The Mount Airy Public Library is looking to make a splash with this year’s summer reading program.

The kick-off for the event, which has a water theme this year, will take place June 17 with Ahoy! Readers, featuring story-telling by Brack Llewellyn. Signups for this year’s event will begin June 14. While children do not have to sign up to attend, the first 200 who do sign up will receive gift bags filled with stickers, bookmarks, a reading chart and other prizes.

While the program’s theme is “Make a Splash - Read!,” each week will have its own sub-theme relating to water. Because of the number of children who attended the events last year, the library will have two times for each week’s events at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.

The second week revolves around the theme of “Catch a Good Book.” Wal-Mart is donating two small aquariums to the library which Angela Llewellyn, library assistant, will allow program participants to help fill on June 24.

“They’ll get to help put it all together and decide what goes into the aquarium,” she said. “Then, every time they come to the library they can visit their aquarium and see what’s going on.”

The Dewey Decimal Players, the youth theater group started by Llewellyn, also will do a telling of Marcus Pfister’s “The Rainbow Fish.”

On July 1, the third week of the program, children will be able to “Book it to the Beach.”

“I’m bringing the beach to the library,” said Llewellyn.

There will be a dump truck load of sand at the library and children will be able to build sand castles, play limbo, try out hula hooping, play with beach balls and listen to beach music.

The fourth week’s program is “Splash into Reading.” July 8 will be filled with water, and children are asked to wear their bathing suits to the event. There will be plenty of water games for participants including a water balloon toss and a bucket brigade as well as a sprinkler.

The Dewey Decimal Players will be the featured activity on July 15 as they “Set Sail for the Library.” They will act out a play in which pirates, who are marooned on an island, consult different books to determine the best way to escape the island in order to look for hidden treasure. They end up looking in all the wrong places before figuring out where the treasure really is.

Zelnick the Magician will host the event July 22 with a show combining magic, water and reading.

As a reward for the children who participate in the summer reading program, there will be a Splish, Splash Reading Bash July 24 at Reeves Community Center’s pool from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

All of the events, with the exception of the reading bash, will take place at the Mount Airy Public Library.

The library also will have Movies on Monday again this summer. Beginning June 7, the library will show a movie each Monday night through July 26, with the exception of July 5. The movies will be shown on the side of the library beginning at 8:45 p.m. In case of rain, the movie will be moved inside.

All of the movies this year, with one exception, are based on books, something Llewellyn thinks is a good tie-in for the library. She thinks there will be a crowd this year because of the drive-in closing. This will be an opportunity for people to watch movies under the stars.

The event will kick-off June 7 with a showing of “New Moon.” The June 14 feature film will be “Avatar.” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” will be shown June 21. June 28 will featuring the showing of “The Blind Side.”

“Where the Wild Things Are” will be July 12’s feature presentation. July 19 will have a showing of “Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief.” The final film will be “Michael Jackson: This Is It” on July 26.

All of the movies are free to the public.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.