Quick Facts
* You will need to create an account and have a valid e-mail address to sign up for courses.

* You are welcome to enroll in up to 5 courses.

* You have up to 6 months to finish each course.

* You have access to your course 24/7 via the Internet.

* Attend class and do assignments on your schedule.

* Each course has a real instructor who you may communicate with using e-mail.

* These are non-credit courses and are provided for your personal enrichment.

* These courses are not intended to be a substitute for any state, government, licensing, or educational requirements.

1)  To access Universal Class click the link below:

http://vermontstate.universalclass.com/register.htm

2) To access the classes use the following CODE:

2VSR@00000 PLUS your four digit Royalton library number  (Ex.:  If your library # is 4444, you’ll type in 2VSR@000004444)

The theme for this year’s Summer Reading Program was “One World, Many Stories.”  We created a story quilt over the 6 week program.  We started out with Africa.  Our quilt block went along with the book Wangari’s Trees of Peace, by Jeanette Winter.

The next week we “travelled” to China.  We made individual flannel boards and tangrams out of felt, along with our quilt blocks to go along with “Grandfather Tang’s Story, by Ann Tompert.

For Week Three we talked about immigration and made flag quilt blocks and featured the books Oma’s Quilt, by Paulette Bourgeois, The Josefina Story Quilt, by Eleanor Coerr, and The Tortilla Quilt, by Jane Tenorio-Coscarelli.  Week Four we read about refugees with the book Four Feet, Two Sandals, by Karen Lynn Williams and made cute flip flop quilt squares.

Week Five we were back home in Vermont.  Each of us made a family tree quilt block.  And here’s our finished quilt, hanging over the fireplace in our library!

And I don’t want to forget our finale performance.   The Penumbra Players were quite wonderful.  Our audience was a bit young to get the meaning of much of the dialogue, but they loved the performing and the adults thoroughly enjoyed the literary references!

2012 Spring Book Club to be announced!  Stay tuned!!

We hosted local author Kate George, celebrating the launch of her latest book “California Schemin’.”  This is the second book starring Bella Bree MacGowan.  The first book, “Moonlighting in Vermont” introduced Bree and many others who appear again in this second installment.  Pick it up here at the library and give it a read!

Our first book club was fantastic!  We enjoyed an inter-generational discussion as our public library group joined a local South Royalton High School English class for the night, to discuss Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird”.  What fun it was to get a teen perspective on this classic book.  We had 30 people, many viewpoints, snacks and lots of fun.  We look forward to our next discussion on Ruth Reichl’s “For You Mom, Finally”, to be held Monday, March 28th, 7PM, Royalton Memorial Library.

Some of the latest additions to our collection

In January 2012:

Adult Fiction

In Close by Brenda Novak

A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Pilgrim by Hugh Nissenson

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Drop by Michael Connelly

“V” is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis

Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson

Adult Non-Fiction

SEAL Team Six by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Gabby by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly

An Irish Country Childhood by Marrie Walsh

Blue Nights by Joan Didion

The Civil War Sewing Circle by Kathleen Tracy

Junior Fiction

True (…sort of ) by Katherine Hannigan

In December 2011:

Adult Fiction
The Judgement and The Mercy by  Beverly Lewis

Tag Man by Archer Mayor

The Devil’s Light by Richard North Patterson

The Ex-Debutante by Linda Francis Lee

The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman

The Night Strangers by Chris Bahjalian

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon

Sixkill and Killing the Blues by Robert B. Parker

Ed King by David Guterson

The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts

Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

The French Blue by Richard W. Wise

Adult Non-Fiction

Heaven is for REAL by Todd Burpo

A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis

Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic by Joanne B. Freeman

Bird Cloud: A Memoir of Place by Annie Proulx

Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres

The Price of Civilization by Jeffery D. Sachs

The Dog Who Ate the Truffle by Suzanne Carriero

Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero by Chris Matthews

Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

Jagger: Rebel, RockStar, Rambler, Rogue by Marc Spitz

America Dreaming How Youth Changed America in the 60’s by Laban Carrick Hill

Teach Anyone To Read:  The No-Nonsense Guide by Lillie Pope, Ph.D.

Nathaniel’s Nutmeg by Giles Milton

Young Adult

A Song of Ice and Fire (Books 1-5) by George R.R. Martin

How to Make a Bird by Martine Murray

Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler

Flightsend A summer of discovery by Linda Newbery

Taking Off by Jenny Moss

Hoppergrass by Chris Carlton Brown

The Kid Table by Andrea Seigel

Cashing In by Susan Colebank

Witch & Wizard by James Patterson

Juvenile Fiction

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

The Warlock by Michael Scott

Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

Fetching by Kiera Stewart

Violet in Bloom by Lauren Myracle

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

These are just some of our newest titles!  In addition, we have recently acquired several juvenile picture books generously donated to us by the State Department of Libraries.  Stop in and have a look!

What fun we had at our Beach Party Finale.  We read a couple of fun beach books and then crafted our own paper crowns, paper flower leis, and shell necklaces.

We had snacks and packed goody bags with some colorful pencils and beach themed stickers.  It’s been a fun summer learning lots about watersheds, rivers, and water creatures.  Join us next summer!

We had a nice turnout today for our Make a Splash at Your Library Summer Reading Program.   Today we read books about sharks, dolphins and whales.

In addition to Cynthia Rylant’s The Whales pictured here, we also read Great Pal Dolphin by Child’s Play and illustrated by P. Adams; Dolphins by the Cousteau Society with wonderful photos, and selections from I Can Draw Sharks, Whales and Dolphins by Terry Longhurst.  We listened to music by Brent Holmes in the background (Sea Tunes for Kids).  After our reading we made mini shark books, fingerprint fish, and fingerprint ocean scenes.

Ed Emberly has some great fingerprint art books but today we used 2 Klutz Press books for our inspiration, “The Most Amazing Thumb Doodles Book” and “Fingerprint Fabulous”.  We learned a lot of fun facts about whales, sharks and dolphins and we all enjoyed getting our fingers inky and making our undersea worlds!

It was a small but dedicated group today.   A fishy good time was had by all as we read Marcus Pfister’s “The Rainbow Fish”

And then made our own Rainbow Fish

We read Stella Blackston and Clare Beaton’s “Secret Seahorse”

and Eric Carle’s “Mister Seahorse”

And made our own seahorses

And then for good measure we made our own hanging octopi/jellyfish

All in all it was a very productive, informative hour of fun!

Shiver me timbers matey, we found treasure at the library!  We celebrated with Pirates Booty, Mango Tango Juice, and lots of shiny plastic beads for the pirate treasure bags.  We made and decorated pirate hats, wore our pirate eye patches and beards, read our pirate story and made and followed our own pirate map around the library.  Ahoy!!

Our program next week will be on Fish and Sea Creatures.  Tune in next week, Thursday, 3-4pm.