Wildcard Wednesdays offers fun for fourth graders and up

Wildcard Wednesdays
Wednesdays, Sept. 25-Nov. 20, 2:30-3:30
Who knows what Wednesday will bring? Science sessions? Crafts & Games? Sign up and show up on Wednesdays to join in the fun activities for fourth graders and up. Here’s the line up for the next few weeks:

• Sept. 25 — Blood & Guts, What does your heart do? with Jan Schwarz
• Oct. 2 — Blood & Guts, What happens to your lunch? with Jan Schwarz
• Oct. 9 — Scribblebots, Create your own bot that writes on paper
• Oct. 16 — Bird Mania, All-ages bird walk at Charlotte Town Beach

For more information and registration details, email the library at [email protected].

September Library Card Sign-Up Month
If you don’t have a library card, stop by to sign up. 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 this month: Udemy online learning, which offers nearly 20,000 online video courses. The top-rated courses offer upskilling in the areas of business, tech and personal development across 75+ different categories. This new resource accompanies Vermont Online Library where you can find Chilton Library for automotive repair and Cook’s Country for dinner ideas and everything in between.

Vermont Reads
‘Gather’ by Kenneth Cadow
Join us throughout the fall for a series of events related to “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 of the book are available to the community to read and enjoy. Stop in to pick one up.

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.

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.
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 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 or the Vermont Reads 2024 program.

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.

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 by email, 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. Contact the library or visit the library website for more information.