BY WENDY PURDY 

Books can help children understand the nature of friendship and how everyone can be a good friend in difficult circumstances. Here are some books that give young and older kids insight into love, friendship and fitting in.

Summer is heating up in the Lowcountry. If you’re looking for some at-home ideas to keep the family busy, we’ve rounded up some unique ideas.

HOLD A COOKING OR BAKING COMPETITION: Search for a family-friendly dinner or dessert recipe online (try to find one with a lot of steps.) Print the recipe out, set up cooking stations for each member of your family, then set a timer and see who wins. For younger children, be sure to pick easier or no-bake recipes like trail mix or Rice Krispie treats.

Enjoying Independence Day can involve many other activities besides fireworks. Here are some ideas to help celebrate the festive day.

FESTIVE DESSERTS

A frozen treat such as chocolate-covered frozen bananas gets into the spirit with sprinkles. A cupcake with red, white and blue accents is a fun patriotic dessert. Or cut everybody a slice of ice cream flag cake.

Sea Turtle nesting season begins May 1. To ensure a safe season, the all-volunteer Sea Turtle Patrol HHI will patrol the beaches until the end of the hatching season (July through October). Residents are advised of a few guidelines.

The Town of Hilton Head protects Loggerheads by requiring residents along the beach to turn out lights or shield them from the beach from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The local football season provided another highlight at the Blitz Border Bowl at Savannah’s Memorial Stadium.

The contest between senior all-stars of the Lowcountry and Coastal Empire was a tightly contested game, with the Lowcountry prevailing 14-13. 

The Lowcountry was paced by Wade Hampton’s Jamian Risher (MVP) who caught a 59-yard touchdown pass and threw the go-ahead 36-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Gilliam of Hilton Head High.

The new year signals the promise of new books ready to be read and savored. 

Here are a few titles we are looking forward to in 2022:

THE SWIMMERS, JULIE OTSUKA

Author of the award-winning “The Buddha in the Attic” and “When the Emperor Was Divine,” and the heartbreaking and brilliant short story “Diem Perdidi,” Julie Otsuka’s first novel since 2011 is a story about what happens to a group of “obsessed recreational swimmers when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool.” 

The Lowcountry will be home to champions in December. 

The Mortgage Network Road Races is set for Dec. 5 at Hardeeville Elementary School off Red Dam Road. The featured race will be the 2021 USATF Half Marathon National Championship presented by Toyota.

The Yacht Club of Hilton Head Island held its 50th Harbour Town Cup sailing regatta, a series of handicap races for spinnaker and non-spinnaker classes and a separate set of races for the Flying Scot one-design fleet, a news release said. 

In 1970 a group of sailors met under the Liberty Oak at Harbour Town and formed the Hilton Head Sailing Club.  

Students and the public had a chance to view history with the presentation of the Anne Frank — A History for Today exhibit at Cross Schools in Bluffton. The Anne Frank Partnership was sponsored by The Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, and local partner, University of South Carolina’s College of Education Anne Frank Project.

The Anne Frank Partnership has worked since 2015 to create globally- and socially aware students in South Carolina classrooms.