Included in the mix are an assortment of Valentine's Day activities and crafts, Story Times that feature Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, and patriotic themes, and - in honor of Black History Month - a special presentation by the famous Tuskegee Airmen!

Coming up this week at the library:

Tomorrow: All ages are welcome for a story and craft during Take Your Child to the Library Story Time from 11 a.m. to noon. Books Alive! will be holding a musical rehearsal at Wallkill Reformed Church from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Monday: The Mini Art Club meets at 10:30 a.m. to create some foxy Ed Emberley artwork and learn about shapes at the same time! The Library Board  of Trustees meet at 7 p.m.

Tuesday: Book Buddies meet at 10:30 a.m. Miss Carolyn will ring in the Year of the Snake with a Chinese New Year Story Time at 4 p.m. Textile Tuesdays take place in the community room of the Town Hall from 10 am. to 5 p.m. Books Alive! rehearsals are held from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at Wallkill Reformed Church.

Wednesday: Mommy and Me meets at 10 a.m., followed by Toddler Story Time at 11 a.m. The Art Club meets at 4 p.m. for the second part of this past week's Valentine Heart Box project! The newest class on Computer Basics meets at 7 p.m.

Thursday: Bring your child in for a Pre-K Play-Doh Playdate at 1:30 p.m. The Knit and Crochet Club meets at 6:30 p.m.

Friday: The Exchange meets at 2 p.m. to swap Valentine Cards. The Fiction Book Club meets at 6:30 p.m. (at the library, although the building's closed to the general public at that time) to discuss Tom Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

Next Saturday (Feb.9): A Valentine Card Workshop will be offered for all ages from 11 a.m. to noon.

  

  

Bill Robinson shows off his Birds of Prey last weekend for  his library audience.

    

Have you attended any of the past three Faires? Do you have suggestions as to what would improve the festival?

Take  a brief survey here and email it back to Adrienne at dramapearl@aol.com! We thank you for your time! 

To participate:

  

A committee will review the letters and select the winners. Based on the organization's need, donations could reach up to $5,000. That could fund two years' worth of after-school children's programming here at the library, and provide a huge opportunity to touch that many more lives!  

  

1878 Paris. Following their father's sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventeen francs a week, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola's naturalist masterpiece L'Assommoir.
Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modeling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. There she meets a wealthy male patron of the ballet, but might the assistance he offers come with strings attached? Meanwhile Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde.
Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of "civilized society." In the end, each will come to realize that her salvation, if not survival, lies with the other.

It's My Life is a website that offers advice and information for tweens and teens on topics ranging from alcohol abuse and eating disorders to puberty and dating.

The advertisement-free site covers a variety of subjects that might be of concern to this age group, including school, friends, family, emotions, and money. Games on the site are developed with the goal of teaching kids lessons on everything from saving money to handling a difficult friend. Other activities on the site include quizzes, videos, and places to submit comments and ask questions. In this tougher teenage world of texting bullies and Facebook stalkers, It's My Life is a trustworthy tool to add to your child's arsenal of coping mechanisms.

Wondering how he must have felt reminded me of a quote I read recently: Do something today that your future self will thank you for. What would that be for you? When was the last time you really put yourself out there, did something you feared, took a big risk, stopped worrying and took the challenge, wrote that word, sung that song, danced that dance without fear of the outcome but because you just had to do it, you couldn't stand not to do it anymore, you had to see what you are made of?

My greatest fear is not that I will make a fool out of myself - I am pretty good at that - my greatest fear is the unlived life - that I will be spending decades scratching off lottery tickets at the gas station or regretting all I left undone because I feared criticism, looking silly or not being taken seriously. I think if we worried more about how we would feel living an unlived life and less how we appeared to others, we would hang ten and grab that wave.

This week I was honored to spend a great deal of time with the children in our library programs. First, the cast of Books Alive! is incredible - they are 22 kids ranging from 8 to 14 - who have jelled in just four weeks into a true performance troupe. They are comfortable improvising, acting silly, trying new things, singing and dancing in front of each other - they are simply being the true essence of themselves. Because of this inhibition, they are engaged, enthusiastic, creative, impulsive, and courageous. Just look at them in this group photo!

Additionally, I had the chance to accompany Ms. Carolyn on her field trips to Ostrander Elementary School where she visited Mrs. Reese and Mrs. Scofield's class and conducted our "Figure it out!" science-themed interactive traveling library program. The kids conducted experiments, read books, and created art around the subject of winter. They were funny, silly, open to learning, and asked a boat load of questions which were answered with questions so they had to think through to the answers themselves. They weren't shy, they admitted when they were frustrated, they struggled, sometimes they succeeded, sometimes their experiments didn't work as well as planned, they tried new things, they didn't give up. They were open to the experience.

The gift young children bring to a situation is not letting judgment enter into it - not judging themselves or others, just doing it. They don't make up a million reasons why they can't do something, they simply think they can. That's all. Sometimes they are right. Sometimes they are not. It doesn't seem to matter they just move on to the next thing and see how that goes. They have a yet-untarnished confidence that is refreshing and new and oh so encouraging.

It's a valuable lesson we can learn from these young children and from that amazing surfer - it's about courage and innocence, impulsiveness and confidence - about being present in the moment to what you are doing and feeling at that moment that it is the most important thing. The only thing. The kids don't even know they are putting themselves out there and the surfer doesn't even seem to care - they are just doing what they want to do with all of the passion they can muster. So let them serve to inspire you and do something today that your future self will thank you for.

 

Mary Lou Carolan

Director