Favorite Books of the Boston Bruins Players

TUESDAY AUGUST 10, 2010 Last modified: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 2:14 AM EDT

The Bruins mascot, Blades, hands a goodie bag to Danny Gallagher, 8, of North Attleboro during a visit to the Plainville Public Library on Monday.

Black and gold shine in Plainville

BY MICHAEL GELBWASSER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

PLAINVILLE - The Boston Bruins scored a Cat-in-the-Hat trick here Monday.

Bruins mascot Blades and the Bruins Ice Girls brought team-themed decor to the Plainville Public Library, signed autographs and posed for photos with dozens of young fans.

Plainville was among about five Massachusetts libraries chosen by the Bruins and the state board of library commissioners to receive Reading Rinks this summer, said Library Director Melissa Campbell, who wrote a grant for the furniture.

Plainville has been participating in "When You Read You Score," the summer reading program the Bruins run with the state library board.

The Bruins and the library certainly scored with local youngsters Monday. The library was about as packed as the TD Garden when the Montreal Canadiens are in town.

Attleboro resident Paul Parker brought his three sons: Jacob, 10; Nathan, 7; and Owen, 5.

"For these kids, they really love it," Parker said of the library program. "They're big Bruins fans. It gets them prepared for the season, just like the rest of the Bruins.

"It gets them more friendly with the library as a fun place to go and hang out."

Each Reading Rink features a Bruins rug, Bruins themed hockey furniture, bookcases made from hockey sticks and a kid-sized Bruins rocking chair.

The Plainville library also has a special cart of books marked with a sticker as recommended by Bruins players, from Dr. Seuss favorites to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," Campbell said.

"It's really cool, because you can read Bruins books," said Leah Cohen, 9, of Plainville.

All summer, the library has offered a Bruins prize pack donated locally, she said. The contest entry jar is full.

"It was more than 50 percent boys, which is a huge draw to the library," Campbell said. "For a lot of boys, especially boys into sports, reading is not important for them."

Monday, the more sports-minded kids could play knee hockey in the library's conference room or NHL2K10 on Wii in back of the library.

They also could design their own cardboard "hockey jerseys."

"You have to think about what number you want to put on your hockey jersey," Campbell told the kids - some wearing black-and-gold Lucic, Wheeler and Chara shirts and Bruins caps - before Blades arrived.

Each young fan received a bag of Bruins items, including a hand towel and a bumper sticker.

And the refreshments included such goodies as plain hockey puck brownies and sugar cookie hockey sticks.

The Bruins even found their way into a storytime by author-storyteller Mark Binder during the event's first period.

Binder said he was a Bruins fan when he was younger.When I was a kid, Bobby Orr, Derek Sanderson, Gerry Cheevers and Phil Esposito all played," said Binder, referring to the team's stars from the late 1960s and early 1970s.