Five Fun Ideas for You and Your Friends

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It’s summer. The good news is you’re out of school. The bad news is you’re not old enough to drive and don’t have much cash to burn. How do you have a fun night with your friends? Your library can provide many ways for you to get the most out of your summer. Here are five easy, low-key, low-cost ideas to spice up your summer plans.

Book Club
A book club makes reading a social event where you can talk with your friends about a compelling story. Take turns picking the read of the week, and run the gamut of subjects. Read a classic like Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Or go through a whole series such as the immensely popular Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Or make it a book and movie experience by reading Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and then go see the film coming out this summer starring Tom Hanks.

Movie Marathon
If you don’t want to go to the theater, put on your pajamas, pop some popcorn and settle in with movies you borrowed from the library. Many libraries have the latest releases, and you don’t have to fork over the four bucks you would at a video store. How about making it a marathon night, and theme it by genre, actor/actress, director or series?

Get cozy and get lost in adventure with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Or lose yourself in the world of futuristic fantasy with WALL-E.

Craft Night
Many libraries offer free craft classes for all levels. You and your friends can bring out your inner artists in all sorts of projects. You can make jewelry, lanterns, journals—the possibilities are endless. Some more complex classes, such as knitting, require you to bring your own materials, but many provide even the supplies, so all you have to bring is your talent!

Cook-off
Learning to cook with your friends has many benefits, and you’re learning one of life’s most useful skills. Anything that has a good possibility for messy disasters with your friends can also be super fun. And probably most importantly, you get to eat the results of your hard work.

Many libraries offer cooking classes to help you learn the basics. Once you feel brave enough to try it yourselves, check out recipe books and make all kinds of main dishes, snacks and desserts. If you’re feeling really ambitious, try to create some recipes yourselves—so long as you’re brave enough to be a taste-tester!

Scavenger Hunt
Keep the education going during the summer, and teach your friends about anything you find interesting. Make at least two teams and create a list of 10 trivia questions for the opposite team. Create categories, such as history, science, sports, literature, arts, etc. Then head to your library and use their resources to find the answers. Whoever completes their questions correctly first and can show where they found the answer wins. Look up books, and if one topic especially interests you, check it out to learn more. Ask your friends who won the 2002 Olympic gold medal for women’s figure skating (Sarah Hughes) or what movie holds the record for top box office sales? (Titanic).

Recommended Resources

Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen
Read how the clever Elizabeth Bennet engages in a battle of wits with Mr. Darcy, an intelligent, wealthy man, who is taken aback by Miss Bennet’s forthcoming attitude. This classic novel proves that first impressions can be very misleading.

The Twilight Saga
By Stephenie Meyer
Meet Bella Swan, a shy yet very mature teenager who has just moved to Forks, a small town in Washington, to live with her father. At high school, she meets Edward, a breathtakingly handsome boy who has a dark secret. Read all four books in this incredibly popular series.

Angels & Demons
By Dan Brown
Follow Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon as he races through Rome on a scavenger hunt-like trail established by an ancient secret brotherhood. Langdon must decipher all the clues and reach the end before a new weapon of unthinkable destruction annihilates the heart of the Catholic Church.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Dr. Jones is back in his fourth adventure where he uncovers a Soviet plot to covet mystical artifacts known as Crystal Skulls. Indy originals Harrison Ford and Karen Allen return along with newcomers to the franchise, Cate Blanchett and Shia LaBeouf.

WALL-E
From Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Oscar Winner for Best Animated Feature Film, WALL-E is the story of a waste-collecting robot who falls in love and unexpectedly goes on a space journey that will determine the future of human existence.

The Michaels Book of Arts & Crafts
By Dawn Cusick and Megan Kirby
From America’s largest specialty retailer of arts & crafts, this book is an encyclopedia for everything crafty. Showcasing a variety of techniques and boasting 175 projects for you to embark on, this big colorful book will show you how to do everything from beading to painting to scrapbooking.

The Absolute Beginner’s Cookbook, or, How Long Do I Cook a 3-minute Egg?
By Jackie Eddy and Eleanor Clark
Make all kinds of soups, salads, desserts and appetizers with this beginner’s guide on how to cook. Your simplest questions are answered in this “Kitchen Survival Manual” that contains more than 175 recipes.

15,003 Answers: the Ultimate Encyclopedia
By Stanley Newman and Hal Fittipaldi
Learn thousands of trivial facts in all areas of knowledge, including sports, music, movies, history and more. This comprehensive know-it-all book has a full category index and a foreword by famous Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings.