Candy Delivery

It is traditional for children from outlying areas of Freedom and beyond to come for trick-or-treating in Freedom Village on Halloween night. Village residents can historically expect around 125 ghouls and princesses to ring their doorbells October 31st. Because this can be quite expensive for residents, Melissa Florio Nicoll proposed the idea that rural residents of Freedom who never get any trick-or-treaters donate candy to help village residents with the expense. This was advertised in the school newsletter and in Margery's town column and many people heeded the call and brought candy to the library, the designated dropoff place.

Because this idea is new to town and we got a late start, not many people who live in the village knew to come pick candy up at the library. Last week Emily and Meghan distributed candy around the neighborhood and then this weekend Nathaneal and Philip went to the houses they missed. I think it was pretty surprising to folks to have kids come to their house to bring candy to THEM!

Our Hero

Here's to Bill Stoops, hip hip hooray! He is our everything! Here are a few things he does or has done for the library: Past treasurer of the board of directors, deals with the furnace & grounds people, made rhythm sticks for my preschool storytime, built the magazine swap box, refurbished the Brio train set, made a beautiful box to store train parts in, cut dry erase boards for signage, built shelving in the closet (and now new hooks!), fixed computer keyboard drawers. Actually, he has fixed lots and lots of things and built lots and lots of things around here! This list is huge, but it's just a tiny fraction of all that he's done for the library. And even though I almost always think of some chore for him to do when he comes in the library, he still comes in every day, often bringing the mail, too. Thanks Bill!

Spiders!

Well! We had quite a time today at story time. The books we read today were A Splendid Friend, Indeed, Russell the Sheep, and "A Dark, Dark Story" from Five Funny Frights. Our two new dog puppets sang "Bark in the Dark" by Si Kahn and there were lots of other songs and fingerplays, too. Sue's craft this time was spiders and the kids made some cool ones. Happy Halloween!

New Puppets at the Library!

Here I am with crow, one of the three fabulous puppets I bought for the library at the Children's Librarians of New Hampshire conference held in Conway yesterday. We are having a Name the Puppet contest for children, starting with crow. What shall we name him/her? If you're a kid, you may get to decide!

There was a presentation at the conference about adding music, movement, and puppetry to story time. I am looking forward to trying out some of the things I learned at story time, Wednesdays at 10:00. Children ages 2-5 are very welcome!

The love of reading

This sweet picture was taken at the Friends of the Library annual book and bake sale during Freedom Old Home Week in August.

Friends of the Library Fall meeting

Yesterday was the Fall meeting of the Friends of the Library. Sharon Meyer has stepped down from her role as president after several years of successful leadership. Nancy Seabury also decided to step down as secretary. Officers now are Anne Cunningham, president; Lee Allison, secretary; George Clausen, treasurer. The Friends is seeking a new vice president. If you are interested, please let us know!

The Friends are in excellent financial shape after a better-than-ever response to the annual membership mailing, including nearly 20 brand new Friends. The Friends voted to supplement the library's conferences & dues budget to help me attend the Public Library Association conference, taking place in Boston next March. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to go! Lee Fritz, Margery Conrey and Sharon Meyer agreed to work on selecting and booking a program of the Humanities Council. The Friends had Rebecca Rule come last Spring and her New Hampshire humor program was very well received.

I discussed my plans to start another movie series and asked for opinions on days and times that would work for people. My suggestion of Sunday late afternoons met with approval. We had said 4:00, but several Patriots games start at 1:00, so 4:00 may be too early to start. I'm thinking maybe 4:30. I will post my list of movies that I'm considering and also welcome your input.

Our beautiful library

Freedom Public Library

Visit from the 2nd Graders

The second graders from Freedom Elementary School came to the library today. I read them "If You Find a Rock" and they had many comments about the rocks they have known and loved. Several of them noticed the picture in the book that matched the cover. Very observant! Almost all of them had filled out applications for library cards and were able to choose a book or a magazine to borrow. They made their selections quickly and many started reading right away. The students entered the "Guess How Many?" contest, estimating how many pretzels were in the jar. Madelyn Glavin guessed the exact number -- 120 -- and will be able to select a free book next time she comes to the library. Congratulations, Madelyn! Good guessing!