September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month. Do you know the value of your Library card? Laura Bush said, “I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card.” Without a doubt, you’ve seen quotes from a variety of famous people around the world regarding the value of the Library. Rita Mae Brown said, “When I got my library card, that’s when my life began.” You can use your Library card for much more than checking out books! Learn a new language, stream movies, discover new places around the world, learn the ukulele, and star-gaze with a telescope. What have you discovered with your Library card?
We’ve enjoyed fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, and carrots from our Library garden. Our gardening series continues with Winterize Your Garden on Thursday, September 15 at 6:30 p.m. Master Gardener, Jackie Wellborn, will teach us how to prepare our gardens for winter so they’ll be ready for spring planting.
What are you cooking up? Join us at Cookbook Club to try new recipes and branch out in your culinary skills. Each month we’ll select a cookbook, read and cook from that book, and share your results. This month we’re eating from The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond. Pick up a copy of this cookbook today and join us on Saturday, September 17th at 11 a.m. to share your dish and meet other food lovers.
Spend time with your little one building pre-reading skills while making new parent and caregiver friends at our fall session of Baby Time! We’ll share nursery rhymes, sing songs, read books, and enjoy free play with age-appropriate toys. Attend one or more classes: we’d love to see you anytime! Fall Baby Time begins Monday, September 19th at 10:30 a.m. and continues weekly through Monday, October 24th.
Register for a free Child Car Seat Safety Check on Tues, Sept. 27th, 9 a.m. –11 a.m. Patrons are invited to bring their child safety seat, their vehicle, and their child to the library where a certified technician will be on hand to answer questions, check for recalls, and assist with making sure child safety seats are correctly installed. Parents and caregivers can sign up for this drive-through event online or sign up at the Library desk. A limited number of walk-in appointments will be available.
Early-out Thursdays are full of after school activities! BAM POW activities for Kindergarten through 5th graders begin at 1:45 p.m. and CATS activities for 6th through 12th graders begin at 3:30 p.m. Join us for games, crafts, LEGOs, movies, and more! Pick up a schedule of activities at the library or visit our website calendar.
The benefits of chair yoga continue to amaze us all! Patrons have remarked about increased range of motion, improvements to quality of life, and enjoyed the social interaction. You can join us to see what the fuss is all about! Mondays at 12:30 p.m. and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Please note the class size is capped at 25 to allow adequate space and optimal instruction.
Please note the Library has the following upcoming closures for staff continuing education and safety training:
Friday, September 23rd, the Library will close at 4 p.m.
Thursday, October 13th, the Library will be closed.
Friday, October 28th, the Library will be closed.
Banned Books Week (September 18 — 24, 2022) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. — American Library Association
To learn more about banned and challenged books, or find something new to read, visit the Library! Here are a few of our favorite banned books:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior — to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
Drama by Raina Telgemeier. Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon over Mississippi, she can’t really sing. Instead, she’s the set designer for the drama department’s stage crew, and this year she’s determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn’t know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
Melissa’s Story by Alex Gino. When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl. George thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part . . . because she’s a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte — but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.