Librarian on a Snowy Day

Upcoming Book Discussions for all ages

• My First Book Club - Ages 4-6 - First Wednesday of the month at 4 pm.  Join Ms. Eileen for our monthly book club for ages 4-6. Sign up and come to the library to check out your copy of this month’s title. Read it at home and then join us for a child-sized discussion and activity in the library. March's meeting is already waitlisted, but please check back for April!
• Curious Minds Book Club - Ages 7 - 10 - Third Wednesday at 4 pm (in-person with Zoom hybrid option available for the discussion only).  No question is too big or too small for this Curious Minds Book Club!  Youth ages 7-10 choose a book from the monthly booklist to read, then meet for book sharing, followed by a fun science-based activity in the library.  This month is Woodland Animals and thanks to our friends at New Hampshire Fish & Game, the activity will be extra special.  Registration required.
• Familes Read Roald Dahl - Wednesday, March 23 at 4 pm (in-person with Zoom hybrid option for both the discussion and activity).  Join Ms. Andrea and Ms. Julie for this family book club. Each month will feature a beloved novel by award-winning children’s author Roald Dahl, giving families the flexibility for siblings to participate together. This perfect month-long bedtime read gives caregivers and older siblings the opportunity to take turns reading aloud to enjoy the story and improve reading skills together. Participating families will receive a copy of the book to keep for their home libraries.
  Participants meet for a librarian-led discussion, followed by a related group activity. March’s book is The BFG. Book club books are available for pick up now for the March 23 discussion.
  Registration is REQUIRED for this event. Please include the name and age of each participant, so we can include enough activity supplies.
  Thank you to  the Jaffrey Knights of Columbus, Council 8544 at St. Patrick's Church for sponsoring the Families Read Roald Dahl Book Club!

For adults:

Gather Around a Book

• Gilded Suffragists -  Monday, February 28 at 2:00 pm
  "When they embraced suffrage, they became the first celebrities to endorse a political cause in the twentieth century." ( page 2)  This special daytime event to kick off Women's History Month features Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites Who Fought for Women's Right to Vote by Johanna Neuman, facilitated by Liz Tentarelli. Register here. There are still a few places left, and the book is short if you want to pick it up on Saturday! 
• Remains of the Day - Tuesday, March 8 at 6:30 pm
  This month's selection is The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, a profoundly compelling portrait of Stevens, the perfect butler, and of his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1954 and moved to Britain at the age of five. His eight previous works of fiction have earned him many honors around the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker Prize.   Our discussion facilitator will be Ann McClellan, professor of English and Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Plymouth State University where she teaches 19th and 20th century British literature.  Register here.
• Watch our Event Calendar  for April's selection of The Humans by Matt Haig and May's title,  Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland  by Patrick Radden Keefe.  Registration for these programs will open in early March.

Project Grandparent Workshops

• Caregiver Workshop - Topic: Technology Fun without the Internet - Friday, March 4 at 10:30 am  Learn about the myriad internet-free tech tools the library has on offer—from Launchpads to Wonderbooks to Ozobots to 3D Pens and more!  Please register.
• Caregiver Workshop - Topic: Internet Safety 101 - Friday, March 18 at 10:30 am  Bring your iPad, smartphone, or other device for an introduction to basic internet safety for when the grandkids are around. Please register.

Murder in Plain Sight? An Abenaki/Settler Mystery on the Vermont Frontier

Save the date!  Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 pm on Zoom with Dr. Damian Costello

Calling all genealogists, local historians, and amateur detectives! This program will examine an unsolved story of murder from Central Vermont. Local history briefly records that in 1790, the original American settler to the Montpelier area, Jacob Fowler, killed an unnamed “Indian” in a dispute over a trapline.

We will reconstruct the biographies of the two participants through historical documents, genealogical work, and the fiction of local historian D.P. Thompson and explore the bigger questions of this formative time in Vermont history. Audience participation and expertise is encouraged.  This program will take place on Zoom. Registration is now open.

Click here for an article exploring the topic of this program.

Our presenter is one of our favorite book discussion facilitators, historian Damian Costello.   Damian Costello received his PhD in theological studies from the University of Dayton and specializes in the intersection of Indigenous spiritual traditions, Catholic theology, and colonial history. He is an international expert on the life and legacy of Nicholas Black Elk and the author of Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism. Costello is a speaker for the Vermont and New Hampshire Humanities Councils and serves as the Director of Postgraduate Studies at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, an Indigenous designed and delivered ATS accredited theological graduate school.

This program is funded by a SHARP grant from New Hampshire Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, through the American Rescue Plan.

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