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Pleasanton Library received a large collection of 1,000-piece puzzles from resident Beth Foster recently. Beth was thinning her collection and thought our visitors would enjoy them. From left: Wendy Morlan, Frances Marshall, Missy Good, Angelia Duckwall and Susan Brown.

Spring has finally arrived, and we’re busy gearing up for our Summer Reading Program. We recently attended a workshop to get new ideas for crafts for children. But we’re always on the lookout for ideas for adult crafts as well. Our next craft is painting colorful zinnias, out of pinecones! We hope to continue these craft sessions throughout the summer, so watch for what’s coming next.

Better weather means we’ll be outside more, taking care of the library’s grounds, planting flowers in the raised beds, and trimming trees. One of our tweens offered to water the iris bed, but we waited, and the next day we had that gully-washer. So now the irises are growing like crazy. I’ve noticed some jonquils peeping out of the ground around town as well. Walk Kansas began March 17, so you’ll likely see lots of folks burning off those holiday desserts as they get outside to walk. Set a goal for yourself and do the same.

We’re not the only ones busy now that spring is here. The Mine Creek Battlefield Historic Site and Marais des Cygne Massacre Site will participate in National Park Day on Saturday, April 6 with volunteers clearing the trails, washing windows and removing winter debris from these wonderful destinations. By the way, the Battlefield is a great place to walk some trails. It’s like having our very own nature center.

Toward the end of April, the middle school students will be providing their youthful muscles to help complete community projects, right around Earth Day. In the past, they’ve helped outside the library and we hope to see them again this year. It’s fun having them visit, and we all have fun!

On May 14 at 1 pm, the Marais des Cygne Extension Office will visit the library to provide a class on using air fryers. This is a free program and the knowledge might help you save some money when you invest in one of these healthful ways to cook. The following week, several library board members will join a couple of staff members for a Southeast Kansas Library System bus tour. We’ll visit numerous libraries in Southeast, as well as Northeast Kansas to get ideas and see how other libraries function and flourish.

Put the beginning date of our Summer Reading Program on your calendars now, because the fun will commence on Tuesday, June 4 at 11 am with a visit from Kansas City’s own Mad Science. In addition to our weekly programs and activities on Tuesdays, we’ll also begin a four-week Kid’s Gardening program that’s provided by the Extension Office. Participants will learn about raising their own healthy foods during classes that begin at 10 am, beginning Wednesday, June 12. Watch this space for more information.

So get outside and enjoy the warm days, and wave if you see us walking.

In spite of the weather, we’ve been busy at the library this winter. Not just shoveling snow, mind you, but also doing inventory, dusting shelves as we go, doing year-end reports and previewing new children’s books. On days when local schools have been closed, we were as well. Once we re-opened, we played catch-up with incoming and outgoing books ordered by our customers, as well as those from other libraries.

At the beginning of the school year last fall, I resumed visiting LeaAnn Davenport’s pre-school classes. After a year’s hiatus, I looked forward to visiting the students, reading stories and doing crafts with them. Once they turn five, they are eligible to obtain their own library card. This is a big event for many of them, and we see them often as they visit with their parents. It’s been fun over the years to watch these youngsters grow up as they visit the library.

Hopeful that the weather begins to warm up soon, we’ve begun planning for our Summer Reading Program. We’ll have weekly activities during June and July, with visits from Mad Science and representatives from the Cosmosphere. I’m attending a special workshop this week, hosted by the Northeast Kansas Library System, and provided by instructors from NASA. This is particularly exciting for me because my father worked at Cape Kennedy for 24 years during the heyday of the Space Race. We’ve amassed a treasure trove of books about space at the library, and this year’s Summer Reading Program theme “A Universe of Stories” will feature space. The workshop will provide lots of ideas for projects to make this summer, so fun will be had by all participants.

We’re looking forward to warmer weather, when we can get outdoors to tend the raised bed gardens and trees on the library’s grounds. Winter winds took their toll on the plantings, so we hope to restore their vigor. We need to re-hang our sign on front of the building, and hopefully get our entry sidewalk repaired. There is also a directional sign to install once we receive assistance from city employees.

While we wait for spring, there are still enough cold days to stay in and stay warm reading a few good books. Let us know what you’d like to read. If we don’t have it, we can order it for you from another library. We can also guide you so you can order items on your own. Thank you for helping keep your library vital!

Last week was a challenging one for anyone who had to get outdoors to work. The drive alone was treacherous, yet there were animals to feed and jobs that had to be done. Thankfully, schools were closed for several days and that protected parents and children from the freezing temperatures. It may also have kept the flu from continuing to spread.

As long as the power remained on, and food had been stocked, most of us were glad not to have to get outside. I was home recuperating and for several days only wanted to remain under a blanket with a box of tissues nearby. But as the week went on, I began to feel a little better and by the weekend was able to get up and around. The week’s “vacation” not only gave me time to get well, it gave me permission to read in blocks of time. That is a luxury I usually only get when I’m on a long trip and my husband is driving. I also had the chance to stay in bed later than usual and finish a book I started the night before.

When I finished all the library books I’d checked out the week before, I had the chance to dig into my “stash” of orphan books I’d bought from the library’s sale rack. This reorganized bunch of books contains junior fiction and non-fiction, young adult fiction, and adult fiction and non-fiction. Some of these rescued books are fabulous, and will be returned for resale. Even though they may have been written years before, good writers can make the stories timeless. The library has a wonderful collection of books for children, and some of them might be of interest to adults as well. For younger readers, it might help to have an adult around to read with them. They could help explain some of the messages the stories build into the book. Rather than pointing them out as they occur, the adult might ask questions along the way. Or wait until the child asks one, and then offer their perspective on the meaning.

There are parents who actually begin reading to their unborn babies, or new babies. It helps create a bond with a child, and they grow to understand how important reading can be. Reading is important, but understanding what was read is a critical life skill. If you need suggestions on what books might be good for children of different ages and comprehension levels, don’t hesitate to ask us. We’re all readers, we read to children, and enjoy reading ourselves. We’ll find books that you and your child can enjoy together. Help build their imagination by reading to them, or with them!