Maggie makes a Christmas card

Santa faces made out of hand prints... turned out cute! Here's Maggie in the midst of making hers at storytime recently.

Cozy Kitty

Louie loves his new cat bed.

Storytime Buds

Carter and Bridger enjoy preschool storytime on Wednesday mornings.

Our Favorite Thespian

We got out the Fairy Tale Theatre that's been languishing in the Library Store for a couple of years, and Brianna put on a play - a new version of Little Red Riding Hood in which the wolf just decides to dress up in Grandma's pajamas and then Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma scare the wolf away.

Great Day for A Walk to the Library

The 2nd graders came to the library today to select books and to hear some stories read by Mrs. Rhymer. She read Ira Sleeps Over, one of the new books from the Children's Literacy Foundation and If You Find A Rock, a beautiful book about all different kinds of rocks you might found outside. Here's the whole group together with their teacher Mrs. Pohl as well as a picture of April, Lucas and Catherine reading I Don't Like Gloria outloud together. What fun! I'm looking forward to next month's visit from the 2nd graders already. (As always, click pictures to see them full size!)

Post-storytime Family Portrait

Karen Hopkins poses with her daughter Bethany and two of her grandchildren, Spencer & his cousin Stella.

Thank You!

A Windfall of Books!

The Freedom Public Library received a sponsorship from the Children's Literacy Foundation. We now have 100 new children's books! Here I am with Duncan McDougall, the Director of CLiF, showing off a few of our new aquisitions. Check out the website http://www.freedompubliclibrary.org/ for pictures from the presentation Duncan gave at the Freedom Elementary School. Check out the CLiF website - it's a wonderful organization and well worth supporting.

So? DO you care?

I didn't notice the t-shirt this little girl was wearing when I snapped her picture with our NH Humanities Council lecturer, Leonardo DaVinci (aka Paul Manning). She came last night with her great-grandparents all the way from Gorham, ME and though I didn't catch her name she seemed like a very special third grader. We were happy to have over 50 people attend last night's standing-room-only performance of "Leonardo DaVinci: 1452-1519" and even happier that everyone loved it - we got a great deal of positive feedback. Many thanks to the Friends of the Library and the NH Humanities Council for sponsoring this program and especially Ellen Many, Lee Fritz and Sharon Meyer who did all the work. Ellen did a bang-up job of publicity and people came from all over to experience Leonardo DaVinci in person! Oh, and thanks Paul - you were a hit, bravo!
Update: The little girl is named Phoebe! Hi Phoebe!

Love at First Sight

Daniell Spear and his wonderful new dog, Benjamin, came to visit me at the library today. He was lucky to find Ben, a friendly, loving full-bred Golden Retriever, at the Upper Valley Humane Society in Enfield, NH. After a grueling 2 1/2 interview and a return trip with his wife, the shelter agreed to let the Spears adopt Ben. What a great dog! I think it's a match made in heaven.

Who is that blonde bombshell?

Why, it's Elizabeth Acton, visiting the library on Halloween!

Drive in Library?

Jackson let Jack drive with him to visit the library in his cool electric car.

Pumpkins

The storytime kids made pumpkins out of toilet paper rolls and orange tissue paper. Here they are with their creations...

A Flock of Sheep

Elizabeth had some little lambs, little lambs, little lambs!
Preschoolers Matthew, Carter, Spencer, Olivia and Bridger made sheep masks this week!

I am so far behind on this blog! I have so many good pictures to share with you, I'm just going to start RIGHT NOW and post some. Here are some scenes from this year's Freedom Public Library "Paws to Read" parade entry for Freedom Old Home Week. Judy and I dressed up as cats along with four children who carried signs (art work by Bill Stoops and made into signs by Heidi Glavin -- thank you guys!!). We did have one dog, thanks to Hilary who brought her dog Ginger. On my way back from registering for the parade, I stepped my foot directly into a fresh warm pile of dog poo. Fortunately I was barefooted and fortunately it didn't get all between my toes. Once I got the poo all off my foot, I came closer to the rest of my group (who were all in hysterics because of the poo) and I stepped right where Ginger had just peed! Ah dogs... Gotta love 'em.

Judy is the coolest! Look at her on her new red scooter!

We have a raffle winner!

Congratulations to Arlene Knight whose name was drawn to win an original watercolor by long-time Freedom resident Elizabeth Acton. The painting is of Stuart's Barn (we are not exactly sure where this barn is...somewhere up near Cragged Mountain Farm). Of course, Arlene was thrilled to have won the painting. The raffle earned (after framing costs) $253 for the Friends of the Library. Thanks to all who bought tickets and especially to Elizabeth Acton for donating her art.

UDATE: Emily Phillips, Elizabeth Acton's daughter, wrote me with information on Stuart's Barn. Thanks, Emily!

Stuart's Barn is John Stuart home near Rob and Karen Hatch's. If you are at Cragged Mt. Farm (Cold Brook Road) you follow that towards Eaton. After the Ben Road turns off, the Stuart homestead is the next house (and then you come to Four Corners. 43.860633,-71.033651 go to Yahoo Maps and paste these coordinates into the location and you will find the barn!

Andrea Wright wows Freedom with Books Alive!

Seven minutes til showtime and NO ONE had arrived yet... but eventually a great crowd of 54 adults and children showed up to enjoy Andrea Wright's 7th Old Home Week visit to Freedom. Judging from comments I heard and the extended applause at the program's end, this was her best show ever. The books she and the children performed were Mirette on the High Wire, Mortimer, Gerald McBoing Boing, and Elbert's Bad Word. They also sang a old sea shanty with the words only slightly changed: "Blow Your Nose in the Morning." Great fun for all! Thanks, Andrea!

UPDATE: I sent Andrea the pictures and she wrote back: Hi Elizabeth,
Just got back from a family wedding in the Finger Lakes, (Gorgeous!) to find your pictures on my computer. Thanks so much for sending them, I especially liked seeing your library blog and what fun things you do there in Freedom. There are some places that are just special and I think of Freedom that way: beautiful, friendly, smart, with an excellent sense of humor! Thank you so much for inviting me in to share it with you. It is people like you and your regular library-users who make my job so great. "

A family of readers

This was the scene in the children's room today...

Harry Potter mania

Jesse Wheeler was the first to pick up his reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when the library opened today. Tiffany, who won hers as a door prize at the summer reading program kick-off at the school, was in soon thereafter. I wonder what these kids will be doing today?? The library owns three copies of the new book. Call to get on the wait list if you would like to borrow a copy.

Ferrets in the Library

We had a great turnout for our program on ferrets last week during Fun Friday. Stephanie Mudgett of Freedom Ferret Services brought two of her 9 ferrets to visit with the children. She answered questions about them and talked about their unique qualities. Finally, the children got to hold the ferrets. It was hard not to squeeze too hard!

Birthday Angel

Here's a real-life do-gooder, Rebecca Lees. Instead of getting presents for her 8th birthday, she asked her family and friends to donate money to the library! In she came with a $100 to give to the library. Thanks so much, Rebecca, and thanks to all your generous friends and family. We'll put that money to good use.

Banjos Bones & Ballads

Jeff Warner charmed a full house at his program "Banjos, Bones and Ballads" sponsored by the Friends of the Library and the NH Humanities Council at the end of May. Jeff brought many traditional instruments and sang old songs that evoked times and places long gone. Eli Gordon had a song of his own to sing, also well-received!

Fun Fridays

Oh my goodness! It has been way too long since I've posted on the blog and I have so many photos to share. Here are a few from last Friday's Fun Friday & Teen Night. We got out the new Dance Dance Revolution game and the adults played along with the kids. Same at teen night with Guitar Hero 2. The adults have as much fun as anyone.

Excited Dogs!

I was pretty impressed that Karin got her dogs to sit and pose for this picture. Sully and Kate were VERY excited to be in the library! And who wouldn't be? It's a pretty neat-o place!

Pokemon Club is Alive!

These kids have made Pokemon Club happen, it's really been completely organized and run by them. If sports don't keep them from coming, we usually have a good crowd here on Tuesdays and Fridays after school. This past Tuesdsay, we had one group playing the Pokemon board game and another group battling with the cards.

Finally! Kids in the library to play with!

Where have the kids been all vacation week? I guess they were out playing in the sunshine while it lasted. Today's rain brought a trio of girls, just in time to play our new game Hullabaloo by Cranium with me. It's a game that works for preschoolers but is fun for older kids and adults too. Great multi-generational game, though you do need to be fairly spry. Here is Amber doing a "funky dance" because she won the game!

Another Louie Admirer

You can see how Louie feels about Maggie by looking at the smile on his face.

King Louie

Louie did not find it particularly amusing to be forced to wear a dumb crown, even though he did look regal sitting on top of two red cushions at the front desk. He became so annoyed with Judy and me that he left the building and had to be sweet-talked into coming back.

The best kind of story time craft...

...is something good to eat! This week the children made chicks for Easter (though I bet they don't last that long). The "nest" is a cupcake, the chick is made out of two donut holes covered in yellow frosting. The beak is part of an orange gumdrop, the eyes are chocolate chips, and the grass is coconut dyed green. This recipe came from Family Fun magazine: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50116

We will be taking a three-week break from storytime and will start up again the first Wednesday in May, May 2nd. All 2-5 year olds are welcome!