Cover to Cover

Well, the kids are back in school and we are about to start our after school programs! They are beginning the week of Sept. 16. Story hour for ages 4 and 5 will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays. Ages 2 and 3 will meet at 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays. We are going to be playing with the ABCs.

It is amazing what all you can now do with the new microfilm reader. If you would like to see what you can do, Steven from Blue Print in Salina will be here at 10 a.m. Sept. 26 to demonstrate all of its features.

Ancestory.com is in the works — we just need to get them a little more information and we will be up and running on that as well.

I know some of you will get the paper in time for a reminder about the Recipe Book Club and some of you will probably get it too late, but I am still excited about it. We will meet at noon Sept. 19. There are still a couple of recipe books at the library so if you are quick, you can pick one up, choose a recipe and make it to share with the group. We will talk about the recipe books, the food, and there will be a drawing for a cookbook. Psst, I haven’t told anyone that yet, so keep it under your hat as it’s a surprise.

Let’s see ... what else can you come to? At 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at the old cemetery, we will be having a demonstration of witching for graves. Lee Modrow will be coming from Lincoln, Kan. to show us what he can do. I think it will be very interesting and you won’t want to miss it.

The “Last Wednesday of the Month Walk” is Sept. 25 at Krizek Park. The weather will hopefully be beautiful so you can take a stroll around the park, stop to pick up a bottle of water, and maybe some information and prizes. Then, the 1st Wednesday in October is the “Featured Movie” and the 3rd Sunday of the month is “The Page Turner Book Club where we will be reading Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. If everyone hasn’t checked it out, we should have some available.

Come check out all that is going on. I hope I didn’t miss anything?! Be watching for more information on the Resist program that will be taking place later in October. Resist is a youth-led, state-wide tobacco prevention program. Resist’s initiative is to help all Kansas schools implement 100 percent comprehensive tobaccofree and vape-free policies. This type of policy is critical to creating tobacco-free and vape-free learning environments for students. The kids involved are really trying to make a difference, so be watching for how you can help them.

Speaking about kids, we are sending out letters with all of the school age kids about the rules of the library. We are hoping the adults in their lives will go over it with them so that everyone is aware of what is expected when in or around the library. For the parents: if you have a child that will be at the library consistently after school for more than an hour, we ask that you contact the library. We need contact information. Unless they are using the library for homework, reading or such, they tend to get into mischief and cause problems for the librarians. This is something we are trying to get a handle on, and if we could get parents on board that would be awesome. We love having the kids here if they are participating in library activities (homework, books, games or computers — you know, library stuff!).

Okay, enough serious stuff. Now, how about some good books to read. Something I haven’t mentioned in awhile is if you like to listen or read books from your phone or device, come in and ask us about Sunflower elibrary or Hoopla. They are really easy to use and are great for traveling, cleaning the house, and a ton of other reasons.

But if you would rather have printed books, we have some really good new ones such as: The Overstory by Richard Powers; Three Women by Lisa Taddeo; Ambush by James Patterson; The Cliff House by Thayne Raeanne; The Enlightenment of Bees by Rachel Linden; and The Ghost Clause by Howard Norman.

So stop in as you pick up your kiddos or grandkiddos from school and start reading.

Colleen Sippel is the director of the J.H. Robbins Memorial Library. She can be reached at (785) 472-3969 or 219 N. Lincoln, Ellsworth, Kan. 67439.