Greetings!

In checking the calendar, I’ve discovered that April is a month with all kinds of interesting historical, cultural, and literary events, many of which we can celebrate at our libraries.

April is Poetry Month! Be sure to check out our poetry collections. Everyone can find a poem that is meaningful to them. Reading Casey at the Bat by Ernest Lawrence Thayer would be a great way to celebrate the beginning of the baseball season in mid-April. You could read Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” to celebrate that famous ride on April 18, or Langston Hughes’ “I, Too, Sing America” on April 11 to celebrate the signing of the Civil Rights Act. There is also plenty of Shakespearian poetry to read on William Shakespeare’s birthday on April 23.

April 22 is Earth Day and the Bachelder Library will have a display celebrating Earth Day. We have titles that admonish us to take care of our Earth, such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring or Naomi Klein’s On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, and we have titles that encourage us to enjoy the beauty of the natural world around us, such as Reading the Forested Landscape by Wessels, Cohen, and Zwinger.

Also on display at the Bachelder Library is our collection of Academy Award winning “Best Films”.  While we don’t have every award winner, we do have most of the winners of the last twenty years, and we do have some award winners from the seventies. Whether it is Parasite (2020 award winner), or One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976 winner), we do have good collections of DVD’s.

The Andover Book Club will meet on Wednesday, April 22 at 7 PM at the Bachelder Library. Our book for this month is Laurie Frankel’s, This is How It Always Is, a best book of 2017.  It is a story of love, family, acceptance, and of raising a transgender child.  Frankel, herself the mother of a transgender child, says that this “is a topic that scares people…I hope that people who read this book will read it and forget about the transgender issues and just be in the embrace of this family and realize that this family is like all families…”: (from an interview with NPR).

Would you like to check out materials without leaving the comfort of your home? The New Hampshire State Library has wonderful services that allow you to check out ebooks, e-magazines, and audio books. Libby is an application that allows you to download materials to your tablet or smartphone. You can learn more about it from these video tutorials: resources.overdrive.com/library/how-to-videos/libby/. You do need to have a library card to use Libby. When prompted for your library card number, please use the “Andover Libraries” number 4300, plus your card number.

Now that the weather is warmer and the roads are clear of ice, it is an even better time to join the WABL Walkers! Weather permitting, we meet at the library at 9:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays to walk up Chase Hill, then on to Emery Road, and we can then turn back when people feel they have gone far enough. This is a hilly walk with spectacular views. We’ll enjoy a cup of tea (perhaps even ice tea by the end of the month) when we get back to the library. Even though the library is closed, walkers should feel free to check out a book or movie.  Now is the time to get more exercise and spend more time outdoors. Once the group gets going we can certainly make variations to the schedule and route. All should feel comfortable going at their own pace.

Please feel free to let us know of any books you would like to have us purchase for the libraries, or if there are any activities or programs you would like to see take place at our libraries.