It wasn't exactly ‘Night at the Museum', but ten lively youngsters and seven enthusiastic teens are a combination sure to make even the sleepiest library come alive.

In fact the Bermuda Youth Library is already a pretty lively place, but for ten youngsters between the age of seven and 11, the enjoyment extended beyond opening hours on December 3 when they had a sleepover among the books.

Melissa Looby, circulation associate and the library's Teen Advisory Board coordinator, explained that this was in fact the third time the TAB had hosted a sleepover at the library held to coincide with the first night of late-night shopping.

The evening's activities began with dinner of garlic bread and spaghetti bolognaise prepared by Miss Looby, followed by Wii, boardgames, a scavenger hunt and a couple of movies, including “Despicable Me”. For the scavenger hunt the youngsters had to use their knowledge of the library, the online catalogue and familiarity with popular books to track down titles, quotations and even the books themselves.

“By the time they had finished running around like crazy,” Miss Looby observed, “it was 9.15 and bedtime.”

Of course, as any adult can attest, sleep is the last thing on the minds of kids at a sleepover, but the youngsters had a choice of watching “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” or reading a book of their choice as a way of settling down before lights out.

Everybody camped out in the library's auditorium with a sleeping bag, blanket and pillow. They did eventually get to sleep, but “Unfortunately some were awake again and up and about at five o'clock,” Miss Looby observed wryly. They amused themselves with books, board games and Nintendo until everyone was up and ready for breakfast of pancakes and bacon at around 6am.

“Elf” was the last movie the youngsters watched as they waited for their parents to collect them.

“It was actually really fun,” Miss Looby noted, “and definitely something we're going to look to continue having.”