Whether you’re just getting up to speed with Two Wheel Tuesdays or already lead out like LeMond, hit the road in a sleek new BikeArlington jersey from the Arlington Shop at Plaza Branch Library, 2100 Clarendon Blvd.

Available in men’s and women’s styles, they feature a short sleeve club cut, comfortable for riding all day or just on the daily commute.

• Full hidden zipper, allows for ventilation control
• Technical Micro-Grid fabric for wicking and quick evaporation
• 3 rear stretch pockets for carrying food, other small essentials
• Men’s S-XXL, Women’s XS-XXL
• Price: $75 each

See you on the trails.

The Plaza Branch Library & Arlington Shop is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m, and closed weekends.  

Learn what it takes to build a garden to serve the community.

Gardeners will be on hand to discuss how these gardens have been planned, what kind of work goes into them, structures that are being used to grow specific plants, the range of the growing season in Arlington, various ways to protect the garden from pests and wildlife, how to garden in large and small spaces, containers, raised beds and tilled soil, and to answer questions from visitors.

In partnership with the Arlington Food Assistance Center.

Learn more about Gardens and Garden Talks at the Library.

For elementary aged children.

Decorate a clay pot, plant a beanstalk and help make plant signs for the library garden beds.

Please register in advance by calling 703-228-5260 or stop by the branch. Attendance limited to 35 children.

Learn more about Gardens and Garden Talks at the Library.

Sowing Good Health 

Come for this cooking demonstration where you’ll learn two new recipes incorporating that great produce you are growing in your garden and buying at the farmer’s markets! Lots of nutrition tips will be included too.

 FREE but registration is required; please call 703-228-5260 or visit the Westover Circulation Desk. 

Learn more about Gardens and Garden Talks at the Library.

Books to read with your little ones, to celebrate the way Dads teach us, laugh with us, help us and share our adventures:

The Deer Watch
By Pat Lowery Collins

A young boy accompanies his father on a woodland tour in the hope of spotting a deer, a shared quest that takes them over dunes and through a marsh into a wooded area filled with captivating wildlife.

Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle
By Chris Raschka

A father teaches his daughter all about bicycle riding, from selecting the right bike to trying again after a fall.

Hug a Bull
By Aaron Zenz

Delightful illustrations of animal dads and the masculine names for them along with short funny expressions said by one of their offspring like a MALE sheep — Embrace yourself…my dad might RAM you and a MALE goose…Take a look …my dad’s a GANDER.

Surfer Chick
By Kristy Dempsey

The story of a little chick and her dad who take to the beach where he teaches her how to surf.

My Dad is Big and Strong, But… A Bedtime Story
By Coralie Saudo

Every night it’s the same old thing, with dad refusing to go to bed. He wants to play, read stories, even sleep with me, and when he makes his pleading face, I always give in and read him another story. But that’s it, since enough is enough. When it get’s really tough, I tell myself, “Have courage. We’re al- most there.”

Take a spin around the seedier parts of the globe with these detectives and their twisted cases (many are the first of a series)…

Finland

Snow Angels
by James Thompson

A beautiful Somalian refugee-turned-actress is found murdered on a reindeer farm, gruesomely mutilated, a racial slur carved into her chest. Inspector Kari Vaara, head of the rural police force, is under great pressure not only to solve this crime himself, without the help of the big-city cops from Helsinki, but also to keep the potentially explosive case out of the news.

France

Total Chaos
by Jean-Claud Izzo

Detective Fabio Montale turns his back on a police force marred by corruption and racism, taking the fight against the mafia into his own hands.

The Chalk Circle Man
by Fred Vargas

Adamsberg is a provincial detective-turned-Parisian-commissioner who can sense evil in people and prefers to doodle instead of following up on clues and interrogating suspects. When blue chalk circles begin to appear on the pavement in neighborhoods around Paris, Adamsberg is alone in thinking that they are far from amusing – until a woman is discovered inside one, with her throat slashed.

Iceland

Jar City
by Arnaldur Indriðason

When a lonely old man is found murdered in his Reykjavík flat, the only clues are a cryptic note left by the killer and a photograph of a young girl’s grave. Inspector Erlendur, who heads the investigation team, discovers that many years ago the victim was accused, though not convicted, of an unsolved crime. Did the old man’s past come back to haunt him?

Istanbul

Belshazzar’s Daughter
by Barbara Nadel

When a brutal murder shocks Istanbul’s rundown Jewish quarter, the Turkish police force unleashes their best weapon – the chain-smoking, brandy-swilling Inspector Cetin Ikmen, husband to a strict Muslim woman (who disapproves of his drinking) and loving father of eight (with another on the way).

Japan

Inspector Imanishi Investigates
by Seichō Matsumoto

The corpse of an unknown provincial is discovered under the rails of a train in a Tokyo station, and Detective Imanishi is assigned to the case.

Kenya

Hour of the Red God
by Richard Crompton

Detective Mollel, a former Maasai warrior in Nairobi, investigates the brutal murder of a prostitute and suspects the killing is part of a far more extensive plot associated with the turbulent elections of 2007.

Laos

The Coroner’s Lunch
by Colin Cotterill

Laos, 1972. The Communist Pathet Lao has taken over. Most of the educated class has fled, but 72-year-old Dr. Siri Paiboun, a Paris-trained doctor, remains and is appointed state coroner. When three bodies are recovered from a reservoir, Dr. Siri establishes that the cause of death was not drowning – they seem to have been electrocuted.

Norway

The Redbreast
by Jo Nesbo

Police detective Harry Hole accidentally shoots one of the president’s secret service agents during a rehearsal for an upcoming summit meeting – but instead of being fired, he’s promoted to inspector, and begins to piece together disparate threads: threats of violence on Norway’s upcoming Independence Day, the illegal importation of a Marklin rifle (a favored weapon of assassins), and a murder committed outside a pizza parlor frequented by neo-Nazis. [Not the first in the series, but the first translated into English]

Poland

Death in Breslau
by Marek Krajewski

Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby, and Police Inspector Eberhard Mock’s weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted when he is called to investigate.

Sweden

The Ice Princess
by Camilla Läckberg

After she returns to her hometown to learn that her friend, Alex, was found in an ice-cold bath with her wrists slashed, biographer Erica Falck researches her friend’s past in hopes of writing a book and joins forces with Detective Patrik Hedstrom, who has his own suspicions about the case.

United Kingdom

A White Arrest
by Ken Bruen

A serial killer is picking off members of the England cricket team, and in the dark and violent world of Brixton a vigilante group is hanging dope dealers from lamp-posts. Inspector Brant is already in hot water with his chief and needs something big to get him out of it – a “white arrest” – a major catch to whitewash his past sins.

Still Midnight
by Denise Mina

Alex Morrow is not new to the police force, but there is nothing familiar about her new case: In a quiet suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, three armed men slipped from a van into a house, demanding a man who has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this an amateur crime gone horribly wrong or something much more unexpected?

Thanks to some remarkable artists from Department of Parks and Recreation after-school programs, those branches can–for the next few months–boast literary classics come-to-life just outside their doors. 

The main materials were clay, steel and plenty of Summer Reading 2013 imagination.

Lubber Run and Drew Kids In Action began by studying coral reefs, followed by reading Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” and Hans Christian Andersen’s “Thumbelina,” to create the pieces now displayed at Aurora Hills. 

Walter Reed Kids In Action took their inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland,” turning Cherrydale’s front lawn into the Queen of Heart’s croquet grounds.

And Carver Kids In Action read the story of “King Midas” and left Shirlington’s back courtyard with some golden creativity.

Summer Reading 2013 is just heating up. Are you ready for page after page of adventures?

Arlington Public Library wishes to thank our partners in the Parks and Recreation Creative Arts Resource Team:  Jennifer Drobleyn, Roslyn Delos-Reyes, Jeanne Harrison and Elizabeth Steinbach.

Dora, Melanie and Jacob

After living in India for 5 years, Jacob and Dora (and their parents) returned to the United States last week.

What was their first outing? They figured out how to use the Metro (with help from mom), and visited the Central Library.

Everybody got Library cards:

Then the kids signed up for Summer Reading, and put stickers on the Youth Services world map to mark where they lived in India:

And found some good books to check out:

Welcome back to Arlington, we’re so happy to have you!

Shirlington Screens:  Alternating Tuesdays

A Parisian tailor finds himself posing as a baron in order to collect a sizeable bill from an aristocrat, only to fall in love with an aloof young princess. Not Rated; 104 minutes. With a remarkable cast of Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald and Myrna Loy.

Directed by Rouben Mamoulian.

Learn more about Film Screenings at the Library.