Events

At The Mighty Twig, June 16 from 2pm to 4pm. Evanston artist and author Laura Montenegro brings her book, A Poet Bird’s Garden, to life with puppetry, storytelling, and creative participation from the audience. Best suited for ages 5-12. Children take home a copy of the book as a gift! Fun food provided by Whole Foods.

At the Evanston Public Library North Branch, June 23 from 11am to 12:30pm. Join Evanston author and former District 65 Librarian Denia Hester as her book Grandma Lena’s Big Ol’ Turnip comes to life! Join in with tales of community spirit, family, and plant your own big ol’ turnip seeds to take home. A free copy of the book is available for children to take home. Best suited for ages 4-8.

At the Dempster/Dodge Summer Reading Stop, June 30 from 2pm to 3:30pm. The book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile by Bernard Waber comes alive in a drama workshop brought to you by Northwestern University’s Imagine U. Theater students from NU will join in with parents and their children to bring this lovable crocodile and his story to life. Parent/caregiver participation is requested in the workshop. Best suited for ages 5-10. Take home a free copy of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.

Books Alive! is supported by a generous grant from The Woman’s Club of Evanston. No registration is necessary. Just a love of books and the arts is required to attend this program.

Mighty Twig volunteers get MT ready for her debut performance on Saturday

We had more than 83 volunteers come out to help us last Friday and Saturday, with more than 420 volunteer hours logged over the course of the two days as people cleaned and labeled and shelved our collection at the Mighty Twig.

This week we’ve had about 10 people there every day putting the finishing touches in place, and it’s enormously gratifying to see such strong community support. It’s remarkable the stuff that Evanston is made of.

The Grand Opening fast approaches on Saturday and Team Twig continues to inspire! Today’s Library Heroes of the Day… Cheryl Chamberlain and Ed Lally who custom-built our computer table extraordinaire! Cheryl’s worked tirelessly to whip the Mighty Twig into shape for Saturday’s grand opening. Come see it in action Saturday 10 – 5PM. Signs are up, rugs are down, books are ready to be read. Saturday’s the day… be there!

It’s almost here…! The Grand Opening Event for Mighty Twig will be held:

Saturday March 26th

10AM – 5PM

Children’s Party

1PM – 3PM

Come Celebrate this Exciting Day with us. We know it’s a busy day around town with a number of other events also happening, but we hope you’ll take some time to swing by and say hello.

Things take shape at The Mighty Twig

We’re rounding out our Children’s Collection with some classics, so if your kids have outgrown these favorites, please email us at twig@eplfriends.org, and we’ll come collect them.

Later this month, we’ll take other donations for use at The Mighty Twig as well as our other book drops at BooCoo, Ridgeville, Primm Towers and other reading hot spots around town.

Children’s Books Needed At EPL Friends’ The Mighty Twig

Picture Books

Treasured Authors

Verna Aardema (anything)

Niki Daly (anything)

Llama, Llama books, Anna Dewdney

Danny & the Dinosaur books, Syd Hoff

Amazing Grace books, Mary Hoffman

Alphabet City, City by Numbers, Stephen Johnson

Ezra Jack Keats  (anything)

Bob Books, Bobby Maslan

Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McClosky

Fancy Nancy books, Jane O’Connor

Truck Town books, Jon Scieszka

Dr. Seuss

Pete’s a Pizza, by William Steig

Grumpy Bird and BooHoo Bird, Jeremy Tankard

Jan Thomas – anything (but particularly looking for Birthday for Cow and What Will Fat Cat Sit On)

Mo Willems – anything (but particularly Elephant and Piggie and Pigeon books)

DK Eyewitness books (on any topic)

Picture Books about these topics:

Dinosaurs

Trains

Construction equipment

Animals (Wild, Zoo, & Pets)

Insects

Sea creatures (sharks!!)

Disney princesses

Dora and Diego

Easy Readers

These are the books with the numbered reading levels (#1, 2, 3) in the corners.  They are often called “Step into Reading,” “I Can Read,” or “All Aboard Reading.”

Juv Series Books

Magic Tree House

Captain Underpants

Goosebumps – Horrorland

Junie B. Jones

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Main Street

Beacon Street

Pet Fairies

Babymouse (graphic novels)

Lunch Lady (graphic novels)

Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, etc. (graphic novels about action heroes)

Juv Fiction

Ivy & Bean books, Annie Barrows

Allie Finkle books, Meg Cabot

Artemis Fowl books, Eoin Colfer

Niki and Deja books, Karen English

Sharon Flake – anything

John Feinstein – anything

Joey Pigza books, Jack Gantos

Alex Rider books, Anthony Horowitz

Mike Lupica – anything

Winnie Perry books (Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen …) by Lauren Myracle

Clementine books, Sara Pennypacker

Alanna/The Song of the Lioness books, Tamora Pierce

Adam Canfield books, Michael Winerip

Young Adult

Gemma Doyle trilogy, Libba Bray

House of Night series, P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast

Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins

Hazelwood trilogy, Sharon Draper

Shug, Jenny Han

Walter Dean Myers – anything

Cirque du Freak series, Darren Shan

Gossip Girl series, Cecily von Ziegesar

Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto (manga)

Dragonball Z, Akira Toriyama (manga)

Fruits Basket, Natsuki Takaya (manga)

Join EPL Friends at what may well be the last event ever hosted at the South Branch Library space.

We don’t mean to be nostalgic, (ok, maybe we do) but come have some fun and join us for a Valentine’s Day Celebration. Crafts, storytime, treats and a book for every child to take home. Saturday, Feb. 12, 1PM – 3PM.

Next up, join us at Ridgeville Park District on Monday, Feb. 21 10AM – 2PM, for a Children’s Open House, 908 Seward Street. Kids must be accompanied by a caregiver or parent. There will be cookie decorating, winter crafts, storytime and a take-home book for every child.

Find out more here.

Happy New Year, EPL Friends! In case you’re wondering about South Branch status, or looking to share your feelings about what 2011 might hold for the libraries, we’re all ears! Just know that we’re working like mad to preserve and expand neighborhood services to the entire Evanston community, and will keep you posted with the latest developments. In the meantime, make plans to attend the upcoming Library Board Meeting on Jan. 19th, and mark your calendars for MLK Day Kids Celebrations, 1 – 3 PM

Many of you have asked us what the status is on the South Branch library. It seems that the landlord has found a new tenant, so South will have to find a new home come March. How that happens, or what that means is all in the hands of the Library Board. So, how can you help? Come to an important meeting on Wednesday, December 8th at 6:30 PM at the Main Library and support the South Branch.

There are two important meetings
we hope you’ll attend.

Saturday, Nov. 6th 9AM
Monday, Nov. 8th 7PM

Both will be held in Council Chambers at the Civic Center 2100 Ridge Avenue

Please let your alderman know how you feel about keeping the branch libraries open, find out what they’re doing to help, and how they’ll vote. A list of their email addresses is here.

Come hear what Mark Tendam, Ald. 6th Ward has to say about the Branch library discussions for upcoming City Council Meetings. Let him hear our voices and strategize about ways to save our libraries. Meeting will be hosted at N Branch, Tuesday 7 – 9PM.

Come to this Live discussion about the branches, filmed 11:30AM Monday, Oct. 18th, for Evanston Live. The public are invited to attend, but must RSVP for this event.