FEBRUAR
library events & classes www.portagelibrary.info
what’s inside this month’s newsletter PAGE 2 Early Literacy Programs PAGE 3 February 4-12 Library Programs PAGE 4 February 14-23 Library Programs PAGE 5 February 24-28 Library Programs PAGE 6 What’s Coming in March!
library hours Monday – Thursday 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM Friday 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Saturday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Sunday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
library board Betty Lee Ongley Library Board Chair Alisha Siebers Library Board Vice Chair Michele Behr Library Board Trustee Stephanie Brown Library Board Trustee Annee Dunn Library Board Trustee Martha Pacheco Library Board Trustee & Liaison to the Friends of PDL Joe Yantis Library Board Trustee
portage district library 300 library lane portage, mi 49002 269.329.4544 www.portagelibrary.info
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early literacy programs MOTHER GOOSE STORYTIME 4UESDAY &EBRUARY TH TH TH TH s !- !!GE 'ROUP ).&!.4 4/$$,%2 Enjoy this rewarding time interacting with your child while listening to stories, doing fingerplays, and participating in creative movement. An interactive playtime follows. Developmentally appropriate for infants through 23 months. No registration required. TWOS STORYTIME 7EDNESDAY &EBRUARY TH TH TH TH s !!GE 'ROUP 47/3 Two year olds enjoy interactive stories, songs, and creative movement that encourage their emerging language skills. Families with children two years old and their younger siblings are welcome. No registration required PRESCHOOL STORYTIME -ONDAY &EBRUARY TH TH TH TH s !!GE 'ROUP 02%3#(//, Preschool age children will build language skills while listening to stories, learning rhymes, moving to music, and learning the mystery letter of the week! No registration required. PRESCHOOL STORYTIME 4HURSDAY &EBRUARY TH TH TH s !No Preschool Storytime February 21st !GE 'ROUP 02%3#(//, Preschool age children will build language skills while listening to stories, learning rhymes, moving to music, and learning the mystery letter of the week! No registration required. %6%.).' 34/294)-% 3TORIES TO +NOW 'ROW 4UESDAY &EBRUARY TH s 0Age Group; TWO’S, PRESCHOOL Enjoy an evening with stories, songs, rhymes and movement activities while building language and literacy skills. A theme related craft will follow. All children will receive a book to take home. Sponsored by a Target Early Literacy Grant. REGISTRATION REQUIRED
REGISTRATION REQUIRED SATURDAY STORIES 3ATURDAY &EBRUARY TH s !!GE 'ROUP 47/ 3 02%3#(//, Join us this Saturday. You and your child will actively listen to books, rhymes and participate in creative movement while building language and literacy skills. No registration required.
Monday, February 4th 6:00 PM Age Group: ADULTS Come to the library at 6 PM on the first Monday of every month and talk about the science fiction or fantasy genre of that evening. Bring a book to use as an example, or just have a book, movie, or even game in mind to talk about. This year long series of informal discussions, moderated by library staff, will lead you to new reading experiences as you learn about hot subgenres. Share your own reading interests, and learn about other peoples. February’s topic is Steampunk. No registration required.
PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB Thursday, February 7th 10:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required.
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU Thursday, February 7th 6:30 PM Age Group: TWEENS (3RD-5TH GRADE) Do you love Star Wars? Join us for fun games, activities, and crafts in a galaxy not so far away (Portage District Library)! REGISTRATION REQUIRED
ABC ACTIVITY TIME Friday, February 8th 10:00 AM Age Group: PRESCHOOL Drop in playtime including sensory activities, fine and gross motor skills, pocket charts, manipulatives and more. This is a time for your child to practice skills that will help them get ready to read! Open to preschoolers with their favorite adult. The focus is for parents to participate in the learning process with their child while having fun! No registration required.
T GERONIMO JOHNSON: A READING, DISCUSSION & BOOK SIGNING Saturday, February 9th 2:00 PM Age Group: ADULTS A reading and discussion by critically acclaimed fiction author T Geronimo Johnson. Johnson is the author of Hold It ‘Til It Hurts, which has been described as “a modern odyssey through war, adventure, disaster, and love (which) explores how people who do not define themselves by race make sense of a world that does.” The novel has been called a powerful, stylish, richly textured debut. Co-sponsored by the Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society No registration required.
MEET THE CHEF: OLDIES BUT GOODIES WITH CHEF CANDACE STRONG Tuesday, February 12th 2:00/5:30 PM Age Group: ADULTS Veteran chef Candace Strong shares her favorite bite sized savory and sweet easy to make delicacies. Register by calling 329-4542 Ext. 600 starting Tuesday, January 15th at 9:00 AM. There is a $5.00 fee at the door. REGISTRATION REQUIRED
COMBAT VETERANS’ WRITING GROUP Tuesday, February 12th 6:30 PM Age Group: ADULTS This series of writing workshops for veterans focuses on short narratives about serving in the military during war times. No writing experience is necessary. This series is led by Margaret von Steinen, writer and communications officer for WMU’s Haenicke Institute for Global Education and runs the second and fourth Tuesday nights through April 23rd. For more information, please e-mail Margaret at mvonsteinen@chartermi.net. No registration required.
FEBRUARY
READ ALL ABOUT IT
GEEK DISCUSSION GROUP
programs & events February 4-12
programs & events February 14-23
PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB Thursday, February 14th 10:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required.
INTERNATIONAL MYSTERY BOOK GROUP Chinese Alchemist by Lyn Hamilton (Canada- archeology # 11 in the series) Thursday, February 14th 7:00 PM Age Group: ADULTS Antiques dealer Lara McClintoch is targeted by ruthless criminals while trying to recover an eighth-century Tang Dynasty silver box-with an alchemical formula for the elixir of immortality etched on the inside of the lid. The rare item holds the key not only to the mysterious death of a museum curator, but to Lara’s own survival. (excerpted from goodreads.com) No registered required.
KALAMAZOO MACINTOSH USER GROUP (KMUG) Saturday, February 16th 9:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS This drop in group meets the third Saturday of each month. Anyone may attend. The meetings begin with a presentation of a software program, computer or accessory by an experienced club member The meeting continues with a “Help Session”. Experienced Mac users share their in-depth knowledge answering questions about any aspect of the Mac. Beginners on Mac computers are welcome. No registration required.
HAWAIIAN BEACH PARTY: D3 (DANCE, DRAMA, DRAWING) Saturday, February 16th 2:30 PM Age Group: PRESCHOOL, ELEMENTARY (K-5TH GRADE) Come in out of the cold and get into the tropics! We will melt the winter blues away with hula dancing, warm weather drama games and a “hot” art project. Your child will participate in 3 thirty-minute sessions of interactive fun! Parents of preschoolers are encouraged to stay with their child. Sign up today! REGISTRATION REQUIRED
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OPEN FOR DISCUSSION Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks Tuesday, February 19th 10:30 AM Age Group: ADULTS When Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks came to live on Martha’s Vineyard in 2006, she ran across a map by the island’s native Wampanoag people that marked the birthplace of Caleb, first Native American to graduate from Harvard College--in 1665. Her curiosity piqued, she unearthed and fleshed out his thin history, immersing herself in the records of his tribe, of the white families that settled the island in the 1640s, and 17th-century Harvard. This window on early academia fascinates, but the book breathes most thrillingly in the island’s salt-stung air, and in the end, its questions of the power and cost of knowledge resound most profoundly not in Harvard’s halls, but in the fire of a Wampanoag medicine man. Excerpted from Amazon--Mari Malcolm. No registration required.
PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB Thursday, February 21st 10:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required.
TEEN CRAFT: JEWELRY MAKING Thursday, February 21st 7:00 PM Age Group: TEENS Join Quyen for an evening of crafting. Learn new techniques, try new materials, or string beads to make something wearable. REGISTRATION REQUIRED
CLASSIC MOVIE: “HIPS, HIPS, HOORAY” Saturday, February 23rd 2:00-3:30 PM Age Group: ADULTS Join us for a showing of the 1934 slapstick comedy film “Hips, Hips, Hooray” starring Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey in addition to a cartoon and comedy short. Steve Salaba, a member of the Kalamazoo Classic Film Society, will give a brief talk about Wheeler and Woolsey, the history of RKO studios, and a little about the Production Code, the studio’s strict self censorship. Co-sponsored by the Kalamazoo Classic Film Society. No registration required.
JACK RIDL: A READING, RECEPTION & BOOK SIGNING
PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB
Sunday, February 24th 3:00 PM Age Group: ADULTS
Thursday, February 28th 10:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required.
Come hear awardwinning poet and professor emeritus at Hope College Jack Ridl read from his new poetry collection Practicing to Walk like a Heron. About this collection, Naomi Shihab Nye has written, “Jack Ridl is a superstar in the realm of compassionate, transporting, life-changing poetry.” And Li-Young Lee wrote, “I truly hope we can evolve toward the quality of being these poems reveal.” Ridl’s previous poetry collections include: Losing Season, Broken Symmetry and Against Elegies. His publications include the chapbook Fragments with Dusk in Them (2008) and the collection By Cold Water. This is a gala event not to miss. No registration required.
TEEN ADVISORY GROUP Thursday, February 28th 6:30 PM Age Group: TEENS See what’s happening in our Teen Advisory Group! We plan kid’s events, set up scavenger hunts, and do other things that benefit the library. All work with this group can be applied to your school-required volunteer hours. No registration required.
COMBAT VETERANS’ WRITING GROUP Tuesday, February 26th 6:30 PM Age Group: ADULTS This series of writing workshops for veterans focuses on short narratives about serving in the military during war times. No writing experience is necessary. This series is led by Margaret von Steinen, writer and communications officer for WMU’s Haenicke Institute for Global Education and runs the second and fourth Tuesday nights running through April 23rd. For more information, please e-mail Margaret at mvonsteinen@ chartermi.net. No registration required.
programs & events February 24-28
What’s Coming in March! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss Picnic & Movie
Exploring Six Characters in the Submission
March 1st
March 21st
March is Children’s Reading Month!
A book discussion
Geek Discussion Group
HOLIDAY CLOSING
March 4th
March 31st
Talk about the science fiction or fantasy genre
Easter Holiday
Fuse Bead Fun
And Much Much more!!! Go online to the Library’s Event Calendar
March 7th Get creative with fuse beads!
Easy Self-Publishing on a Shoestring March 14th Lean about the three main e-publishing platforms
Cupcake Club March 14th Come for fun and cupcakes!
Grief Education & Support March 15th Support and information on how to best cope in times of grief
Leaping Leprechauns March 16th Dance, Drama & Drawing