The Best Christmas Program!

Last night's Christmas program at the library was wonderful, with nine readers reading Lee Kingman's "The Best Christmas", a sweet story about an old-fashioned Christmas and a little boy who makes it the best Christmas ever for his family.  Go to the website (click on Photo Album in the menu) to view photos from this event.  Here's one picturing the amazing Buche de Noel (Yule Logs) that Tim Kennedy made with the help of Bill Elliott.  See the meringue mushrooms??  Beautiful, and delicious too!  Thanks also to Margie Amico and Stephanie Krebs who made special treats for this program as well.

Lee Fritz, Founder of Book Club, Steps Down After 20 Years of Service

Lee Fritz, after 20 years as Book Club coordinator, has stepped down and Sylvia Carney has assumed the role.  At the book club meeting on December 14, Lee was honored for her years of leadership and was presented with a gift of a beautiful scarf.  Members discussed and voted on reading selections for 2010.

Lee and Bill Fritz






 






Lee opens her present.

 New book club leader Sylvia Carney

Sylvia Carney
Joan Grossman
Lee Fritz

Sketch and Poem Crawl in Freedom

Join Freedom Elementary Second Graders for

Our Sketch and Poem Crawl

The Second Graders of Freedom Elementary School invite you to participate in their first Sketch and Poem Crawl of Freedom Village on Wednesday, December 9, from 12:15 to 2:00 PM. This drawing and writing event, part of their study of community, is inspired by Italian artist, Enrico Casarosa. His creation SketchCrawl consists of world-wide drawing marathons.

“The basic idea: to record non-stop everything I could around me with pencil and watercolors.”

This intense drawing changes the way one looks at everything. Anyone can participate in this Sketch and Poem Crawl. All levels of ability are welcome from first timers to accomplished artists. If desired, bring a clipboard as paper and pencils will be provided. Please be sure to dress for the weather. After a brief introduction by writer-artist Louise Wrobleski, a literacy consultant and one of the directors of the UNH Literacy Institute, we will begin the tour. Planned stops along the half-mile walk to the Freedom Public Library include visiting talented artist Pam Keith. At her residence, we will view her primitive murals. Pam is also baking cookies for the children as a special treat! Next, we will gather on the back deck of the Freedom Village Store to view the waterfalls from a new and different perspective. Nancy is very excited to have the children visit. She has kindly offered to serve hot chocolate to help keep us warm. Communal art projects will be set up inside at the Freedom Village Store and the Freedom Public Library. Everyone will have an opportunity to share and compare drawings and thoughts about the experience at the library. At our final destination, Elizabeth Rhymer, will read Oliver Butterworth’s The Enormous Egg. Judy Johnson will share her art work currently on display. The second grade children have found both Elizabeth and Judy wonderful resources during our monthly library visits. The Freedom community has many talented artists and writers. Be sure not to miss this multi-generational community event!

Knitters are Knitting Up a Storm!

There are 6 enthusiastic knitters in Gail Bizer's knitting class at the library and although the class is scheduled to end on the December 17th, they are all begging for it to continue after the holidays.  Gail is enjoying teaching very much and is willing to continue the Thursday afternoon classes at 3:45.  If any students in grades 4-6 are interested in taking the class starting in January, sign up at the library.  Also sign up if you are a teen or adult interested in knitting classes as we now have an instructor ready to teach after the holidays.

Card-making at the Library

Starting Saturday November 28th, patrons are invited to the library to create their own holiday cards and gift tags.  We've got blank cards, markers, glitter glue, ribbon, old Christmas cards, Christmas rubber stamps and more!  Come on down and create a card for that special someone.  Here are Jeffrey C. and his grandmother with two of the cards they created today.

Ladybug Picture Book Award Reading Marathon

On Thursday, November 17th a group of teachers and staff of Freedom Elementary School and I read 10 picture books nominated for the Ladybug Picture Book Award to children in grades K-3. Whew, it takes a long time to read ten books! Fortunately, we had an attentive audience. After the children heard all the stories, they each voted for their favorite. Click here to see the entire list of nominees.

And the winner was... Too Many Toys by David Shannon! About a little boy named Spencer who has so many toys his mother is on his case to give some away. He finally agrees to part with some and ends up discovering the best toy of all. 11 out of 30 children voted for this book.

Runners up were Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies (4 votes) and a three-way tie for 3rd place (3 votes each): Bedtime at the Swamp by Kristyn Crow and illustrated by Macky Panintuan , Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry and Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox and illustrated by Lydia Monks.

Here are some photos from the morning's reading marathon. Click on photo to see larger version:

Radar

Meet the Rhymer's new kitten Radar, who visited the library this week to the delight of all who chanced to meet him. Here he is with two of his biggest admirers, Margaret and Hannah. Don't worry, Louie is still the library cat!

Raffle Prizes for 6th grade and younger

If you have more raffle tickets than you can spend at the library store, or if you aren't going to be able to shop when the store is open on Wednesday August 19th from 4:00 - 5:30, you can try to win one of the following prizes. Come by the library, email the library at freedomlibrary@roadrunner.com or call the library at 539-5176 to tell us how you want to use your raffle tickets. You can put them all toward one prize or divide them between prizes. Don't forget to give us your name and phone number.

Here are the prizes:

1. One 18 hole Mini Golf game & 1 GoKart ride at White Lake Speedway (2 winners)

2. Mini Golf 2010 Season Pass at White Lake Speedway

3. 1 Gb Sansa Clip MP3 Player








4. Sony Boombox with CD player, cassette & radio

5. Light box made by Herb Burroughs

6. Cool Bike

7. $10 Walmart Gift Card


8. Candy! (two winners)









9. Huge Pink Horse

Teen Tie Dye

Many thanks to Sarah Groleau who ran this tie dye workshop with the teens this summer. Some came back the next week to show their finished tie dyed clothes.

My how you've grown!

Here are Hannah and Maggie with one of the ducklings that was perched on Bill's shoulder not long ago. I don't think the duck would fit on his shoulder anymore!

Duck Duck Goose

The Rhymers have acquired some new babies - 4 chicks and 2 ducklings. And they've been visiting the library the last two days. Here are the ducks with Bill Stoops.

Twister!

School let out early today so Hillary & Brianna came to the library. Not much to do, so we got out the Twister and each girl won once.

Oh-so-helpful Kitty

I finally had to kick Louie out because he was getting in the middle of everyone's work... Here he is "helping" a patron with her computer tasks.

Irene's newest grandchild

7 month old Mariana and her grandmother, library volunteer Irene Hopper, came to visit this week. What a sweet baby. We fell in love!

Her name was Lola

The Stewarts have a new Havanese puppy named Lola. Pictured here, Elizabeth Rhymer, Judy Johnson, Howsie Stewart and sweet little Lola.

Check Out Louie (April Fool!)

Louie pics

Louie has had a good winter working here at the library. Here he is soaking up some sun and enjoying a nap with Joel.

Hard work!

A Visit from the 2nd Graders

How nice to have some down time to spend with some good books.