We hope to see many members of the community turn out for the Friends of the Library's annual Egg Hunt fundraiser! Tickets are still available but none will be sold day of the event--$5 per child up to age 12, with hunts beginning on the Common at 10am and 11am. Please purchase at the Lobby desk before 6pm Friday March 31--don't forget to write your child's name and contact information on the reverse of the ticket! Missed out on purchasing? No ticket is required to participate in the events at the Library on Saturday April 1: drop in stories, crafts, or pictures with the Easter Bunny. Thank you to our Friends for organizing--all proceeds benefit Library programs, such as museum passes and summer reading program.

We join Willard House and Clock museum in celebrating Simon Willard's birthday in April! Children in grades 1-6 are invited to participate in a library clock scavenger hunt and turn in a completed form for a chance to win a donated mantle clock restored and provided by WHCM. Details: https://graftonlibrary.org/2023/03/30/clock-scavenger-hunt-enter-to-win-a-restored-mantle-clock/

April showers bring May flowers, which means we will be looking for gardening help! Volunteers to weed and prune will be needed beginning in mid-April; volunteers meet on on Tuesday morning at 9am as soon as the overnight temperatures are 40 degrees or higher. Apply online at https://graftonlibrary.org/volunteer/.

We look forward to welcoming back the Farmer's Market in April as well as a Financial Seminar, Unplug with Art, pop-up poetry month programs, and more. Please visit our online calendar for details: http://www.eventkeeper.com/mars/xpages/G/GRAFTON/ekp.cfm

We are still interviewing for youth services temps. Apply online through the Town of Grafton: https://www.grafton-ma.gov/196/Employment-Opportunities---Now-Hiring.

Happy Spring!

Beth Schreiber,

Library Director

We are nearing completion on our project, with HVAC commissioning nearly complete. The gate wheel should be installed by end of March and remaining signage, presentation area and maker space doors by end of April. We are still waiting for our permanent certificate of occupancy, the next benchmark for our grant reimbursement.

The Library Planning and Building Committee is scheduled to meet on Monday April 3 at 6pm at the Library, with a hybrid option on Zoom:

Agenda

Zoom Link

Meeting ID: 879 0582 0658

Passcode: 478236

Check out construction photos in our Construction album on our Facebook Page!

The CW MARS catalog, OverDrive, and ComCat will be unavailable for use due to a software upgrade during Patriots Day weekend, April 16th - 17th.The system will be down for planned maintenance from 7:30 PM EDT on Sunday April 16, 2023 through Monday April 17, 2023.

CW MARS will also be performing routine updates on its Evergreen servers on the 2nd Saturday of each month. This downtime will be less than an hour between 11:00 p.m and 12:00 a.m and will disable e-Resources for that time.

This short novel of rhyming verse might be better read aloud, if only the author were still alive to read it. The late essayist for NPR's This American Life, Rakoff (Half Empty, 2010, etc.) was accustomed to writing for the ear, but never has his writing seemed more designed to be heard than here. The posthumous publication provides a fitting memorial to a humorist whose embrace of life encompassed its dark side and who died of cancer in 2012 at age 47. Written in anapestic tetrameter--most familiar from " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and most commonly associated with light comedy--this novel of interlocking stories nevertheless deals with rape, abortion, adultery, homophobia, AIDS, dementia and death. It's like a child's bedtime story that

you would never read to children, yet it retains a spirit of sweetness and light, even as mortality and inhumanity provide a subtext to the singsong. "If it weren't so tragic, it could have been farce," he writes of an early blooming 12-year-old girl who attracts plenty of unwanted attention, including that of her brutish stepfather, and then finds herself blamed before escaping to something of a happy ending. The bittersweet center of the novel is a young boy who discovers both his artistic talent and his homosexuality, lives a life that is both rich and short, and dies just a little younger than the author did. Some of the rhymes read like doggerel ("crime it...climate," "Naugahyde...raw inside") and some of the laughs seem a little forced, but the author brings a light touch to deadly serious material, finding at least a glimmer of redemption for most of his characters. Strong work. It deepens the impact that this was the last book completed by the author.(Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2013)

Request a book, a CD-Audiobook, an e-book on the Libby app, or an e-audio on the Libby app.

The Borrower Services and Reference staff invite you to

check out an item from our two staircase displays in

Room 201 - Large Print/New Books.

Grafton Troop 107 and 2019 Scouts have partnered with Got Sneakers for a fundraiser. They are raising money for a first aid kit and other supplies for a summer trip.

Top 10 Books Requested in CW MARS

1. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
2. Spare by Prince Harry
3. The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
5. I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
6. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
7. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
8. Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes
9. Storm Watch by C.J. Box
10. Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (editor)

Top 10 Movies Requested in CW MARS

1. A Man Called Otto
2. The Whale
3. The Fabelmans
4. Women Talking
5. Everything Everywhere At Once
6. 80 for Brady
7. Living
8. Babylon
9. Triangle of Sadness
10. Devotion

The Library is in need of beginners knitting needles and crochet hooks. If you have any to spare, please leave them with Heidi Fowler, our Reference Librarian. Feel free to email us with any questions: info@graftonlibrary.org.

Thank you in advance!

Reserve a museum pass online!

Visit www.graftonlibrary.org/beanstack

The next Board of Library Trustees meeting is Wednesday, April 26, 2023

at 7 PM. This may be a hybrid meeting in Community Room A.

Agenda: https://www.grafton-ma.gov/AgendaCenter/Board-of-Library-Trustees-Grafton-Public-9

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86404771358?pwd=WnZRU1hucU1pcEhqUlV2Z2VRK0Nldz09

Meeting ID: 864 0477 1358

Passcode: 325461

BoLT Policy Committee will meet to discuss a Food & Beverage and Kitchen Use Policy and the Art Display & Exhibit Policy on Monday, April 3 at 7:30 PM.

This will be a hybrid meeting on site in Community Room A.

Agenda: https://www.grafton-ma.gov/AgendaCenter/Board-of-Library-Trustees-Grafton-Public-9

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82809991805?pwd=VUJwUVRoTDFRUVRQWWZzY2hpUE80QT09

Meeting ID: 828 0999 1805

Passcode: 416496

Thanks to all who donated saleable materials and came to the Friends Used Book Sale! They raised $2,500+ dollars. Proceeds pay for museum passes and support the summer reading program.

The Egg Hunt on Grafton Common will take place Saturday April 1 with two start times to choose from. Tickets are $5 each and go on sale March 11.

Members can check the Friend's Facebook page for scheduled meetings.

https://www.facebook.com/GPLFriends

Join or renew your membership at www.friendsgpl.org/join

Questions? Please contact info@friendsgpl.org