By Kathryn Johnson

Holiday hours

All libraries will be closed on Monday, Dec. 25 and open again with regular hours on Tuesday Dec. 26. Libraries will also be closed Monday, Jan. 1, 2018 and reopen with our regular hours Jan. 2.

A new year, a new you

Try a new recipe. Start a new exercise. Discover a new author. Learn a new craft. Listen to new music. Learn a new skill. Reinvent yourself. Plant a garden. Update your resume. Pursue your dreams. Dozens of books, DVDs and CDs to inspire a “new you” can be found on our upcoming January book display!

Up-cycled paper art exhibit

Danielle Ghio’s 500 paper cranes share space with a toilet paper tube cat. Kathryn Johnson features her elegant paper star and magazine bowl from her Handmade @ Your Library workshops. René Gehr displays her hand-cut accordion book. Tami Takahasi, Lorraine Chuman and Pepsi Young share their clever altered books. Stop by and see what these crafty librarians have been up to. This display ends in January.

Handmade @ Your Library

Handmade @ Your Library continues into the New Year with a new craft. Our next workshop, taught by René Gehr, will take place on Jan. 27 at 10:30 a.m. The sign-up sheet will be available at the front desk beginning Jan. 2.

Happy birthday, Bad Kitty

Join us on Jan. 13 at 11 a.m. to help us celebrate Bad Kitty’s birthday! We will be reading some Bad Kitty books, playing some Bad Kitty games, doing some Bad Kitty crafts and, of course, eating some Bad Kitty cake! Please RSVP. We look forward to seeing you there.

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

What is 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, you may wonder? Well, it is a reading incentive program that inspires and challenges caregivers to share 1,000 books with their children before they begin school. And why is this important? Research shows that the more books a child is read to by the time they begin school, the greater chance for future success.

Sharing books, conversations, and songs with young children builds language skills, contributes to their healthy development, provides skills to succeed in school, and helps assure that they will learn to love reading.

For every 100 books that are read, they earn a smart stripe that they can show off to their friends, teachers, and librarians! Signing up is easy and it will start your child on the path to becoming a life-long reader.

We continue to offer story times for babies, toddlers and preschoolers throughout the week. As well as our popular adult programs. Please visit the branch or check out our Facebook page for a schedule.

We wish happy holidays to our wonderful patrons. Thanks for reading and we look forward to seeing you at the library!

— Managing librarian Kathryn Johnson and the staff of the Allied Gardens/Benjamin library can be reached at [email protected].