"It's all good," says Pete
 You may have heard about our Pete the Cat Dance Party and wondered why we chose to do this...and why now.
Storybook character, Pete the Cat is all about positive messaging. Pete is resilient. Pete takes life's challenges in stride, and while it is hard to take anything in stride right now, we are all doing our best to stay safe and hold on to the joy as best we can.
When Pete has assorted messy encounters that change the color of his new, white shoes, does he cry? Goodness, no! Pete's creator, Eric Litwin tells us: The moral of Pete's story is: No matter what you step in, keep walking along and singing your song. Because it's all good.
At the library, we are still singing our song. We are very grateful to the individual donors who made our three week long Dance Party with Pete the Cat possible, allowing us to connect safely with families and provide children with new books to keep, special activities and new holiday masks, all while dancing to The Twist and Rockin' Robin. I think the adults have had as much fun as the children.
As the holidays approach, we wish you all good health and all the joy you can hold onto.
Be well. Be safe. Be kind.
Please feel free to contact me any time at jperrin@townofjaffrey.com.
Kind regards, Julie M. Perrin, Library Director - a.k.a. Ms. Julie
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Exciting News: AARP Tax Help Returns in 2021!
 When AARP's tax service shut down last March, many of you were left without the assistance you needed, but understandably, they needed to protect their volunteers. They have been working hard to future proof their services and have come up with a curbside plan that will take place here at the library. Details will be forthcoming, but we wanted to share the good news.
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Attention Parents and Students: Brainfuse HelpNow is coming!
These are challenging times for students of all ages, and their parents and teachers. The library wants to help, and so our library took the lead to get special group pricing for all New Hampshire libraries for Brainfuse HelpNow. We struck a deal that gets us an incredible service for less than a third of the normal cost, so that this resource is not out of reach for small communities like ours.
Brainfuse HelpNow offers live tutoring (YES, LIVE TUTORING with a real human!), along with a host of other learning and career tools for learners of all ages -- kindergarten through adult! Watch for it to go LIVE in January.
This video gives you an overview.
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Help for learners of all ages, when you need it, free with your library card.
We expect to have Brainfuse HelpNow available in January 2021.
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Mars Base Camp Kits
 THE RACE TO LAND HUMANS ON MARS IS ON!
This kit features four hands-on activities that can be enjoyed with or without internet access and individually or all together, and teaches STEM skills like mechanical engineering, physics, computer science and agriculture:
1. Landing Zone Surveyor is an unplugged activity to land on Mars and discover features that are important for setting up a base camp.
2. Red Planet Odyssey is an unplugged activity that uses engineering skills to build a vehicle that can explore the surface of Mars.
3. Crop Curiosity is an unplugged activity that teaches biology, environmental science, and agriculture to grow nutritionally efficient food on Mars.
4. Insight from Mars is an activity that can be done unplugged or online to code and share a discovery they made on Mars using CS First and Scratch.
The kit includes the supplies needed for all four activities, as well as 1 fiction and 2 nonfiction books. Ideal for ages 8 and up.
Thank you to our donors for supporting the library’s STEAM literacy programming.
Want to reserve this or learn about our other kits? Just type "STEAM kit" in our catalog search bar and reserve with your library card. All of our kits have a three week checkout!
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Holiday Safety Precautions
For the two weeks following Christmas, the library will only offer contact-less Grab 'n Go Lobby Service (no Bookworm Boogies).
We believe this is the best way to reduce exposure after possible holiday gatherings and be able to stay open.
For just the weeks of December 28 and January 4, we will only be open by appointment for you to pick up your reserves on the Lobby Grab 'n Go schedule. Browsing carts will be in the Lobby if you want to use self-checkout, and staff will be available only at a distance if you need us to check out items for you.
This allows us to provide service with a limited staff and keep everyone extra safe during a time when Covid surges are expected.
To make all types of library appointments, visit the Library-to-Go menu on our website.
Clarifications:
- We have been experiencing a lot of very early arrivals (some before we open), with the expectation that we will let you in early for your appointment. We really cannot accommodate this. We need the time before Grab 'n Go hours start to pull the reserves and prepare the checkouts, and on Boogie days, we need that 15 minutes before the next appointment to clean and disinfect. No matter how chilly it is or how much we want to be helpful, we need to follow our schedule and appreciate your understanding.
- We will continue to offer Bookworm Boogie appointments through December 21. Just a reminder that after Thanksgiving, we restricted Boogie appointments to one floor only, but if you need to browse other collections, we are happy to prepare a cart for you and bring it to the main floor. Just let us know when you make your appointment.
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Holiday closures
 The library will be closed for the Christmas holiday, Thursday, December 24 through Saturday, December 26, and for the New Year holiday, Thursday, December 31 through Friday, January 1. Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season!
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Thank you, Santa for a wonderful Zoom Storytime!
Safe travels!
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