Poet Sharon Olds is 2016 Hale Award Medalist

The Richards Free Library and the Judges of the Sarah Josepha Hale Award have  announced that poet Sharon Olds is the 2016 Sarah Josepha Hale Award Medalist.  She will accept the award and give a reading on October 1, 2016 at 8:00 p.m. at the Newport Opera House. For more information contact the Richards Free Library.

Book of the Week (9/19/2016)

Blood Brother: Jonathan Daniels and His Sacrifice for Civil Rights by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace (Honesdale, Pennsylvania : Calkins Creek Books, 2016.)

Local New Hampshire authors Rich and Sandra Neil Wallace present their new YA book, "Blood Brother". This is the story of the murder of New Hampshire student Jonathan Daniels; a white freedom fighter in Alabama in the 1960's. Coming from a background in Sociology, this book appeals to me for many reasons, including the subject of the struggle for civil rights, black voter rights, as well as the story of a brave freedom fighter likely unknown to many (including myself) who lost his life for the cause. It is especially of interest to New Hampshire residents because of Daniels' New Hampshire connection.

"Jonathan Daniels, a white seminary student from New Hampshire, traveled to Selma, Alabama, in 1965 to help with voter registration of black residents. After the voting rights marches, he remained in Alabama, in the area known as “Bloody Lowndes,” an extremely dangerous area for white freedom fighters, to assist civil rights workers. Five months later, Jonathan Daniels was shot and killed while saving the life of Ruby Sales, a black teenager. Through Daniels’s poignant letters, papers, photographs, and taped interviews, authors Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace explore what led Daniels to the moment of his death, the trial of his murderer, and how these events helped reshape both the legal and political climate of Lowndes County and the nation." -Publisher's website.

Authors Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace will be visiting Cheshire Children's Museum in Keene, NH, Tuesday, September 27th, 2016 at 6:00 p.m to present "Blood Brother".
Authors Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace will also be visiting Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH, Thursday, September 29th, 2016 at 5:30 p.m to present "Blood Brother".
Rich and Sandra will also be making appearances in the coming months at:
Bayswater Books in Center Harbor, NH, Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. and Toadstool Bookshop in Keene, NH, Saturday, December 3rd, 2016 at 1 p.m.

Book of the Week (9/12/2016)

Keepers of the Labyrinth by Erin E. Moulton (Philomel Books, 2015).
This book will be featured at the New Hampshire table in the Pavilion of the States at the 2016 National Books Festival on September 23 in Washington, D.C.

Lilith Bennette runs at midnight. She scales walls in the dark and climbs without a harness. She hopes that if she follows exactly in the steps of her strong air force pilot mother, she’ll somehow figure out the mystery of her mother’s death—and the reason why her necklace of Greek symbols has been missing ever since.
So when Lil is invited to Crete for a Future Leaders International conference, the same conference her mom attended years ago, she jumps at the chance to find some answers. But things in Melios Manor are not what they seem. Lil finds herself ensnared in an adventure of mythological proportions that leads her and her friends through the very labyrinth in which the real Minotaur was imprisoned. And they’re not in there alone. What secrets does the labyrinth hold, and will they help Lil find the truth about her mother? -- Publisher's blurb

Book of the Week (9/5/2016)

American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals by Austen Barron Bailly, John W. Coffey (editors) (Salem, Massachusetts : Peabody Essex Museum, 2016.)

"Childe Hassam (1859–1935) was the foremost American impressionist of his generation. Prolific in oil paintings and watercolors, he found his native New England to be a touchstone for his art. Hassam had a fascination with Appledore, the largest island of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, and he traveled there almost every summer for thirty years. This fascinating book traces Hassam’s artistic exploration of Appledore and reveals a complex portrait of the island created over time. John W. Coffey, working with the marine biologist Hal Weeks, revisits Hassam’s painting sites, identifying where, what, and how the artist painted on the island. Kathleen M. Burnside considers the range of the artist's stylistic responses to the island's nature. A photo essay by Alexandra de Steiguer reveals Appledore’s enduring beauty." --Amazon.com

This beautiful exhibition catalog of American impressionist Childe Hassam's work featuring The Isles of Shoals accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts through November 6, 2016.

Do you have a library card?

September is Library Card Sign-up Month. Visit your local public library!
Books (in paper and pixels), DVDs, magazines, fun events, genealogical databases and experts to help you answer your questions are just a few of the things you will find there.