Marie Fleche Memorial Library celebrates end of summer reading program with magic show, pizza party
The magic of reading came to life at Marie Fleche Memorial Library last week.
The children’s room was packed for magician Joe Holiday’s Reading Rocks magic show, which celebrated the end of the library’s successful summer reading program. Holiday brought literary favorites to life — from “Harold and the Purple Crayon” to Harry Potter — during his awe-inspiring and unique presentation, with kids laughing and cheering along the way.
“It really brings the book to life using magic,” Holiday said. “The show went really well. I was excited to see how many kids came out.”
Holiday has been performing as a magician for more than two decades, and he started his educational programming 12 years ago after seeing a magician in the Washington, D.C., area combine books with magic.
“I thought it was a great combo,” Holiday said with a smile.
One of his most popular tricks during last week’s show was based on “Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson, during which Holiday draws a bowling ball on a notebook, shakes the notebook and an actual bowling ball falls with a thud to the floor.
“That was my favorite part,” Erin Somers said. The 5-year-old had a busy summer filled with reading, estimating she read about 30 books since June. Her favorite, she said, was “Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale” by Mo Willems.
Erin’s big brother Sean, 8, was enjoying chapter books this summer, especially “Cam Jansen: The Basketball Mystery” by David A. Adler, and the duo’s cousin, Joey Somers, 11, caught up with Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” trilogy over the past few months — in addition to more than a dozen other books.
Julianna Sabec, 9, read about 15 books this summer, and although she aimed to read more, she didn’t regret her number.
“My goal for the last few summers was to get to 100 books, but it’s slowed me down because I’m reading ‘Harry Potter,’” Julianna said. She’s currently on the series’ sixth book, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which she deemed her favorite recent read, even though she wasn’t quite finished yet.
This summer marked Marie Fleche’s most successful reading program, with 83 children signed up, which is more than ever before.
“It went exceptionally well,” Betty Velie said.
The technology and publicity consultant was thrilled with Holiday’s show, too, noting it was the first time he brought his magic to Marie Fleche.
“He’s an excellent magician,” Velie said, “with the way he incorporates the books into his magic. He was great.”
Following the magic show, the library treated the kids to pizza — donated every year by Angelo’s Pizza in Berlin — brownies and juice, a tasty way to cap off a fun summer full of unique programming.
For more photos, visit The Sun at www.facebook.com/theberlinsun. To learn more, visit www.berlinboroughpubliclibrary.org. To learn more about Holiday and the Reading Rocks magic show, visit www.ReadingRocksMagic.com.
