Adult Summer Programs

 

5-30-2025

This week acts as the official bridge between our spring and summer at the library beginning with the Friends of the ETLPL Books and Bites on Saturday. We had collected so many books over the past year that it took nearly an hour and half to set up. Five hours later the bites were gone along with many boxes of books and the Friends had raised over $900. Now begins the process of collecting more.

June 2^nd begins sign up for the Summer Reading Program. All ages are welcome to sign up. Materials are printed, give aways are organized and prizes are arranged. The calendar will be handed out to Little Prairie Primary students who make their yearly visit next week. It’s also available on our website and at the front desk. The framework of our schedule remains the same with year-round reoccurring programs and additional children’s programs on Monday afternoons. There are new programs scattered here and there. Some of those scattered programs are open to adults. We also have a program each month specifically for them.

In June Ben Merens from the Wisconsin Bureau of Consumer Protection will give the presentation Common Scams and Frauds. Merens reached out to public libraries offering a list of twelve presentations from which to choose. Scary to think that many people have found a minimum of that many ways to try and cheat and steal. Look for another of Merens presentations in the fall. The IGET Community Center has kindly opening its space for us at 2:00pm on June 11th. The Community Center is located in ETCSD’s Doubek building. The entrance can be found off of Division Street. Sandwich boards with the IGET center and ETLPL logos will be by the driveway.

July will see us back at the IGET Community Center for Meet the Author: Mary Bub. Nearly two year’s ago Bub’s husband passed away. One of the ways she dealt with her grief was through a series of letters later published as Letters to Betty: the anatomy of one woman’s grief. Bub will talk about her book on July 23^rd at 2:00pm. Copies will be available for purchase and signing as the event. We also have one available for checkout through the library.

Sourdough returns to the library on August 6^th. Experienced bakers are invited to enter their best recipes in a sourdough bake-off, think State Fair rather than British. Margaret Schultz will return that day to run her Sourdough Made Simple class in the evening at 6:00pm. That afternoon at 4:00pm she has agreed to work with three other judges to select the best sourdough baking East Troy has to offer. More details for that will follow as we finalize categories and procedures. In the meanwhile, that are two months left to tweak and perfect baking. A sourdough discard class is available through MasterClass for any bakers wishing for some professional advice before August. Free MasterClass seats are available through the library’s website. Registration for both events will be required.

Reading Now: Return of the Thief by Meghan Whelan Turner (Final book of the Queen's Thief series which took Turner 24 years to complete. This gives me hope for the completion of Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicles. Afterall, The Name of the Wind only came out on 2007.)

Listening to Now: Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire (Book 2 in Wicked series.)

Goodbye Grab Bags, Hello Brag Tags

 

5-23-2025

Summer really is right around the corner. Maybe not the weather, but certainly the end of the school year. While I still catch myself making plans for when I am off in the summer, I quickly catch myself and panic sends me back to making my real summer plans. This week has been a flurry of activity printing our summer schedules, reading grids, coloring sheets, drawing tickets, and fliers. All the supplies are lined up on a table ready to go.

This year we are making two big changes to the Summer Reading Program.

The program and prize drawing are open to all ages. Sign up begins on Monday, June 2^nd. Usually that would be the first day we set out the grab bags. Kids love the grab bags. As a mom, I have not appreciated them. It’s been a tradition since the beginning of time to give children plastic Oriental Trader items that break, get left behind, or end up in a landfill. I have cringed for three summers as the bags are filled and set out. What I haven’t done is purchase any new items. We didn’t quite run out last year; however, we are low enough that (CO)OPERTATION Learn at Little Prairie Elementary nearly did the trick.

We are now free to start a new tradition. Beginning this year children will receive brag tags each week. Each one is a different design with this year’s theme on one side and a saying like, “Reading Rocks” (that’s the guitar) on the other. At sign up children will receive a cable ring with a twist lock to keep them on. The cable rings come in five different colors. The tags come in ten different designs. The hope is they are a more desirable take away and will serve as a reminder of a fun summer rather than another plastic mini skateboard with wheels that fall off.

True story, my first summer here I found sets of those wheels lying on the floor and though they were a tongue ring. After finding a second, that didn’t seem probable. It took me another summer before I realized what they actually were.

Each month this summer we do have an adult program scheduled. No excuses for not coming based on weather. Ben Merens, Consumer Protection Outreach Specialist for the Wisconsin Bureau of Consumer Protection will kick us off on June 11^th with the presentation Common Scams and Fraud. The Intergenerational Community Center is lending us their space for the program which will begin at 2:00 pm.

Scams and fraud have been an issue probably even before Nigerian princes discovered email. Today they bombard me with countless texts every week. At first it was election related, now several are threatening social security. Merens will help take the panic those type of appeals create and help us avoid their lure.

Reading Now: The Reality of Everything by Rebecca Yarros

Listening to Now: Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

The Party's Over, but the summer isn't

 

8-2-2024

The Party’s Over. As I started to write those words in reference to the Pizza Party for this year’s Summer Reading Program, I could not quite hear the lyrics to a song play in my head. It remained just elusive enough to fall into the 21^st century traps called Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube. There I learned it was originally written for the musical Bells Are Ringing and sung by Judy Holiday. Since then, it has been recorded over 100 times by singers such as Nat King Cole and Leslie Odom, Jr. The internet even kindly explained that the song meant something pleasurable has reached its end or the party’s over.

Perhaps the best find was the one selected to hear the lyrics. Bypassing Nat King Cole as an obviously smooth sound and going for Willie Nelson. Proving visual expectations and reality don’t always mesh, it wasn’t until his distinct voice started singing that I connected the short- haired all-around clean-cut male in the close-up with Willie Nelson. Who knew he had a career before pig-tails? I’ve never used that many hyphens in a sentence before.

Those revelations aside, back to the meaning. In this case it’s the literal definition: the party’s over that applies here. The pizza party with it’s 110 attendees, 30 prize giveaways, Walworth County Fair tickets, and 20 pizzas that is over; however, the fun or pleasure of summer at the library is not.

This year Monday programming continues through the first two weeks of August with three events. First off is the double feature beginning at 1:00 on August 5^th with the reschedule FFA Petting Zoo. They are coming a bit early as we already had Sensory Playtime for preschoolers schedule for Playmore Park at 1:30. This way they can start with the animals and then switch their attention to the sensory event. We know better than to compete directly with a pony.

The final Monday program on August 12^th, Music, Movement, and Story with Chet Celenza, brings in a friend of Miss Maria’s. Chet Celenza is a music teacher at Prairie Hill Waldorf School in Pewaukee who has also authored a children’s book. Students from Humble Oak may recognize his name as he has a relationship with that school as well. That event will be filled with, you guessed it, music and movement. Sounds like a party to me.

Now back to Google where I will either close tabs or be sucked into the vortex involving the Top 20 Songs with Harmonies that Give Us Chills.

 Reading Now: Trust by Hernan Diaz (2023 Pulitzer Prize winner shared with Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead), The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen (short stories), and Vanderbilt by Anderson Cooper (August Adult Book Club selection)

Listening to Now: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

 

 

SRP Sign Up and New Programing Begins

 

6-7-2024

The first day of Summer Reading Program families were so excited to sign up and beat next week’s rush, they braved the rain and came pouring in. Actually, we had more adults sign up than children 18 to 14, but that will change. Remember this was only the first week, sign up continues well into the summer.

We have 30 prizes this year thanks to the annual monetary donation from the Friends of the East Troy Lions Public Library and prize donations from three library families. Little Prairie Primary students have had a lot to say about them during their end of the year visits. Walkie Talkies and the kayaking Barbie are definitely favorites. Personally, I’d go for the Twister that attaches to a hose or the wagon that folds up for easy storage in a car.

Thank you to everyone who baked for, set up, ran, or stopped by the Friends’ Books & Bites sale on May 25^th. They nearly doubled last year’s sales and raised just shy of $700. While all was going on outside, I gave the storage room used for book donations a major re-organizing and purging. The room looks positively spacious. While we seek out book donations in the months leading up to the sale, there is now a full shelf dedication to incoming donations. Feel free to drop them off at anytime.

This will be Miss Maria’s first summer with us. Thankfully she has many years of experience through the Alice Baker Memorial Library and is fully prepared to sleep in September. Many of the programs below were added due to her willingness to give her all to summer at the library.

Coming up this week at the library.

Saturday, June 8^th at 10:00 – IT with Lori and (Sometimes) Wade

Saturday, June 8^th at 10:30 – Preschool Storytime

Saturday, June 8^th at 11:00 – Nancy O’Connell Memorial Dedication

Monday, June 10^th at 10:00 – Yarn & Stitch

Monday, June 10^th at 1:30 – Zack Percell of TNZ Magic

Monday, June 10^th at 3:00 – Choose Your Own Adventure Book Club for Ages 9-13

Tuesday, June 11^th at 1:00 – Adult Book Club: Lessons in Chemistry

Tuesday, June 11^th at 3:15 – Library Board Meeting

Tuesday, June 11^th at 6:30 – Bedtime Storytime

Wednesday, June 12^th at 3:00 – Lego Club

Thursday, June 13^th at 10:00 – Preschool Play Group

Thursday, June 13^th at 3:00 – Teens & Tweens: Create a Painted Glass Votive Candle Holder

Friday, June 14^th at 11:00 – Preschool Storytime with Craft

Friday, June 14^th at 12:30 – Books, Crafts & a Dog: Sydney the therapy dog is back

Friday, June 14^th at 1:30 – Adult Book Club: Lessons in Chemistry

 Reading Now: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (for book club), Minx by Julia Quinn (Splendid Trilogy Book 3 - her first series)

Listening to Now: Darkness on the Fens by Joy Ellis (DI Nikki Galena book 10)

Summer Preview

 

4-12-2024

This is the end of National Library Week. To celebrate we answered 71 phone calls on Monday explaining either yes we had limited number of eclipse glasses available or no the library was out but more would be available at the eclipse event at Sunset Park in Elkhorn. The switch from yes to no took 34 minutes. Every single one of our reoccurring programs took place this week including the Library Board and Strategic Planning Committee meetings. O’Leary routed out our sewer line. DPW installed the last book shelf in the lower level and removed two incredibly heavy unused file cabinets. If you need anything, we’ll be dozing at our desks.

In between programs we’ve been preparing for this year’s summer reading program. The last of our 1:30 Monday programs have been booked. In June alone we will have TnZ Magic, Snake Discovery, and Mad Science. The first two have been here before. The magic show was a big hit last year. Snake Discovery is always a favorite while Mad Science is new. In July we have musicians Fox & Branch, rocket launching, FFA petting zoo, and the pizza party.

New this year will also be a kid’s parade. Miss Maria will provide crafting materials to decorate bikes, strollers, or wagons. The parade route will begin in our parking lot, pass in front of the high school, cross the street to the middle school, and end at Playmore Park. The plan is to keep it on the sidewalk so little ones remain safe. The parade will take place on July 1^st which is the Monday we don’t normally hold programs thinking families like to travel over the 4^th of July. This year the timing is a bit odd with the Lion’s carnival and parade in June, so we’ll keep the celebration going into July.

Among the programs that met this week were both the 2^nd Tuesday and 2^nd Friday Adult Book Clubs, or as I like to call them Tuesdays with Books and 2^nd Friday’s Book Club. That means May books are available. We’ll be reading The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate. The book tells the story of three women searching for family in the post-Civil War South. Wingate is also known for Before We Were Yours which told the tale of impoverished children stolen from their parents and sent to a Tennessee Children’s Society orphanage. Both books reveal their historical stories through the investigation of a modern character. I’ll make certain to have a tissue handy.

 Reading Now: On Censorship: A Public Librarian Examines Cancel Culture in the US by LaRue, Last Friends by Jane Gardam (3rd book in the Old Filth trilogy: first was a book club book), Little Sister by Gytha Lodge 4th book in Jonah Sheens series)

Listening to Now:  Shattered by Kevin Hearne (7th book in the Iron Druid Chronicles)