghostly images and sounds he has caught on DVD. (But he won't bring any ghosts with him.) Get the info, then you decide what to believe!

For ages 12-18.

For more information, contact Marla Bergman at (415) 355-2832 or mbergman@sfpl.org

Summer Reading Program for Kids and Teens!

Sign ups being this Saturday for the kid's and Friday for the Teen summer reading program.

Read in the Wildest Places is the reading program for all children through age 13. June 14 – Sat., August 9, 2008. You can sign up at any location.

Small incentive prizes will be awarded to enrolled children who have read for two, four and six hours during the eight weeks of Summer Reading. One grand prize will be awarded to each child who reads for eight or more hours and visits the library at least two times. Children may read books in any language they choose.

Babies or Toddlers can participate by having someone read to them. There will be special incentive prizes for this age group and a fun handout with suggestions for activities (available in English, Spanish and Chinese).


Teen Summer Reading Program For teens age 13 to 18, is June 13th to July 25th.

Sign up at any of the participating branches. You will keep track of what you read and time spent reading.

Complete a Comment Card with your contact information for every 10 hours of reading to win fabulous prize:

• 10 hours – triliter


• 20 hours – personal journal


• 30 hours – usb flash drive

When you finish 30 hours of reading, you will receive an invitation to the Grand Finale Party(invitation required) on Friday August 1st – 3:30 to 5:30pm, for TEENS only, which include games, tasty treats, entertainment and a raffle with tons of prizes like Zunes, iPod Shuffle, Gift Cards and free classes at Mission Cliffs and Acrosports.

Armchair Travel

Nothing like beautiful sunsets, exotic food, long train rides... but wait, it has rained every day since you arrived? The samosa you ate from a food truck has left you ill? And so far the only thing long about your train ride is the wait to leave the station?

Longing for a vacation but not all the hassle? Here is a list of Armchair Travel books that will make you feel like you had an exciting vacation without having to deal with a pat down from the TSA.

All these titles are available at SFPL, click on title for location:

Blue latitudes : boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before by Tony Horwitz.

The author provides an account of his adventures tracing the voyages of eighteenth-century explorer Captain James Cook in an attempt to discover whether Cook had a lasting influence on the places he "discovered," and hoping to learn what drove Cook to make such dangerous journeys.

Other titles by Horwitz include books about the Middle East and Australia.

Dark star safari : overland from Cairo to Cape Town by Paul Theroux.

Theroux returns to many of the places where he lived and worked as a Peace Corps volunteer and teacher in the 1960s. Always one to rankle readers and people he encounters.

Other titles by Theroux include books about England, Mediterranean, China and Oceania.

The best travel writing 2007 : true stories from around the world.

A compilation that spans from Paris to Japan to Bolivia.

The Library also owns the series: The best American travel writing.

In a sunburned country / Bill Bryson.

Taking readers on a ride far beyond packaged-tour routes, Bryson introduces to Australia. Leaving no Vegemite unsavored, readers will accompany Bryson as he dodges jellyfish while learning to surf at Bondi Beach, discovers a fish that can climb trees and dehydrates in deserts where the temperatures leap to 140 degrees.

Smile when you're lying : confessions of a rogue travel writer by Chuck Thompson.

Thompson has spent more than a decade traipsing through thirty-five (and counting) countries across the globe, and he's had enough. Enough of the half-truths demanded by magazine editors, enough of the endlessly recycled cliches regarded as good travel writing, and enough of the ugly secrets fiercely guarded by the travel industry. But mostly he's had enough of returning home from assignments and leaving the most interesting stories and provocative insights on the editing-room floor.

For more titles, check out the Armchair Travel display on view at the library during the month of June.