JANUAR
library events & classes www.portagelibrary.info
what’s inside this month’s newsletter PAGE 2 Early Literacy Programs PAGE 3 January 3-11 Library Programs PAGE 4 January 11-22 Library Programs PAGE 5 January 23-31 Library Programs PAGE 6 What’s Coming in February!
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 -ONDAY *ANUARY TH TH ST 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 4UESDAY *ANUARY TH TH ND 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 7EDNESDAY *ANUARY TH TH RD 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 *ANUARY TH TH TH ST 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. %6%.).' 34/294)-% 3TORIES TO +NOW 'ROW -ONDAY *ANUARY 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 SATURDAY STORIES 3ATURDAY *ANUARY 4( 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.
Solo Gallery: Exhibit by Matthew Bell (acrylic) December 10th - January 18th Reception Saturday, December 16th • 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Winter Scenes: Library-Wide Multi-Artist Art Exhibit December 5th – January 31st PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB 4HURSDAY *ANUARY RD s !!GE 'ROUP !$5,43 Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required.
PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB 4HURSDAY *ANUARY TH s !!GE 'ROUP !$5,43 Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required.
SUNDAYS LIVE Sunday, January 6th • 2:00 PM Tom McCoy and Lynette Baber lend their voices and acostical guitar offering a collection of popular and folk rock songs to rock in the new year. No registration required. COMBAT VETERAN’S WRITING GROUP Tuesday, January 8th • 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 starting January 8th through April 23rd. For more information, please e-mail Margaret at mvonsteinen@chartermi.net. No registration required.
INTERNATIONAL MYSTERY BOOK GROUP The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill Thursday, January 10th • 7:00 PM Age Group: ADULTS This first Dr. Siri Paiboun mystery introduces readers to a delightful old man conscripted in 1975 to become the chief medical examiner of Laos. Siri thought he’d settle down with a state pension after helping the Communists force the Laotian royal family from power, but the party won’t let him retire. So he settles into a routine of studying outdated medical texts and scrounging scarce supplies to perform the occasional cursory examination while making witty observations about the bumbling new regime to his oddball assistants until the wife of a party leader turns up dead and the bodies of tortured Vietnamese soldiers start bobbing to the surface of a Laotian lake. No registration required. ABC ACTIVITY TIME Friday, January 11th • 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
programs & events January 3-11
programs & events January 11-22
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. HIGH SCHOOL EXAM CARE PACKAGES AVAILABLE Monday, January 14th Exam Care Packages are back! Feeling a little stressed? Come and get your FREE exam care package, full of treats and distractions – perfect for your study break! One per Portage High School student. Please bring your school I.D. to the Portage District Library Youth Desk. Available while they last. OPEN FOR DISCUSSION: DROP-IN BOOK DISCUSSION Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese Tuesday, January 15th • 10:30 AM Age Group: ADULTS Lauded for his sensitive memoir (My Own Country) about his time as a doctor in eastern Tennessee at the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 80s, Verghese turns his formidable talents to fiction, mining his own life and experiences in a magnificent, sweeping novel that moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in New York City over decades and generations. Sister Mary Joseph Praise, a devout young nun, leaves the south Indian state of Kerala in 1947 for a missionary post in Yemen. During the arduous sea voyage, she saves the life of an English doctor bound for Ethiopia, Thomas Stone. Seven years later, Sister Praise dies birthing twin boys: Shiva and Marion, the latter narrating his own and his brother’s story set against the backdrop of political turmoil in Ethiopia. Excerpted from Publishers Weekly (Feb.) No registration required. PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB Thursday, January 17th • 10:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required. CUPCAKE CLUB Thursday, January 17th • 7:00 PM Come for fun and cupcakes! Open to any middle school or high school-aged person who has read a book in the last
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month. Make cupcakes and then do a book-based activity while you wait. Then, of course, you eat the cupcakes! January: Cupcake parfaits and book stacking (with prizes). REGISTRATION REQUIRED KALAMAZOO MACINTOSH USER GROUP (KMUG) Saturday, January 19th • 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. HIGH SCHOOL EXAM LATE NIGHT Sunday, January 20th • 4:30 PM Need a place to study? Stay at the library until 9:00 pm on Sunday, January 22! This is a special service for high schoolaged teens with exams only. We will supply pop and food – perfect fuel for an exam cram. Sign-in required at arrival. No registration required. LET’S CELEBRATE WINTER: D3 (Dance, Drama, Drawing) Saturday, January 19th • 2:30 PM- 4:00 PM Age Group: PRESCHOOL, ELEMENTARY We will have “snow” much fun celebrating winter through the arts. Freeze dancing, winter charades, and a flurry of fun in the art room. 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 COMBAT VETERAN’S WRITING GROUP Tuesday, January 22nd • 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 starting January 8th through April 23rd. For more information, please e-mail Margaret at mvonsteinen@chartermi.net. No registration required.
A NIGHT WITH ROYALTYONCE UPON A PRINCESS Wednesday, January 23rd • 6:00 PM Age Group: PRESCHOOL, ELEMENTARY We are inviting all princes and princesses to come to a very special storytime where you will meet two princesses. They are going to tell you stories and sing songs with you and even take their picture with you. If you would like to dress up please feel free. REGISTRATION REQUIRED PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB Thursday, January 24th • 10:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required. MAKE A MONOGRAM (3RD-5TH GRADE) Thursday, January 24th • 6:30 PM Age Group: TWEENS (3RD-5TH GRADE) Personalize your room with your initials, decorated to match your personality -- larger than life, just like you! REGISTRATION REQUIRED JOSEPH HEYWOOD: A READING, Q & A AND BOOK SIGNING Sunday, January 27th • 2:00-3:30 PM Age Group: ADULTS Popular Michigan writer and author of the Woods Cop Series,Joseph Heywood, will be reading a couple of short stories from Hard Ground (Woods Cop Stories) which will be coming out next Spring and from Red Jacket, his new historical mystery starring Lute Bapcat, loner, former cowboy, Rough Rider, beaver trapper, a man who in 1913, with the enthusiastic recommendation by Theodore Roosevelt, himself, becomes one of the Michigan’s first civil service game wardens. No registration required.
TRAVELING SENSORY CLASSROOM Tuesday, January 29th • 6:30 PM Age Group: ADULTS Many people who work with children may not be aware of how sensory sensitivities affect individual behavior and learning. The goal of the Traveling Sensory classroom is to educate the general community, school staff, childcare providers, and families that all people experience some sensory processing problems, but that some children suffer extreme discomfort when their senses are over stimulated. This three part program includes information, simulated sensory discomfort, and an opportunity for attendees to discuss their experiences. By increasing public awareness about sensory sensitivities, this informative session addresses misunderstandings about behaviors that can result and offers accommodations and tools that can help. With compassion and understanding, successful inclusion of children with learning differences in classroom and community activities is more likely to occur. Registration begins on January 2nd. Funding for this event was made possible by the support of the Friends of the Portage District Library. Instructor: Parent to Parent of Southwest Michigan REGISTRATION REQUIRED PORTAGE COMPUTER USERS CLUB Thursday, January 31st • 10:00 AM Age Group: ADULTS Drop-in computer question and answer session. No registration required. TEEN ADVISORY GROUP Thursday, January 31st • 6:30 PM 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.
programs & events January 23-31
What’s Coming in February!
Resume Hacks February 1st A quick resume makeover
Friends of the Library Book Sale February 2nd Thousands of books for sale
Geek Discussion Group February 4th Talk about science fiction or fantasy genre
May the Force be with You February 7th Join us for fun games, activities, and crafts
International Mystery Book Discussion Group February 14th Book: TBA
Teen Craft: Jewelry Making February 21st Learn new techniques
Teen Advisory Group February 28th See what’s happening in our Teen Advisory Group