PAINTED PUMPKINS
Thursday, October 3 | 7-8 pm
Adults and kids of all ages can have fun and be creative by painting a pumpkin or gourd to use as a fall decoration or centerpiece.

SEE A JUGGLER!
BE A JUGGLER!
Monday, October 14 | 2-3 pm
Get ready for eye-popping balancing, juggling, and stunts with Jason Kollum’s 100% interactive experience. For kids of all ages and their grownups.

Diary of a Middle School Kid: Portia
Portia is a 6th grader at Hadley Junior High and recommends A Dogs Purpose and Scythe to middle schoolers who like adventure and science fiction.

Portia likes historical fiction, but finds studying Social Studies in Middle School a challenge. It's one of her favorite subjects, so she also finds it rewarding.

If she could visit any place in the world right now, Portia would visit Iceland. She's never been to Iceland before, and she thinks it would be much different than the other countries she has visited. In Iceland, she would want to hike all over, see the Northern Lights and find puffins.

If Portia Day was a holiday, she would celebrate it with friends, food, and dogs! Portia wonders whether dogs can understand what humans say to them - we do too! She loves tennis, soccer, and her Middle School clubs, so she's not sure whether she'd have time to add anything else, but if she could, she'd try skydiving.

When we asked Portia about her favorite foods, she said she could eat steak or sushi over and over again and never get tired of them!
New Book Spotlight: Friendroid by M. M. Vaughan
From Goodreads...

Danny’s a kid. Eric’s a kid, too. He’s also a robot, but he doesn’t know that.

For Danny, it becomes hard to ignore Eric’s super strange tendencies. He has weekly “dentist” appointments and parents who never stop smiling. It’s almost impossible to wake h im up and he’s alway s getting fancy gifts from his mysterious uncle. Danny always assumed that Eric was just a spoiled rich kid…until he discovers Eric’s hidden robot reality.

As the two friends dig deeper into Eric’s origins and purpose, powerful forces swarm into town, and Danny and Eric are left with more questions than answers—and more danger than humanly possible.

Peer Review: Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
I’m Leo, a 6th grader at Hadley Junior High. I’m reviewing the book Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson. 

I really enjoyed this book, and it motivated me to read more than an hour a day. I kept saying to myself “just one more chapter.” The book is very good. It is about a girl that lives in a poor neighborhood with her mother and wants to rack up enough money to leave the neighborhood. Her mother is throwing opportunities at her to rack up money to leave. 

Someone who wants to read all the Caudill books would like this book. I give it five stars.

Cucumber Sandwiches
 by Tom Malinowski, Middle School Librarian
I’ve made cucumber sandwiches twice recently - two weeks ago for a movie-viewing party, and then again a few days ago for a baby shower.

Recipes are prevalent on the internet, and it was easy to find one that seemed doable. Although I was nervous about making them for the first time, what was the worst that could happen? I'd never know unless I tried. 

The sandwiches I made didn’t look like the picture online, but the fact that I made them filled me with pride. I was going to use pumpernickel bread, but suddenly at the grocery store I saw Hawaiian bread and decided to use that! The sweet Hawaiian bread would counter the savory of the dill and chives. I’m all for last-minute improvisation.

If you’re nervous about trying something new, that is a-ok. You’re nervous because you care, and that is always a good thing. Although there are rules and recipes to follow, go ahead and make things your own by changing it up to suit your needs. The fact that people enjoyed the cucumber sandwiches meant so much!
Mon-Thurs: 9 am to 9 pm, Fri-Sat: 9 am to 5 pm, Sun: 1-5 pm