Welcome to Fall Hat Week, a week to don your favorite fall topper and plan hat-related activities! For instance, you might want to wear your mortarboard in recognition of National Student Day. This day is set aside to show all students – from preschool through postgraduate – how proud we are of them!

Thursday is also the anniversary of the day in 1790 when the United States took out its first loan. Alexander Hamilton obtained $191,608.81 without authority of law and used the money to pay the salaries of the president, senators, representatives, and officers of the first Congress. Repayment was completed on June 8, 1790.

Monday honors a variety of special days. First, it’s American Business Women’s Day, which recognizes the important contributions that more than 55 million American working women make to this nation. Monday is also Dear Diary Day, Elephant Appreciation Day, National Centenarians Day, Proposal Day, and the birthday of the ice cream cone (1903).

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

Youngsters can celebrate Honey Month with stories and activities about bees at Wednesday’s 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. storytimes. Stories and activities about mice are featured at Saturday morning’s 10:00 storytime.

BOOK TALK

The library’s Bob Kerwick provides this week’s book reviews, featuring a new novel by David Baldacci, "Total Control." Jason Archer is a computer genius. He is also a rising young executive with Triton Global, the world’s largest high-tech conglomerate. He is also a liar.

He tells his employer that he needs a few days off to do some work around the house; this is not true. He tells his wife Sidney that he is flying to Los Angeles for a final interview with another high-tech company. This is not true, either. When Jason’s plane crashes, killing all on board, Sidney discovers there was not interview.

The head of Triton does not believe that Sidney was unaware of where Jason was really going. Neither does veteran FBE agent Lee Sawyer, who is investigating the crash because he suspects sabotage and because one of the passengers was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Sidney and Lee join forces to expose the lies and reveal the secrets behind the crash. Is Jason still alive? Read "Total Control" to find out!

The children’s area has a really neat series of books written by Mike Thaler and illustrated by Jared Lee, the "Happily Ever Laughter" series. This series of funny rewrites of some all-time classic children’s tales gives us a whole new set of bed-time stories. Titles in the series include "Schmoe White and the Seven Dorfs," "The Princess and the Pea-Ano," "Hanzel and Pretzel," and "Cinderella Bigfoot." Parents will enjoy them as much as the kids do!

DID YOU KNOW?

According to the monthly news report from the US Census Bureau, children today are less likely to be uncertain about where their next meal is coming from and more likely to be read to by their parents. In fact, 57% of three- to five-year-olds not yet in kindergarten were read to every day in the last week (figures from 1996) by a family member. The higher the mother’s level of education, the greater the percentage was, ranging from 37% for those whose mothers had less than a high school education to 77% for those whose mothers were college graduates.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

"If nobody ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor."

(unknown)