COURTLAND
The Walter Cecil Rawls Branch of the Blackwater Regional Library celebrated the end of its annual summer reading program on Wednesday.

Storyteller Lorraine Whitehead led the event with dramatic readings from “Django” by Bonnie Christianson. This is a biography for young readers about a guitarist, Django Reinhardt, who struggles to play again after being injured in a fire. The other book was “Max Found Two Sticks” by Brian Pinkney, which is about a boy who is inspired to create music with household objects.

After the readings, Whitehead played a few brief clips of the actual Django Reinhardt performing in Paris in the 1920s. She then invited the children to make their own musical instruments out of materials such as wooden spoons, pie tins, water bottles, marbles, hair combs and wax paper. The children gave a lively performance with their makeshift instruments, playing along to such songs as “Happy” by Bruno Mars and “Let It Go” from the film “Frozen.”

“Mrs. Whitehead appropriately closed things up for the summer,” said Rebecca Wyche, the library’s youth programmer.

Volunteers prepared snow cones and popcorn for the young patrons as they celebrated the end of this year’s summer reading program.

Joni Edwards’ son, Avery, has attended the events at the library all summer.

“I’ve noticed that he’s really excited about checking out books now,” she said. “He gets about 10 books each time he comes.”

“This year was very, very successful,” said Wyche. “The participation was outstanding this year. I’ve seen more and more children coming in to check out books and take AR tests.”