Hooked On Books

The Hooked On Books Project is designed to promote literacy for pre-schoolers. It is a program that promotes school readiness and early literacy and instills a love of reading in our children.

Learn more about the Hooked On Books Project

Get your weekly "Library Lines" fix here, before it hits the stands. Library Lines are posted online every Friday afternoon or you can read them in the Waterville Times.
Library Lines is written by Director Jeff Reynolds. .

November 21st, 2008

A happy thanksgiving to all! Speaking for all of the Library’s staff, we extend our thanks to all of the WCS District community for the opportunity to serve you in our state-of-the-art facility.

In these volatile economic times, it was comforting recently to read and hear radio remembrances of the late Chicagoan Studs Terkel, the eminent oral historian of 20th Century America who passed on October 31. Terkel’s interviews with ordinary Americans about how they weathered the tough times of economic depression, war and civil strife are touching and inspirational for us today. We have many of his works at WPL, including his Pulitzer winning The Good War. Arriving soon we’ll have audio recordings of his interviews from his long-running radio shows.

Don’t miss our forthcoming presentation of Relaxing with my Paints, an exhibition of Adirondack watercolors by Gail Huntington Gale, in the Library’s gallery, December 1-13. Gail, a great friend and former trustee of WPL, is a graduate of Parson’s School of Design and has studied watercolor for many years with Ralph Murray, a fellow special friend of WPL. Incidentally, Ralph has again donated one of his paintings for our annual holiday raffle. (The jar is filling up, so don’t miss your chance.)

Join us for our series of holiday family movie nights, December 9, 11, 16 and 18, at 6 pm and note your calendar for a special holiday story hour for ages 1-5 on Tuesday, December 23. Call us at 841-4651 for movie titles and further information about many other upcoming programs.

Ocotber 8th, 2008

We invite you to celebrate the season with many spooky programs at the Library.

If you're a mystery lover be sure to join us on Tuesday, October 14th at 6pm for our Tea & Mystery program for adults. Author Rebecca Benston will host this event and asks you to bring a favorite mystery book and play a whodunit game.

This month we begin monthy Thursday Nights at the Movies for adults and teens. On October 16th at 6pm join us for a new adventure movie (PG-13).
We will have a Kids' Matinee on October 18th @ 11am. (See vegetables in a pirate adventure).

By popular demand, Stacey Jones, Ghost Hunter returns to WPL on October 23rd at 6:30pm. Last year we had a packed room so come early!

Our first annual Halloween Festival will be Friday, October 24th from 5-8 pm. Kids can wear their Halloween costumes, play games, make crafts and watch a magic show at 6pm. Except for reasonably priced refreshments, all activies will be free.

Monster masks, Halloween necklaces, bat handprints and more are what we will be making on October 25th at 10:30am. Children ages 2-12 can sign up for this program.

Jill's computer classes have been very popular, so we will schedule more starting in November. Stay tuned for dates to be announced.

October 1st, 2008

The past fortnight has been busy at WPL. Last week we hosted a second annual reunion of WCS grads—375 strong under tent on a gorgeous full moon lit evening. In the Library’s hallway gallery were displayed Flip Brown’s 8x10 color glossy photographs of Waterville, pre and post Main Street renovations. Those photos will stay up for another two weeks, after which they will make way for the first installment of Picturing America, a marvelous new exhibit that we received by grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Picturing America comprises 40 large scale reproductions and photographs of great American art masterpieces, all depicting significant people, places and events to our nation’s history. The initiative is intended to be an intellectual gateway that will stimulate young American’s to explore our history and culture; preparing them “to add their own chapters to America’s remarkable story.” We’ll eventually display all of the images over the next several months.

Speaking of significant artworks! Come to see this year’s crop of scarecrows. Of our nine entries,-- all terrific, the contest winners are: 1st place: "Sammy" by the Cornelius Family; 2nd place: "Funny China Man" by the Erlichman Family; and 3rd place: "Willie" by the Williams Family. Thank you to all who participated. Visit our website at www.midyork.org/waterville to have a look.

Last this week, the blue eyes of Paul Newman sparkled bigger than life on our movie screen last week when we showed “Nobody’s Fool” for the Waterville Book Discussion Group who had read Richard Russo’s novel on which movie is based as their September selection. October’s selection is “The Senator’s Wife” by Sue Miller.

September 3rd, 2008 - Library Lines

First, I would like to thank everyone for participating in the Summer Reading Program this year. We had over 50 kids complete 8 hours or more of reading this summer and we had 20 teens complete far over 8 hours of reading. We had free T-Shirts for every kid who read 16 hours and they were all gone by the beginning of August!

I would like to thank Stewarts, the Rotary Club, Roc-Star Ice Cream, Michaels, Food King, New York Pizzeria, The Village Toy Shop and Wal-Mart for all of their generous donations towards the library summer programs this year.

Now that summer has come to an end, the leaves are slowly changing and kids are getting back to school I’d like to mention some of our upcoming programs in September. First we have Back To School Crafts on September 6th & 10th. All school aged children are welcome to participate, please sign up at the library.

Our annual scarecrow contest will take place September 12th-19th this year. You can compete in groups or individually. Compete with your friends, family or neighbors to see who has the most unique scarecrow in the town! Turn scarecrows in by Sept. 19th.

We will have magician Leon Etienne here at the library on Saturday, September 20th @ 11am. Join us during the Crusin’ Into Waterville Event for this free performance.

Family Movie Night will continue on September 25th @ 6pm. We have plenty more programs coming up in September and October.

Please visit the library for more information on any programs. Also if you would like to be reminded about upcoming programs, get on our mailing list. Email ABriggs@midyork.org subject heading Amanda’s Mailing List.