Grownups, Find Some Christmas Cheer at the Library

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield Head Librarian

It’s the holiday season!  Pioneerland libraries will be closed on Monday, December 24, and Tuesday, December 25, for Christmas.  The following week, we will be closing at 5 p.m. on Monday, December 31, and we will be closed on Tuesday, January 1, for New Year’s.  Otherwise the hours will be normal all of the other days.

Christmas books, movies, and music are always in demand this time of year.  We’ve got some new additions for grownups available.

12 Days at Bleakly Manor is an inspirational mystery that we just got in large print.  Author Michelle Griep launched a series called “Once Upon a Dickens Christmas” with this novel.  Set in England in 1851, this story is set up when guests receive mysterious invitations to spend Christmas at a manor home and are promised a substantial sum of money if they stay the entire twelve days.  A formerly engaged couple finds they are both among the guests.

Deck the Hounds is the latest Andy Carpenter novel by David Rosenfelt, but apparently it can be enjoyed even if you haven’t read any of the others.  Criminal defense lawyer Andy gives a homeless man with a dog some money, then later learns that the dog is quarantined for biting someone who attacked them.  Andy and his wife give them a place to stay at Christmas, and Andy’s legal services come in handy when the homeless vet is accused of a crime.  This sweet Christmas mystery is recommended for animal lovers. 

Yet another cozy Christmas mystery, Lark! The Herald AngelsSing is part of the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews.  Meg discovers a live baby in the manger while directing a nativity pageant.  A note suggests that the baby’s father is Meg’s brother, and Meg sets out to find out who the baby’s parents actually are.  Along with the mystery aspect of the story, this is a funny and heartwarming novel.

Some of our other new Christmas novels include Six Cats a Slayin’ by Miranda James, Christmas on the Island by Jenny Colgan, The Christmas Star by Donna VanLiere, and A True Cowboy Christmas by Caitlin Crews.

Don’t forget the Christmas DVDs:  Christmas in the Air is a Hallmark Christmas movie that has just been added to our collection.  Those seem to be more popular all the time!  Catherine Bell stars as a professional organizer who is hired by a frazzled widower with two young children.  He’s a toy inventor who has twelve days to get his life and business in order before pitching his new products.  It sounds like it has exactly the kind of opposites-attract, gentle romance you expect from a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Do you remember Pat Boone’s holiday specials on TV in the ‘70s?  Two of them have just been released on the DVD Pat Boone and Family: Christmas and Thanksgiving Specials.  You get the whole Boone family, plus Dinah Shore, Rosemary Clooney, Tom Bosley, and other stars from years ago.  Now, if they would just release the John Denver and the Muppets Christmas special from the ‘70s, I’d be really happy.

Whether it’s a music CD, a movie, or a book for kids or adults, our library has a huge number of holiday items available to check out.  Pick up a cookbook of party recipes for New Year’s Eve while you’re here, too!  Have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Readin' Around the Christmas Tree

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Christmas is only a few days away.  If you’re in the Christmas spirit and you have time to read a book (You have time to read a book at Christmastime? What's your secret??), the library has a number of this year’s new holiday books you could bring home to read during this coming week.

A new nonfiction book from Oxford University Press, Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World’s Most Celebrated Holiday, examines whether there is or ever has been a war on Christmas.  Historian Gerry Bowler specializes in the intersection of religion and popular culture.  He demonstrates that throughout history, beginning with the holiday’s controversial invention during the Roman Empire, Christmas has inspired debate and conflict.  Involving Puritans, Bolsheviks, Hitler, and Charles Dickens, this book can give you some historical perspective on the issue.

You can’t tell from looking at the cover, but Mercedes Lackey’s newest novel, A Scandal in Battersea, is a Christmas story.  This is the twelfth book in Lackey’s Elemental Masters series about Sherlock Holmes in an alternate, magical England.  John and Mary Watson, both Elemental Masters, are celebrating Christmas when they are asked to investigate the reappearance of missing women, all of whom have been driven mad by whatever happened after they disappeared.

The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers is a collection of eighteen holiday stories.  The crime authors include Mick Herron, Timothy Hallinan, Peter Lovesey, and Lene Kaaberbol.  Expect humor, murder, and international locations from Sweden to North Korea.

For something gentler, Melody Carlson’s The Christmas Blessing may fit the bill.  Carlson is a bestselling author of Christian fiction, including many Christmas novels.  In The Christmas Blessing, Amelia despairs when the father of her baby is shot down in the South Pacific in 1944.  Without a job or money, she must decide whether to go to his high-class parents, who don’t know about her or the baby.

Debbie Macomber is another bestselling author known for her clean and gentle novels, including popular Christmas books.  Merry and Bright is her newest.  Merry Knight takes care of her mother who has multiple sclerosis and her brother who has Down syndrome, when she isn’t working overtime.  But her family is concerned she doesn’t have a social life and they set up an online dating profile for her.  She hits it off online with someone, only to be shocked when they meet in person. 

Elin Hilderbrand’s Winter Trilogy has just gotten a fourth book, Winter Solstice.  (Does that make it a quartet?)  The Quinn family is gathered for the first time in a long time to celebrate the holidays at the Winter Street Inn on Nantucket Island.  Many of their difficulties have been resolved, but their patriarch is dying of cancer.  Hilderbrand is good at writing characters; those who enjoy bittersweet family stories are likely to enjoy this farewell to the series. 

Other new Christmas books for adults include How the Finch Stole Christmas by Donna Andrews, Fatal Frost by Karen MacInerney, Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, Sugar Pine Trail by RaeAnne Thayne, and The Amish Christmas Candle by Kelly Long, Jennifer Beckstrand, and Lisa Jones Baker.  

Pioneerland libraries will be open on Saturday, December 23, and closed on Christmas Day, which is Monday, December 25.  We will be open normal hours the rest of that week.  We will be closed on Monday, January 1, for New Year’s Day.  Happy holidays from the Litchfield Library staff!

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Santa Claus came to town!

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Santa visited the library on Thursday, December 4, at 6:30 in the evening.  He was very popular!  Mrs. Pease stopped counting people at 207 and she thinks she must have missed a few who came in the door.  That may be our record for the largest number of people to come to an event at the library. 

The whole children’s department was full of excited young faces.  Mrs. Pease led them in chanting “Santa! Santa!” before the man himself emerged from the back room of the library, ringing his jingle bells. 

Santa sang his own version of “Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer”.  He read the book Is It Christmas Yet? by Jane Chapman.  Then the crowd divided up to make Christmas crafts and eat cookies in the meeting room or to take turns telling Santa what they want for Christmas.  Even with the huge crowd, everyone was very patient and polite in waiting their turn.  We have such nice families here. 

We did see new faces in the crowd, as well as library regulars.  We even set up a number of new library cards that night.   If you were visiting the library for the first time but had your hands full with little ones, stop back another day to apply for library cards and take another look around.

We're down to our last few storyhours of the month.  On Wednesday, December 10, we'll have our baby and toddler storytime at 10:15.  On Friday, December 12, we’ll have our preschool storyhour at 10:00.  And on Saturday, December 13, we’ll have our 2^nd Saturday storyhour at 10:00, as well.  Mrs. Pease is planning on holiday themes for those.  Then we’ll take a break from storyhours until January, since the holiday season is such a busy time.

We will be holding our monthly family movie night on Monday, December 22, at 6 p.m. in the children’s department.  We’ll be showing a kids’ Christmas movie about an army of elves.  It’s rated G and it’s just a little more than an hour and a half long.  Call the library if you’d like to know the name of the movie.

The monthly Friends of the Library book sale will be held on Saturday, December 20, from 10 to 4, with potential gifts for all ages.  Most of what we have for sale is donated by members of the community, and there really are some nice books and movies available.

The library will be closed on December 24 and 25 for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We will be open our regular hours the rest of that week.  We will close at 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and be closed on New Year’s Day.

Thank you to all of you who came to our Santa event and made it such a success.  We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

By Jan Pease

It’s early Christmas at the library with the arrival of new books that have come in the “nick” of time. 

Little Blue Truck’s Christmas, by Alice Schertle, is a Christmas tree counting book for very young children.  It includes twinkle lights, always fun in a book.  At least the batteries are replaceable, but there seems to be no off switch.  Now I just hope the lights will twinkle until I can use the book at story time.  I think this would be a great gift book for a child just discovering the magic of books.

“Here Comes Santa Cat,”  by Deborah Underwood, stars a cat named Cat who communicates by holding up signs, like the very talented animals do on Facebook.    Cat needs to get off of Santa’s naughty list, and how he succeeds makes for a very funny, nearly wordless book. 

Rick Walton and Nathan Hale, who collaborate under the pen name of Ludworst Bemonster, have written a parody of “The Night Before Christmas” that they titled “Frankenstein’s Fright Before  Christmas.”  While you may not be shrieking with laughter, this is a book with an entirely different look at the visit from Santa Claus, who arrives at an orphanage  for monsters with a resounding Boom!

“A Chick ‘n’ Pug Christmas”   was written and illustrated by Jennifer Sattler.   My favorite scene from the book is the last page, showing Chick and Pug flying through the air on a snow shovel, silhouetted against the moon as little children say “Santa!”   This is a very funny book. 

“And Then Comes Christmas”, by Tom Brenner, is one of those sweet holiday books that make me feel like drinking hot cocoa in front of a gentle fire.  I’ve read a lot of holiday-themed books, but never one that uses the phrase, “Lo and behold it’s Christmas morning!”

If animals could talk, and if a llama somehow joined a horse, cat, dog, spider and a few more traditional stable animals in Bethlehem, and if the animals spoke in short rhymes, they might produce “Manger,” poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins.  Perhaps this book also needs the gentle fire, hot cocoa, and a small child looking at the animals and imagining them speaking. 

 

“A Little Women Christmas,” adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women by Heather Vogel Frederick, is another book that needs to be shared in front of a cozy fire.  The illustrations are warm, lit by candle light and fireside, and the adaptation is a bit easier to understand than the original.  After reading this adaptation, I’m in the mood to re-read “Little Women”

Many of the legends about Santa Claus have their roots in the stories about Saint Nicholas, a real person who was also known as Nikolaos of Myra.  He was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra in Lycia, now part of Turkey.  Several legends about Saint Nicholas are included in “The Legend of Saint Nicholas,”  a lovely book  written by Anselm Grun, a Benedictine monk who lives in Germany.  Whether you’re waiting for Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus, try reading something new this holiday season.

  

Holiday schedule

We will be closed on the following holidays:
Tuesday, December 24, Christmas Eve
Wednesday, December 25, Christmas
Wednesday, January 1, New Year's Day

We will be closing at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, December 31.

We will be open regular hours all other days.

• No storytimes beginning this week until Saturday, January 14.

• No gaming night on Monday, December 23rd. It will be held on Monday, December 30.

• G.O.A.T. (high school teen advisory group) Christmas party will be held Monday, December 23rd, from 5-8 p.m.  Open to students in grades 9-12.  Please bring $5 for pizza; only hot chocolate will be provided.  Bring Christmas goodies if you wish.  Bring a white elephant gift to exchange. Wear your favorite holiday socks and hat.  We will be watching the movie Elf.

Santa! Nancy Carlson!

By Jan Pease

         

On December 12, the library welcomed a very special guest.  Children were enthralled as Santa read them a story and told them that he wanted them to spend as much time reading as they spend watching tv or playing video games.  He read the story Santa and the Three Bears and told and sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Parents have posted many adorable pictures of their children after the event, and I put a few cute ones on the library Facebook page.  I lost count at about 80 people – kids of all ages and their parents. 

Many parents said that our Santa is the best one they’ve seen.  I thought about this after our event.  I think it’s because he is so real.  His warmth comes through to the children and parents, and if you pulled on his beard, you would hear a very real “ouch!”  I can put you in touch with his local manager if you like. 

Beginner Book Club celebrated the local production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by reading Barbara Robinson’s very funny book and watching the TV movie from 1986.  Several of the children in book club have roles in the play, and it was fun to watch them pick out their characters and say the lines.  The message of the book, movie, and play is there right in front of you without being preachy.  And I think our Litchfield Herdmans are the equal or better of the children in the movie. 

We enjoyed the last Toddler Time, Friday Story Time, and Saturday Story Time.  It’s time now for a break over the holidays and during what are usually the coldest days of winter.  Back in the day, these weeks were also when chickenpox would spread like wildfire through story hour children.   We still try to keep from spreading influenza and colds.  Wonderful volunteers actually wash our rhythm instruments to keep germs to a minimum.

                                                                             

We’ll start the New Year with our Saturday Story time on the 11th of January with a visit from author/illustrator Nancy Carlson.   She is the well-known and loved author of many picture books.  She will be our guest at the Once Upon a Time Story Time thanks to Minnesota Legacy funding.  Our regular programming will continue from January 14^th through May 10.  

Thanks again to the parents who made our Santa event such a success.  See you at the library!

Santa Claus is coming to the library!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Our library's Group of Advising Teens (GOAT) cleaned and decorated the library for the holidays.  

They had fun, and it looks great!

A Time to Make Christmas Gifts

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

The season is here for coming up with Christmas gifts.  I was a huge Tasha Tudor fan as a child, and I remember pouring over her book A Time to Keep: The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays again and again and again.  The November section says, “That’s the month we made Christmas presents.”  Her beautiful watercolors on that page depict people weaving cloth, working with wood, and weaving baskets.  We are past November now, so there isn’t much time before Christmas to be making things.  But for those of you who can still squeeze in some time for gift-making, we have some interesting books that can help you make a variety of handicrafts.

Our library has a substantial collection of knitting books.  Among our newest are Little Aran and Celtic Knits for Kids, Knitting with Icelandic Wool, and Metropolitan Knits: Chic Designs for Urban Style.

 

The Aran and Celtic knitting book features 25 patterns for babies and toddlers.  This includes scarves, socks, mittens, and other items. 

The second book sounds preposterously specific, but apparently Icelandic wool, or lopi, is a well-known type of yarn with wonderful qualities.  This book contains 65 patterns for clothing items: mostly traditional sweaters but also hats and mittens.

Metropolitan Knits is a collection of sophisticated and classic clothing patterns.  In addition to sweaters, it includes a few smaller projects: scarves, hats, and cowls.

If you prefer sewing to knitting, we have a really unique new book: Shadowfolds: Surprisingly Easy-to-Make Geometric Designs in Fabric.  The book is basically an origami book for use with fabric.  Customer reviews say the instructions make it easy to use.  Projects in the book include a pillow, a book cover, a purse, and many other distinctive items.

For the jewelry makers, we have a new book called Chinese, Celtic & Ornamental Knots for Beaded Jewellery.  The British author (hence the spelling of the title) explains how to create over forty pieces of jewelry based on knotwork and beading, with step-by-step photographs and diagrams.

If working with duct tape is more your speed, check out our new little paperback, Go Crazy with Duct Tape.  Kids especially may enjoy making jewelry or covering a tin, a photo album, or a water bottle to make a customized gift.

Now maybe some of you are like me: none of these sounds like something I want to do.  Every female in my family enjoys making some kind of fiber craft or other artistic creation: they sew, or knit, or scrapbook, or draw... and I just don’t.  But I love to cook and bake.  If making food gifts sounds more appealing to you, too, take a look at our large cookbook collection. 

One gift-specific book we have is Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself and Wrap with Style.  The author focuses as much on the presentation as the recipes, with hazelnut brittle wrapped in a faux bundle of letters, caramelized orange slices packed in small round tins, and jars of salsa wrapped in traditional Mexican tissue paper. 

And if you don’t have time before Christmas (I’m with you there), stop in to look for these and other craft and cooking titles after the holidays.  There will be plenty of winter left to work on fun indoor projects.    

Mark Your Calendars!

By Jan Pease

It’s time for the last children’s programs of 2013.  When I look at the calendar, I know it’s true, but I’m having difficulty believing it. There will be story time on November  29^th  for anyone who isn’t out shopping for bargains.  Sometimes we have a large group on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and sometimes it’s a tiny group. But we will still have fun.

December is crazy busy for most of us, and the library is no exception. 

December 4, 5, & 6 are regular Toddler Time, Bedtime Story, and Preschool Story Time.  We’ll share one of the new Christmas books that just arrived.  On December 9, I’ll visit the ECFE Santa time with a stack of Christmas books. I’m available to read to children, but it’s even more fun when moms or dads read to their little ones.  On December 10^th Darcy Cole will be at the library for Fun with 4-H, from 3-4:30.

December  12 at 3:00 p.m. is our Beginner Book Club.  We will talk about the book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever   and watch part of the movie that was based on Barbara Robinson’s book.   Several of the children in book club are in the play of the same title that will be presented at the Opera House on Dec. 14 and 15.

In the evening on December 12, Santa will come here to the library.  He will come at 6:00 and stay until  7:30.  Santa promised that he would read a story, sing a song or two, and be available for pictures.  An easy craft and cookies will be available in the meeting room.

December 13 at Preschool Story Time, we will read The House that Santa Built, by Dianne de Las Casas.  This rollicking book will be the perfect last book for Preschool Story Time.

 Once Upon a Time Story Time, our new preschool story  hour,  happens on   the 2^nd Saturday of each month.   On Saturday, December 14, at 10:00, The Gingerbread Boy will be featured.     

On December 19^th, the Intermediate Book Club, “Get Caught Reading,” will meet and discuss books that they like.  Since some avid readers attend this book club,  it could get interesting.   

January programs will start with a shazam!   Nancy Carlson, a well-known and well-loved children’s author and illustrator, will visit the library on January 11^th at 10:00.   All ages are invited to meet Ms. Carlson, who has visited Litchfield before.

Mark your calendars! Start your engines!  Synchronize  your watches and 

e-readers!  Celebrate the holidays at the library!

Shop online, help grow the library's e-book collection

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Have you finished your Christmas shopping?  I have not, but I'd better finish it soon.  Online shopping is the friend of people who are busy, so I expect to do much of my shopping that way.

Did you know that your Amazon and Barnes & Noble purchases online can benefit our library?  Through our e-book service’s WIN program, if you click through to Amazon or Barnes & Noble’s website from our site, we’ll get a credit toward the purchase of e-books. 

Here’s how you do it: go to our Overdrive e-book and audiobook site.   Look for the sidebar on the left that says “Before you shop… Help our library WIN!”  If you click on “Learn More”, you’ll come to a screen that says “Click here first, help our libraryWIN”.  Then you can choose to go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books On Board, Shop Indie Bookstores, or Powell’s Books. 

When you click through that part of our website to those retail websites, a small portion of your purchase price gets turned into e-book credit for our library system.  We can use those funds to buy e-books that you can borrow from us.

If you get one of those shiny new devices for Christmas, an e-reader, tablet, or smartphone, you can borrow e-books and downloadable audios from us.  We have more all the time.  Pioneerland reduced administrative expenses this past year and has put a portion of those funds into creating a bigger e-book collection to meet popular demand. 

Another wonderful digital collection is coming in 2013.  We will be getting electronic magazines that you can view on a tablet, smartphone, or PC.  These will be the full magazines, laid out just as they are on print pages.  We will still get our print magazines in the library, but this will expand the titles we can offer you and allow you to view them anywhere that you can use a computer or your wireless device.  When you’re passing time in the airport or sitting at your fireside on a snowy night, you’ll be able to get the latest issue of magazines like Field and Stream, House Beautiful, and Consumer Reports. 

In fact, Newsweek is halting its print issues in the new year, so the electronic version will be the only one anyone will be able to read.  We will have it available in our electronic magazine service.

The digital magazines will only be available on devices that can use apps and/or get on the internet at large.  This means that straight e-readers that are not wifi-enabled won’t be able to get to these magazines.  They will work on iPads, iPhones, Blackberry Playbooks, Android phones and tablets, and Nooks and Kindles that can browse the web, as well as any PC with an internet connection.

We don’t have a date yet when this service will be available to us, but I thought you might like to know this is coming as you make choices about electronic devices for Christmas gifts.  Some people who don’t enjoy reading e-books find the thought of browsing magazines online more appealing.

I hope you will have a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.  Merry Christmas, everyone! 

New acquisitions

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Curl Up with a Movie Over the Holidays

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Are you ready for the holidays? Gifts purchased, treats made, house ready? I’m sorry to say that I am not. This is the first Christmas season that I’ve been working full-time since my children were born, and I’m in grad school, too. I took a class on collection development this semester, so I’ve been spending my November and December evenings and weekends evaluating Litchfield Library’s parenting collection in detail and creating a presentation on ebooks in public libraries. I just may be out with the shoppers on Christmas Eve Day this year.

Library closed for holidays

Our library will be closed all day on Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24. We will also be closed on Monday, December 26, for our Christmas holiday. We will be open on New Year’s Eve Day, but we’ll be closed again on Monday, January 2. This will be the case in all Pioneerland libraries, so if you visit Grove City’s, Dassel’s, or Hutchinson’s libraries, you’ll find the same holiday closures.

Check out a movie

Because we’ll be closed for that span of days, if you check out movies on Thursday, December 22, or Friday, December 23, you’ll be able to keep them until we open again the following Tuesday. Maybe you’d like to get a few movies to keep the kids busy while you wrap presents or to watch when things quiet down on Christmas Day or the days between Christmas and New Year’s. We’ve gotten some new DVDs for you to choose from:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. If you missed it on TV or want to watch it again, you can check it out from us.

Cars 2. This sequel to the wildly popular Pixar movie Cars has Lightning McQueen and Mater headed for the world Grand Prix.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins. This adaptation of the award-winning, classic children’s book stars Jim Carrey as a New York businessman who inherits six penguins who turn his apartment into a winter wonderland.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2. This final installment brings the series to an epic finale at Hogwarts. This was one of the few movies I saw in the theater this year, and I loved it. It’s on my Christmas list.

Fiddler on the Roof. If you’re thinking about trying out for next summer’s community theater production, check out the movie starring Topol as Tevye, a poor Russian Jewish man with five unmarried daughters. We have the soundtrack on CD, too, so you can learn the songs. The 1971 movie is rated G.

We’ve also just gotten Firebreather from the Cartoon Network, Top Hat, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, A Night at the Opera, starring the Marx Brothers, and Super 8.  I've heard rave reviews of the last one and plan to check it out myself.

I hope you’ll find something among our new movies that you’ll enjoy. Have a merry Christmas!

Just in Time for Christmas

By Jan Pease

Shazam! Great new picture books for Christmas are here at the Litchfield Library. One of the very best and funniest books, ever, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” has been retold in picture book form by author Barbara Robinson with illustrations by Laura Cornell. The Herdmans are here, in all their awful glory, but some of the subplots have been left out. As they take over the Christmas program chaos ensues, but some of my favorite moments are when Imogene burps the baby Jesus, Gladys weeps as the beauty of the Christmas narrative unfolds, while the Herdman brothers, wise men, bring their Christmas ham to the Baby Jesus.


“The Christmas Pups” is a completely sweet but unrealistic dog adoption story about three puppies and an older dog who find a loving family who adopts all of them from an animal shelter. Perhaps it isn’t as farfetched as the romantic Christmas books that seem to be everywhere, but really, who would find room for three puppies and an adult dog in their home? Anyway, Teresa Bateman has written a wonderful story for dog lovers, and I wish that every animal needing a home will find one this Christmas.

Toni Buzzeo has written “Lighthouse Christmas,” a wonderful story based on actual Flying Santas that visited families who kept lighthouses, beginning in 1929. Read the story about a brave girl named Frances who helped her dad keep the light on in a lonely lighthouse off the coast of Maine, and then visit the website of the real Flying Santas, http://www.flyingsanta.com, who still visit Coast Guard families in remote locations.

“The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood ,” by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, is a lyrical telling of the author’s childhood memories of life on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, winter 1945. Virginia grew up as the daughter of the Episcopal priest on the reservation, a position that meant her family, while living in poverty, tried to help the families around them first, even if it meant doing without necessities. The real meaning of Christmas comes through in this lovely book.

“The skies shouted it to the seas that thundered it to the waves that roared it to the great white whales that sang it to the starfish in the deep. And tiny sandpipers danced it on shining sands... 'It's time! It's time!' On one quiet night, creation whispered a secret. Grass and bees, robins and trees all spread the word. Sheep told their young while angels sang the song to the shepherds. Hushed news of a miracle echoed to the ends of the earth. The moment had come. The long-awaited child had arrived! Creation cried out in celebration, but only a few people heard. Only a few joined nature's chorus, a song in praise of the newborn King.” These lyrical words are quoted from “Song of the Stars,” by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Sometimes a book comes along that deserves to be an instant classic. I think “Song of the Stars” is one of those books.

Finally, when I was sharing books at the ECFE milk and cookies with Santa, a small group of children and I looked at the book, “A Christmas Goodnight.” This is a goodnight book that lets us say goodnight to all of the characters in a nativity scene, then turning to say goodnight to everything the child sees in his room, ending with the Baby Jesus in the crèche beside his bed. I always ask children about the illustrations, and when I asked about the nativity scene, one tiny little child said in a hushed voice, “That’s God.” Wow! What more can I say? See you at the library!

Christmastime, Game Night, & the Best Books of 2011

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian


It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We’re in the process of putting up holiday decorations in the library. We have displays of holiday books on the children’s side and on the adult side, above the movies. It’s fun to make the building look festive.

Story time with Santa’s niece

We’ll be taking a break from story times after December 9th, since people’s schedules get busy later in the month. We hope that families will join us on Thursday, December 15th, at 7 p.m. for a visit from Santa’s niece Kris Kringle and a craft led by Jan Pease. Kris Kringle is also known as Kristine Marshall, one of our library board members.

Game night

If you happen to be looking for something to do on Monday evenings this winter, join us for game night at the library. On December 12th, we’ll be playing card games. We have just a few here at the library (Pictureka, Scrabble Slam, and one or two others), so feel free to bring your own. On December 19th, it will be board games. So far we don’t own any of those, so bring in some you’d like to play with other people who come. We’ll set up in the large meeting room and have the space available for gaming from 6:30 until shortly before 8, when we close. We’ll be closed the Monday after Christmas and the Monday after New Year’s Day, so we’ll resume game nights on January 9th. This is open to all ages and skill levels. Bring the whole family!

Best books of 2011

Besides our Christmas book displays, we have another by the front desk that features the best books of 2011. The best-of lists of the year are coming out, and it’s fun to see what the reviewers are listing. Here are some that the Litchfield Library has in its collection:

• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. This novel was a bestseller in Japan and has been on every list I’ve seen so far of the best books of the year, praised as a masterpiece. The story begins in 1984 in Tokyo but enters an alternate reality, with a love story and references to George Orwell’s 1984.

• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. This biography is based on more than forty interviews with Jobs over the course of two years, plus interviews with more than a hundred people who knew him. It is being called the definitive biography of the late technological innovator – and is described as having an intensity that matches Jobs’.

• The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht. This novel was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction, despite being a debut novel by a 26-year-old. Set in eastern Europe, the book examines the role of myths and memories in making sense of the tragic past.

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This fantasy novel involves a love story between circus magicians who have been trained since childhood to compete against each other.

We also own copies of In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson, Bossypants by Tina Fey, and many of the other books that you’ll find listed as the best of 2011.

One trouble you’ll find with books that are wonderful, however: many of them never make it to our shelf of new books. When a book is in high demand, it often goes from person to person on the waiting list, and you won’t find it by browsing the shelf until its popularity has died down. If there’s a book you’ve seen listed as one of the best of the year and you’d like to read it, I suggest you check our catalog or ask a library staff member for help, because there’s a good chance that you’ll need to reserve it. We’d be glad to help.