This is a fun, interactive programs for kids under age 3 and their caregivers, live and in person! Music ignites all areas of child development and skills for school readiness, including intellectual, social-emotional behavior, and language in overall literacy. It helps the body and mind work together. Music also helps with fine motor skills. Children who are exposed to music during early development are helped to learn the sounds and meanings of words. This is a drop-in event and you do not need to register in advance. It will take place in the large meeting room at the back of the brick Town Hall building here at 7A Spofford Road. 

CFCE of the North Shore Is funded by the Coordinated Family and Community Engagement Grant funded by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, awarded to the Peabody Public Schools.

Preschoolers ages 2-5 are invited to stop by and make a fun craft on Mondays at 10am, March 6 through March 27! (This is a drop-in event and you do not need to register in advance.)

The Library is hosting a new club for those who crochet and all those interested in crocheting. The Crochet Club will meet twice a month, at the library. The Club will meet around the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, depending on holidays. 

The Crochet Club welcomes all people who crochet and who want to meet with other crocheters. Come and share ideas, patterns, helpful hints, and problems you are having, or just hang out with others who like crochet as you do. No instruction will be offered but it is a time to share your projects and crochet issues with others who love to crochet. The Crochet Club is free but each person is responsible for their own supplies and materials.

Come and join the Crochet Club and work on crochet projects in the company of others who love to crochet. All experience levels are welcome. Come and join the Club and have fun crocheting.

Our Tuesday Storytimes for kids ages 3-5. Come for great books, puppets, and crafts. When you sign up for any storytime during this session, which runs from February 28 through April 4, you are all set to come to any or all Tuesdays during the six weeks, and do not need to register for each individual storytime. (Please note however that there was no Storytime on Tuesday March 21.)

Our pick for March is The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian.

Katie Barstow, Hollywood’s hottest young actress, plans her honeymoon as a Serengeti safari and invites her brother, sister-in-law, and a coterie of industry friends and colleagues to come along. It’s the mid-1960s, and the pampered travelers drop into a world roiled by geopolitical crises as the grip of colonialism is being challenged by Native uprisings, each side manipulated by Russian and U.S. counterintelligence agencies mired in escalating Cold War tensions. No sooner do their guides set up camp then they are overtaken by kidnappers, and those who are not immediately killed or tortured are taken hostage. The travelers are oblivious to these outside forces, however, and naively cling to the belief that rescue is at hand. She’s Katie Barstow, after all. The novel’s opening action may burst forth with a deadly ambush but Bohjalian doesn’t blindside loyal readers who have come to expect his signature combination of exotic locations, titillating characters, and energetic pacing. Stark and dark, violent and vivid, this may be versatile Bohjalian’s most harrowing work since Skeletons of the Feast (2008). Intimately researched, the Serengeti’s beauty and brutality are vibrantly infused in every scene, a grounding counterpoint to the competing dynamics of human cruelty and compassion.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

This group meets in-person at the library. No registration necessary and everyone is welcome!

Our Wednesday Storytimes for kids ages 3-5. Come for great books, puppets, and crafts. When you sign up for any storytime during this session, which runs from March 1 through April 5, you are all set to come to any or all Wednesdays during the six weeks, and do not need to register for each individual storytime. (Please note however that there was no Storytime on Wednesday March 22.)

This is a fun, interactive programs for kids under age 3 and their caregivers, live and in person! Music ignites all areas of child development and skills for school readiness, including intellectual, social-emotional behavior, and language in overall literacy. It helps the body and mind work together. Music also helps with fine motor skills. Children who are exposed to music during early development are helped to learn the sounds and meanings of words. This is a drop-in event and you do not need to register in advance. It will take place in the large meeting room at the back of the brick Town Hall building here at 7A Spofford Road. 

CFCE of the North Shore Is funded by the Coordinated Family and Community Engagement Grant funded by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, awarded to the Peabody Public Schools.

It's our monthly Lego Club For Kids, in person, for kids entering grades K & up.... We provide our collection of legos and a theme to build around, and you do the fun building! We will meet in the large meeting room on the ground floor of Town Hall. Space is limited; you may sign up for this event on or after March 2. Our March theme is: Mouse Trap!

Our Tuesday Storytimes for kids ages 3-5. Come for great books, puppets, and crafts. When you sign up for any storytime during this session, which runs from February 28 through April 4, you are all set to come to any or all Tuesdays during the six weeks, and do not need to register for each individual storytime. (Please note however that there was no Storytime on Tuesday March 21.)

Our Wednesday Storytimes for kids ages 3-5. Come for great books, puppets, and crafts. When you sign up for any storytime during this session, which runs from March 1 through April 5, you are all set to come to any or all Wednesdays during the six weeks, and do not need to register for each individual storytime. (Please note however that there was no Storytime on Wednesday March 22.)

Our pick this month is Jew-ish, a cookbook by Jake Cohen. 

A brillantly modern take on Jewish culinary traditions for a new generation of readers.

Copies of the cookbook will be available at the circulation desk one month prior to the meeting. Everyone is welcome; please register so that we will know how many people to expect. Also, if possible let us know the name of the dish you are bringing so that we can avoid duplication.

See you there!

The Library will be closed Saturday, April 15 for the holiday weekend.

The Library will be closed Monday, April 17 in observance of Patriots' Day. The Library will resume regular hours Tuesday, April 18 at 9am.

Calling all poetry lovers! Everyone is welcome to join our Poetry Circle, which meets the third Tuesday of the month to read and study different poets. For more information, contact Carole Davis at marketupc@verizon.net.
 

Kids ages 7 and up are invited to this hands-on workshop in the fun art of creative paper folding, presented by the Origamido Studio of Haverhill. who will provide both paper and easy-to-follow instruction. Space may be limited; you may sign up for this school vacation week event on or after April 5.

Our April pick is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

Nora Seed believes her life is made up of wrong choices. She didn’t become an Olympic swimmer; she quit her brother’s band; she left her fiancé two days before the wedding. Living with crippling disappointment and situational depression, Nora decides that the only right choice for her is to end her existence. But “between life and death there is a midnight library,” a library that contains multiple volumes of the lives she could have had if she had made different choices. With the help of the friendly librarian Mrs. Elm, Nora tries on these lives in hopes of finding one where she will truly be happy. In the process, Nora finds that life is made of choices of both little and big consequence, and sometimes the choice to believe in oneself is both the biggest and smallest decision a person can make. Haig’s latest (after the nonfiction collection Notes on a Nervous Planet, 2019) is a stunning contemporary story that explores the choices that make up a life, and the regrets that can stifle it. A compelling novel that will resonate with readers.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Please note that this group meets via Zoom.  Please email Beth at esafford@boxfordlibrary.org for the Zoom link

We are excited to announce an upcoming presentation on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at our library. As the world becomes increasingly digitized, AI is rapidly becoming a crucial tool for businesses, governments, and individuals alike.

During this presentation, Dr. Robert Spillman will discuss the fundamentals of AI, including its history, current applications, and future potential. He will also cover the ethical considerations surrounding AI, such as privacy and bias.

This presentation is open to all members of the community, and no prior knowledge of AI is required. Whether you are interested in exploring new technology or simply looking to expand your knowledge, we invite you to join us.

Light refreshments will be provided, and attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in discussion with the speaker.

Please mark your calendars and plan to attend this informative and engaging presentation on the exciting world of AI.

Our pick for April is Zorrie: A Novel, by Laurel Hunt.

Deliberately echoing the form of Gustave Flaubert’s novella, “A Simple Heart,” Hunt celebrates the majesty and depth in a life that may superficially seem undistinguished. Zorrie Underwood is a farmer in central Indiana, and as she and readers survey her 70-or-so years, her joys and sorrows are deeply observed and felt. Raised by a cranky aunt, Zorrie is left homeless at 21, in 1930, and travels though the countryside doing odd jobs for food. Following a stint painting clock faces at the Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, Illinois, she settles in her home state and marries a kindly couple’s farmer son, enduring setbacks and grief while adhering to daily routines. With compassion and realism, Hunt recounts Zorrie’s story straightforwardly, with setting-appropriate dialogue and an eye for sensory details: the glint of fireflies, the clay soil’s rich scent, the “mineral-sweet taste of warm blackberries picked off the vines.” Zorrie’s relationship with her neighbor Noah Summers, the eccentric protagonist of Hunt’s Indiana, Indiana (2003), is presented with expressive subtlety. A beautifully written ode to the rural Midwest.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

This group meets in-person at the library. No registration necessary and everyone is welcome!

It's our monthly Lego Club For Kids, in person, for kids entering grades K & up.... We provide our collection of legos and a theme to build around, and you do the fun building! We will meet in the large meeting room on the ground floor of Town Hall. Space is limited; you may sign up for this event on or after April 5. Our April theme is:Playground!

Our pick this month is Cook this Book: Techniques that Teach and Recipes to Repeat by Molly Baz. 

Food editor and recipe developer Baz aims to teach people to become great cooks with a DIY culinary crash course built around the concept of efficiency. Baz's recipes are designed to teach; she also makes an effort to anticipate questions that might arise and addresses them in footnotes and how-to videos linked via QR codes. Created for home cooks, this book focuses on time management by detailing how and when to begin each step in a recipe, and it lists ingredients by their location in a typical grocery store, to simplify shopping. Chapters include an introduction, an overview on tools and pantry essentials, the foundations to "make food taste great," and sections dedicated to recipes for chicken, seafood, eggs, noodles, grains, salads, vegetables, soups, and snacks, among others.

Copies of the cookbook will be available at the circulation desk one month prior to the meeting. Everyone is welcome; please register so that we will know how many people to expect. Also, if possible let us know the name of the dish you are bringing so that we can avoid duplication.

See you there!

Calling all poetry lovers! Everyone is welcome to join our Poetry Circle, which meets the third Tuesday of the month to read and study different poets. For more information, contact Carole Davis at marketupc@verizon.net.
 

Our May pick is Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Moreno-Garcia applies a Mexican-inspired twist across a variety of genres, most recently to crime fiction with Untamed Shore (2020). Now she takes on gothic suspense with a shiver-inducing tale combining touches of Northanger Abbey with bits of the Gormenghast trilogy thrown in for good measure. Noemí Taboada, privileged daughter of a wealthy Mexican industrialist, is a high-spirited flirt who is not prone to flights of fancy and not in the habit of believing in the supernatural. When Noemí’s father sends her to check on her cousin who may be suffering delusions—or could be in danger from her new spouse—she finds a small, tight-knit family with strict rules and a troubled past, living in a mold-infested manor house. They are ruled by a dying patriarch with strong beliefs in eugenics who is oddly delighted to have another young lady come to their isolated estate, despite her inferior blood. The ever-present imagery of twisting vines and snakes swallowing their tails blends with ghostly memories of death and disease to create a fascinating atmosphere of dark dreams and intrigue.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Please note that this group meets via Zoom.  Please email Beth at esafford@boxfordlibrary.org for the Zoom link

The Library will be closed Saturday, May 27 in observance of Memorial Day. Regular Library hours will resume Tuesday, May 30 at 9am.

The Library will be closed in observance of Memorial Day, Monday, May 29. Regular library hours will resume Tuesday, May 30 at 9am.

Our pick for May is Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn.

Imagine if the Golden Girls were trained as elite assassins and you’ll have some idea of the delights and thrills filling the pages of Raybourn’s latest. In 1979, rebellious Billie, proper Helen, practical Mary Alice, and flirtatious Natalie are the first women recruited to join a top-secret, nongovernmental organization known as the Museum, which specializes in hunting down Nazis, sex traffickers, arms dealers, and other bad guys. Now in their sixties, the women are enjoying a retirement cruise. When Billie ducks into a fridge to cool off during a hot flash, she spots a young colleague in disguise, and the women soon uncover a bomb in his room, realizing that their retirement gift is actually a death sentence. But why, after 40 years of loyally serving the Museum, are they now targets? Raybourn has crafted a brilliant crime novel, with wit, intrigue, and heart, in which these bold, aging agents travel through catacombs and luxury spas and keep in contact via menopause apps. Her descriptions about aging are both funny (comparing saggy boobs to melted ice cream) and bitter, as the women recognize that some skills don’t come as readily as they once did. But, most of all, this is a fun, exciting romp that celebrates the everlasting bonds of sisterhood.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

This group meets in-person at the library. No registration necessary and everyone is welcome!

It's June and we're getting ready for summer! This month we will sharing some great (and hopefully easy!) recipes from a variety of summer cookbooks:

Complete Summer Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen
The Summer Table by Lisa Lemke
The Beach House Cookbook by Mary Kay Andrews 
 

Also, feel free to bring any favorite summer recipes from your own kitchen. Please note, the group does not meet in July and August, so we will be taking a break until September.

Copies of the cookbooks will be available at the circulation desk one month prior to the meeting. Everyone is welcome; please register so that we will know how many people to expect. 

See you there!

The Library will be closed on Monday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth. Regular library hours will resume Tuesday, June 20 at 9am.

Our June pick is One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle.

Serle (In Five Years, 2020) returns with a novel touted as a great love story between a mother and a daughter. Katy Silver is grieving for her mother, Carol, who has recently died of cancer. Unsure and adrift without her anchor, she questions her relationship with her husband, Eric, and the normal world they live in. She and Carol were set to take a trip to Positano, Italy, so Katy decides to go there to find herself. There, she meets up with another Carol—a young woman, only thirty years old. Katy realizes immediately that she has met her own mother, and she must learn how to heal from her grief while also learning to understand her mother’s past decisions. Despite vague time travel mechanics, the novel is poignant and ultimately uplifting. The mouth-watering descriptions of Katy’s food and the lush Italian coast bring a strong, atmospheric sense of place. Recommend to fans of Helen Fisher’s Faye, Faraway (2021) and those who enjoy being transported to other countries through fiction.

From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Please note that this group meets via Zoom.  Please email Beth at esafford@boxfordlibrary.org for the Zoom link

The library will be closed Tuesday, July 4th in observance of the holiday. Regular library hours resume at 9am Wednesday, July 5th.