Keeping a nature journal encourages us to observe and connect with the outdoors through images and the written word. A nature journal is a place to grow one's thoughts, observations, and relationship with the natural world.

Clare Walker Leslie, a professional wildlife artist, naturalist and educator, will visit the Bookshop to speak about how she got started keeping a nature journal, the benefits of journaling, and how she has journaled in all kinds of locations - from her own backyard to such distant locations as the Arctic and Africa.

The author will present an interactive session using techniques discussed in her most recent book, The Nature Connection: An Outdoor Workbook for Kids, Families and Classrooms. Paper and pencils will be available for you to describe your own nature notes while Clare talks about how she creates her books from her own nature journals.

The Nature Connection was inspired by the 30 years Clare Walker Leslie has taught Nature Journaling in classrooms for all ages, around the country. The book is full of exciting information and things to do directly outdoors, season by season, in your own local landscape. It is a book of natural history information as well as ways to learn more about the creatures, plants, weather, woods and fields in your own backyard.

From an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, comes a new guest to the White House...Madeline!

John Bemelmans Marciano, the grandson of Madeline creator Ludwig Bemelmans, continues the family tradition with Madeline at the White House. With a bouncy read-aloud text and stunning watercolor pictures, John Bemelmans Marciano showcases Washington D.C. just as the original Madeline quintessentially portrayed Paris.

Madeline at the White House is based on a story Ludwig Bemelmans left unfinished. John Bemelmans Marciano comments, "The idea for sending Madeline to the White House was my grandfather's and grew out of his friendship with Jacqueline Kennedy. In a series of letters from late 1961 and early 1962, my grandfather sounded out the First Lady on ideas for the book ... My grandfather died ... before the book was finished."

In Madeline at the White House, Madeline and the other eleven little girls have a new destination: the White House. They are the guests of Candle, the lonely only daughter of the President, arriving just in time for the annual Easter Egg Roll. On the last night of the visit, Madeline and Candle stay up late, ending the evening with a magical nighttime tour of the capital's most famous landmarks. Madeline and Candle return home to the White House just in time for the twelve little girls in two straight lines to say "Au revoir, America!"

John Bemelmans Marciano will read Madeline at the White House, discuss and sign copies of the book, and pose for photos with his young (and not-so-young!) fans on Tuesday, April 12 at 2:30 pm. Pre-orders will be accepted for anyone who wishes a personalized inscription, but is unable to attend the event.

Please join us Wednesday evening, April 13th at 7 pm as we welcome Dan Barry, discussing his latest book, Bottom of the 33rd: Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game.

"On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. What began as a modestly attended minor-league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings became not only the longest ever played in baseball history, but something else entirely. The first pitch was thrown after dusk on Holy Saturday, and for the next eight hours the night seemed to suspend its participants between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys-the ballplayers; the umpires; Pawtucket's ejected manager, peering through a hole in the backstop; the sportswriters and broadcasters; a few stalwart fans shivering in the cold.

An unforgettable portrait of ambition and endurance, Bottom of the 33rd is the rare sports book that changes the way we perceive America's pastime, and America's past." 

Author Dan Barry is a national columnist for the New York Times. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and in 1994 was part of an investigative team for the Providence Journal that won the prize for a series on Rhode Island's justice system. He is the author of a memoir, Pull Me Up, and City Lights, a collection of his New York Times columns. 

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells - taken without her knowledge - became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons-as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca Skloot became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family - especially Henrietta's daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother's cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn't her children afford health insurance? 

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

The Concord Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Spring Fashion Show Wednesday, April 13th at the Nashawtuc Country Club from 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm.

It will be a fun evening of the latest fashions shown by Concord shop's; Blue Dry Goods, French Lessons, Sara Campbell, Ju Ju, Fritz & Gigi, Potpourri Designs and Perceptions.

Special guest Kate Merrill of WBZ-TV will help make it a special evening. Raffles, silent auction and gift bags. Tickets are $35 at the Chamber office.

For more information, visit the Concord Chamber of Commerce website, or phone 978-369-3120.