And suddenly it is August… Old Home Day, families on vacation, kids heading back to school. We must make the most of each day!

Old Home Day is just around the corner (Saturday, August 13^th – all day, on the Common) and the excitement is building. Have you seen the posters with a full schedule of activities? We at the library will be open from 9 until 1, pausing, of course, for the parade. We will have our usual book sale with children’s selections outside in front of the library and the rest of the books will be inside and out by the back door… many, many great selections!

Speaking of Old Home Day, this year’s theme is “It’s Your Story” and you (long timer or new, older or younger) are invited to share your story! Grab your cell phone and take a quick video… Perhaps you might share a fond memory about what you like about life in Rumney or how you happened to make Rumney your home… When you are done, email your video (and we hope it includes your picture) to rumneyhistoricalsociety@gmail.com  If you would like any additional information stop by the Information Booth on the Common and talk with Kim Ganley or the Rumney Museum and see Kathy Wallace.  

Summer is moving along and today we start our last week of Summer Reading. We’ve all enjoyed this year’s theme, Oceans of Possibilities. We’ve talked about whales (The Blue Whale can be 120 feet long!) and sharks (The Greenland Shark lives in the frigid waters around Greenland and can live over 500 years!). This week we are all about Octopuses or Octopi if you prefer. Next week we will share what we have learned!

·         

Se      Sedaris, David – Happy-Go-Lucky (2022) – As always, Mr. Sedaris captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about the recent upheavals. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them! (Filed under LIVES)

·         Baldacci, David – Dream Town (2022) - #3 in the Aloysius Archer series – It’s 1953 and Archer is in Los Angeles to ring in the new year and, of course, we are in for several chilling events…

·         Brooks, Geraldine – Horse (2022) – Inspired by the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

·         Evanovich, Janet – The Recovery Agent, (2022) - #1 in a brand-new series -   in this series, our heroine is Gabriela Rose who is reliable, cool under pressure and well trained in weapons of all types. Get ready for a novel that is tense, suspenseful, wild, funny, and wise.

·         Ginder, Grant – Let’s Not Do That Again (2022) – A mother running for the senate, a son running from his problems, and a daughter running straight into trouble… Smart, funny, and tear-jerking, this novel proves that like democracy, family is a messy, fragile thing.

·         Weiner, Jennifer – The Summer Place (2022) – This novel is a testament to family in all its messy glory, a story about what we sacrifice and how we forgive, and a good summer read!

Just want to say how much we enjoy our seasonal patrons who return each summer to explore our backroads and beautiful Stinson Lake and take the time to visit us. What fun to see the children and how much they have grown. August is bittersweet as the goodbyes begin.

Wishing everyone a good week and we look forward to seeing you on Old Home Day.
Susan and the Library Ladies.
August 1, 2022

Wow, it looks like hot days coming our way this coming week… makes me lazy just thinking about it! Fortunately, we have some “cool” beach reads for those of you picturing yourself at the ocean…

Not this Tuesday, but the following Tuesday, July 26^th at 9:30 am, our families with youngsters kindergarten through eighth grade, have been invited to Russell School for a CLiF event. The children will be entertained for about a half hour and then will select a free book to take home… all to promote and encourage reading. Please reply at the end of this missive if you are interested… we need to know grade levels so we have adequate books. It promises to be a fun time!

Summer Reading – Week 3

Preschool through Lower Elementary Grades – Monday and Saturday 10:30

This week it is all about Jellyfish…Did you know that some jellyfish glow in the dark?... and that the largest jellyfish is called a Lion's Mane, "Cyanea capillitia", and grows up to 3 feet across???
Our story will be Stella, Star of the Sea, by Marie Louise Gay
Our Take and make craft is a Jellyfish Suncatcher. 
We will have a brand-new Guessing Jar. 
Congratulations to last week’s winner, Lincoln Strassell!!!
Come in and find Walter the whale hiding in the kids’ section of the library1

 Middle Schoolers – Wednesday at 4

 So proud of our tweens and the way they have tackled our weekly challenges. We all know a lot more about whales and sharks as well as the location and spelling of the major oceans. This week our tweens will be reporting in on the largest and shortest sharks in length and how they did measuring them out in their yards… and then we will start in on this week’s challenges and share our findings in two weeks. (July 27^th at 4 No Meet-up next week.).

•  Challenge 1: Our geography challenge is to identify and color each continent in the world and then carefully label each of the oceans we have talked about.
• Challenge 2: Our research challenge has to do with the words ‘oceanography’ and ‘’oceanographer’. Oceanography is the study of the ocean and all its complex relationships with the planet. This includes the study of weather, ocean currents, and sea life, and every other topic associated with the ocean. An oceanographer is a special kind of scientist who studies the ocean.

There have been many well-known oceanographers besides Jacques  Cousteau. Can you research and find the names of three oceanographers and tell something about their accomplishments.

Challenge 3:  Select, check out, and peruse a book on oceanography. Select three interesting facts, write them down and be ready to share at our next meet-up.

Challenge 4: Read each day and meet your sommer reading goal!

Adults – Any Time

Challenge 1: Email me with the title and author of a book you have read and enjoyed. Can you add a line or two of why you liked it?

Challenge 2: PLEASE stop by the big round table and lend a hand to assembling our Undersea puzzle. The good news is that Angie has the outside done and the colors separated!

Challenge 3: Check out these five new additions to our fiction shelves…

1.     Glory Road by Lauren K Kenton… “brims with faith and family, second chances, and new horizons”

2.    The Judge’s List by John Grisham…

3.    You are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks… “a fiendishly smart cat-and-mouse thriller”

4.    Book Lovers by Emily Henry… “ one summer, two rivals, and a plot twist they didn’t see coming”

5.    The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani… Eli Hilderbrand says “a wonderous novel of storytelling, love, war, religion, and that which defines us all: family, and (yes) inspiring”

Well folks, that’s it for this week… see you at the library!
Susan and the Library Ladies

  

 

Summer Reading – Week Two – July 11 – 16, 2022

Are you ready for Week Two? Last week we learned several new facts about whales and our middle schoolers can now name, locate, and spell the five major oceans. Can you? This week our topic is sharks. Read on to see what is happening.

 Week Two – Preschool thru Lower Grades

Did you know Sharks constantly shred their teeth and grow news one? It is not unusual for a shark to have 50,000 teeth over a lifetime!

Hope you can join us Monday or Saturday morning at 10:30 for Story Time. We will read  Lookout for the Big Fish by Sheridan Cain.

 We have a new Guessing Jar and there are new creatures in our aquarium for you to find. I wonder if you will be able to find Walter, the gray whale. He sure likes to hide!

Week Two – Middle School

Our Wednesday afternoon get-to-gether will be July 13^th from 4 to 4:45 (notice the change in time). This is the time to finish up our Week One challenges and move your submarine into the Indian Ocean and then tackle our Week Two challenges! Here we go… Week Two Challenges!

Challenge 1: Living in the icy cold waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans slows the growth and aging of Greenland sharks so dramatically that they can live for a really, really long time. Your challenge is to research a fact or two about Greenland sharks and make a small poster that we can display (like we did Week One).

Challenge #2: Find Greenland on a map. Did you know that Greenland is an island and is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Find Denmark on a map. What is the distance between the capital of Greenland and the capital of Denmark?

Challenge #3: There are over 500 varieties of sharks swimming in the oceans, and they come in various shapes and sizes. Read a bit about the largest shark and about the smallest shark. Using a measuring tape with Mom or Dad, measure out the length of the longest and the shortest sharks.

Challenge #4: Read and be ready to share about a book you are reading or just finished.

Looking forward to seeing our Middle Schoolers Wednesday 4 – 4:45

If Wednesday doesn’t work, come anytime and you are always welcome to email.

 

Week Two – Adults of All Ages

This week we invite you to google “sharks” and learn a few new facts. In addition, take a look at the mini-posters our middle schoolers are making. Quite interesting!

Are you signed up for downloadable audio and ebooks? If not, you are welcome to contact Jane
 who can help you get started with the Libby app. Ebooks can be downloaded in a matter of minutes, are easily portable, and are available 24/7!

New this week, Finding Me by Viola Davis. Ms. Davis tells us, “Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.”

…and the start of a new series. Growing Season by Melanie Lageschulte, the first book in the “Seasons Series” introduces us to Melinda Foster and tells of her return to Iowa after losing her job in the Twin Cities. ("... It's hard not to fall for plucky Melinda and her quirky and kind friends and neighbors. ... Melinda's reinvention of herself isn't without its bumps, making her a relatable heroine whom readers will want to follow to her next adventure." - Publishers Weekly)

 Get your week going with a good book… loving these comfortable days and my porch. Recently finished Anne Tyler’s French Braid which I really enjoyed, a family saga spanning 70 years as Ms. Tyler tackles fundamental assumption about womanhood, motherhood, and female aging…a good read.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

Susan and the Library Ladies

                                                                                                                                                                              

Welome to July! This is the month for cookouts, sunscreen and BEACH READS! (Seriously though, don’t forget the sunscreen.) As always, the staff at BGM Library are here to provide free fun for all ages, so let’s get into what’s coming up!

 Keeping up with our Oceans of Possibilities theme, we have a slew of sea-themed shenanigans just right for the younger set, pre-schoolers through middle school through adulthood! Join us for five exciting fact filled weeks all about the ocean and its amazing creatures.

Preschoolers thru Lower Grades

 Stop in each week, add your submarine to our ocean mural and move it across the ocean as you complete each week’s activities.

Week One – Wednesday, July 5 at 3:30 – All About Whales
(This program will be repeated on Saturday, July 9^th at 10:30 AM)

·         Story time……. Ms. Jane will be reading Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andrae and has a fun whale craft planned.

 Did you know the blue whale is the largest creature in the ocean? We invite you to meet our mascot, Walter the Whale. Each week he will be hiding in a different place in the library?  Can you find him?

 Our Hidden Creatures Aquarium is on display with new sea creatures to find each week.

 

Tweens/ Middle Schoolers

 

Week One – Wednesday, July 6 at 5 – 5:45 PM – All About Whales or come when you can.

 

·         Challenge 1: Help us research and display facts about whales… There is so much to learn and to share with our community

 

·         Challenge 2: What are the names of our Earth’s oceans? Can you name, locate, and spell correctly the top five oceans on our earth??

·         Challenge 3: Bring a friend and play a few games of Go Fish! Extra credit if you go home and play with a sibling!

 

·         Challenge 4: Set your reading goal for Week One and read!

 

When you have checked off all four challenges for the first week we will reward you with stickers and you will qualify for some fun prizes at the end of Summer Reading! You can stop by the library anytime to work on these challenges but, if you want to have fun with other tweens, stop by on Wednesdays from 5 to 5:45.

 

Adults

Your very favorite Beach Reads display is up and going… What is summer without a fun read one can not put down, a glass of iced tea, and lazy days!

That’s it for Summer Reading Week One….

Looking forward to seeing you in the library…  I am happy to report that I am feeling much better and have a pile of new books to process just for you!

Susan and the Library Ladies