Younger reading fans, join after-school book lovers’ club

If you are you a first-third grader who enjoys reading and talking about books, you can ride the bus to the Charlotte Library and enjoy an afternoon of book sharing and crafts after school.

Registration is required for this program that runs Tuesdays, Sept. 17-Nov. 19, 3-4 p.m. Email youth services librarian Cheryl Sloan.

If you are a fifth-eighth grader, consider what Wednesday might bring at Wildcard Wednesdays, Sept. 11-Nov. 20, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Science sessions? Crafts and games?

Sign up and show up on Wednesdays to join in the fun activities. Charlotte Central School students can take the bus to the library with a parent note. For more information and registration details, please contact the library.

Library Card Sign-up Month
Celebrate Library Card Sign-up Month during September. If you don’t have a library card, stop by to sign up and unlock worlds of possibilities.

With a library card, you have access to everything from museum passes to pickleball paddles as well as a wealth of print and digital resources.

New during September is Udemy online learning, which offers nearly 20,000 online video courses. These top-rated courses offer education in business, tech and personal development skills across more than 75 different categories. This new resource accompanies Vermont Online Library where you can find Chilton Library books for automotive repair, Cook’s Country for dinner ideas and everything in between.

Vermont Reads ‘Gather’
Join throughout the fall for a series of Vermont Reads events related to by Kenneth Cadow’s “Gather” and its themes of rural life, resilience, class differences, addiction and recovery, housing and food insecurity, a deep relationship to the land and the power of community. Copies available to read and enjoy. Stop in to pick one up.

‘Just Getting By’ film
Thursday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m.
A sweeping and yet intimate look at the lives of Vermonters who are struggling with food and housing insecurity. These are big issues for a small state. “Just Getting By” focuses on these issues in the lives of everyday people. This is the first in a series of events related to Kenneth Cadow’s “Gather” and its themes of rural life, resilience, class differences, addiction and recovery, housing and food insecurity, a deep relationship to the land and the power of community. Copies are available; stop in to pick one up. The complete list of Vermont Reads programs is available.

Programs for kids

Monthly Babytime
Saturday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m.
You’re invited to an unstructured hour for parents, caregivers and babies to play, explore books and chat in the young children’s area. Ages birth to 18 months.

Preschool story time
Tuesdays & Fridays, 10 a.m.
Come to the library for preschool stories, crafts and activities. No registration required. Age 2 and over.

Preschool free play
Wednesdays, 10 a.m.
Play in the preschool years enables children to explore and make sense of the world around them, as well as to use and develop their imagination. Explore the sensory table, sorting, playing with blocks, playdoh — these are a few of the open-ended projects planned for Wednesday morning play-based learning at the Charlotte Library.

Babytime
Thursdays, 9:30 a.m.
You’re invited to an unstructured hour for parents, caregivers and babies to play, explore books and chat in the young children’s area. Ages birth to 18 months.

Let’s Lego
Saturdays, 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Drop in for Lego free play. We’ll have loads of Lego bricks out, along with some books and prompts for inspiration. For all ages. Please note: Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.

Programs for Adults

Stillwater meditation
Saturdays, 9 a.m.
Poetry and meditation are offered freely and in person to the Charlotte community. Come for quiet reflection, contemplation and gentle meditation instruction. Respect for all beings and faiths is a foundational quality of our time together. Beginning and experienced meditators are welcome.

Spanish conversation group
Wednesday, Sept. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Vengan a disfrutar conversación casual y nuevos amigos en la biblioteca. Un grupo de conversar es una oportunidad de practicar su español o’compartir con el grupo. Speakers of all levels and ages, including beginners, are welcome. Chat, relax, listen to music and enjoy some snacks while exploring the beautiful and useful Spanish language.

Mystery book group
Monday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m.
Amelia Peabody, that indomitable product of the Victorian age, embarks on her debut Egyptian adventure armed with unshakable self-confidence, a journal to record her thoughts and, of course, a sturdy umbrella in “The Crocodile on the Sandbank.” On her way to Cairo, Amelia rescues young Evelyn Barton-Forbes, who has been abandoned by her scoundrel lover. Together the two women sail up the Nile to an archeological site. Soon their little party is increased by one — one mummy that is. Copies available at the circulation desk.

Solutions to community’s hard questions
Tuesday, Sept. 17, 6 p.m.
How do you get the most out of town meeting, selectboard meetings and other community-based discussions and debates? Susan Clark leads a workshop on making our local conversations more inclusive, productive and empowered community dialogues. Learn about why things often go wrong and gain a powerful tool that can help groups work towards outcomes that honor diverging viewpoints. Clark is a facilitator, educator and the co-author of “Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Back Home.” She is also town moderator of Middlesex. Registration appreciated but not required.

Better Together book club
Wednesday, Sept. 18, 7 p.m.
Join this open group that discusses books related to parenthood. After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why? In “The Anxious Generation,” social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. Most importantly, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. Copies available at the circulation desk.

Thursday book group
Thursday, Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m.
“The Island of Extraordinary Captives” follows the events of Kristallnacht in 1938, when Peter Fleischmann evaded the Gestapo’s roundups in Berlin by way of a perilous journey to England on a Kindertransport rescue, an effort sanctioned by the UK government to evacuate minors from Nazi-controlled areas by train. But he could not escape the British police, who came for him in the early hours and shipped him off to Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man, under suspicion of being a spy for the very regime he had fled. Copies available at the circulation desk or join on Zoom.

Men’s book group
Wednesday, Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m.
“A Higher Call” by Adam Makos tells a story of four days before Christmas 1943, when a badly damaged American bomber struggled to fly over wartime Germany. At its controls was a 21-year-old pilot. Half his crew lay wounded or dead. It was their first mission. Suddenly, a sleek, dark shape pulled up on the bomber’s tail — a German Messerschmitt fighter. Worse, the German pilot was an ace, a man able to destroy the American bomber in the squeeze of a trigger. What happened next would defy imagination and later be called the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II. Copies available at the circulation desk. Join us at the library or on Zoom.

Vermont Reads kick-off & film
‘Just Getting By’
Thursday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m.
“Just Getting By” is a sweeping and yet intimate look at the lives of Vermonters who are struggling with food and housing insecurity. These are big issues for a small state, and the film focuses on these issues in the lives of everyday people. This event will introduce one of the key topics of “Gather” to our community and provide some context for people unfamiliar with the book and the issues of housing and food insecurity in our state and our town. Co-sponsored with the Charlotte Congregational Church Social Justice Ministry. This is the kick-off for the Vermont Reads 2024 program.

Historic Charlotte photo scanning
Saturday, Oct. 19, 10 a.m.- 2 p.m.
If you have old photos of people and places in Charlotte, the Charlotte Library would like to add to its digital collection of Charlotte historic photos and documents. People and resources will be available for scanning and documenting up to 10 photos per person. For more information or to sign up for a time on Oct. 19, email [email protected] or call 802-425-3864. If you have other non-Charlotte-related photos to scan, please let us know. We would be happy to include you in the event or make alternate arrangements. See what is already in the digital collection.

Recurring programs

Book chat
Wednesdays, 3 p.m.
Meet each week to discuss new books, old books and books we might have missed. Each week, Margaret Woodruff selects a theme and highlights related titles from the library collection. No registration necessary.

Crochet & knit night
Wednesdays, 5-6:30 p.m.
Join in a casual weekly session of crocheting and chatting, knitting and catching up. Bring your project or start a new one with yarn and needles available at the library, along with plenty of books to instruct and inspire. For teens and adults.

Short story selections
Wednesdays, 1 p.m.
Join library director Margaret Woodruff to discuss short stories old and new on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Via Zoom.

Library Garden Circle
Wednesdays, 4:30-6 p.m. & Fridays, 8:30-10 a.m.
Enjoy tending gardens and seeing them respond? Like friendly conversation while you pull weeds? Appreciate learning from others’ gardening experiences and sharing your own? The Garden Circle of volunteers who tend the library’s educational gardens would love to have you join the Friday morning group work. Experienced and new gardeners welcome. Come every time or as often as you can. Sign up at [email protected], and you’ll be contacted if plans change due to weather, etc. Coordinated by garden stewards Karen Tuininga and Linda Hamilton.

Library contact information:
Margaret Woodruff, director
Cheryl Sloan, youth services librarian
Susanna Kahn, tech librarian
Phone: 802-425-3864
Email

For the latest information about programs, books and activity kits, sign up for the newsletter.

The Charlotte Library Board of Trustees meets the first Thursday of each month at 6 p.m., unless otherwise rescheduled following the Opening Meeting Law. The next scheduled board meeting is Thursday, Sept. 5, at 6 p.m. Contact the library or visit the library website for more information.