Register Now!

Dont forget...Registration begins today for all groups--Monday 1:30p.m., Monday Bedtime (7:00p.m.) and Tuesday 9:30a.m. groups for 3-6 year-olds and Thursday and Friday (9:30 a.m.) toddler groups for children ages 21-36 months.In addition to our "registered groups", we offer a "drop-in" story time (for all ages). This story time is open to all (visitors and non-resident card holders included)! Children and their caregivers are welcome to drop-in for any or all of these story times on Wednesdays @ 9:30 a.m.For more information, pick up one of our 2011-2012 story time brochures, visit our website @ http://library.dover.nh.gov/, or call the Children's Room (516-6052).

A Tale of Two Zombies

I am listening to a terrific zombie book right now called The Reapers Are Angels by Alden Bell. DPL has the book, I downloaded the audio from NH Downloadable books. It is an intense story of a young woman making her way across an America remade by a zombie plague. It's hard to get out of the car when Temple is trying to escape a clan of mutants or running from the vengeful brother of a man she killed. Gripping and occasionally gory. Another book just came in for me, Zone One by Colin Whitehead. Zone One is a much more literary examination of what happens to society when a plague decimates most of its members, and sad to say, it is just not as enthralling as Temple's story. It seems like zombies are the new vampires. Since it is almost Halloween I  have to esquire, which creature do you prefer to read about; vampires, zombies, werewolves or ghosts?

Gigantic Book Sale This Year

We finally got all the books into position up on the third floor and there is not an inch of room to spare. The Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale starts this Friday at 9 for card holders and is open to the general public Saturday morning at 9. We have loads of paperbacks, children's books, novels, non fiction books, DVDs, videos. The sale runs approximately two weeks with price reductions every few days-- don't miss it!

A Tale Told by Trees

I took my dogs for a walk yesterday by one of the schools in Lee which has a series of trails behind it. I noticed a tree had a piece of paper stapled to it so I went closer to see what it said. To my surprise, I found it was a page from Fairy Houses by Tracy Kane. I saw that trees all down the trail all had their own pages. As I walked along the path I was able to read the story. I envisioned children being led through the woods and being told the enchanting story of how fairy houses came to be. What a wonderful and creative idea. You don't need to find this magical forest path if you want to learn how to make your own fairy house, just check out our copy of the book.

The Big, Big, Big Book Sale

Donations of books have been pouring in for our annual Friends of the Library Book Sale which begins Friday, October 28 for DPL cardholders, and Saturday, October 29 for the general public. Thousands of items; books, movies, music cds, children’s books, and paperbacks, priced from .50 and up. The sale runs approximately two weeks with price reductions every few days. If you have never been it is truly an amazing sale!

C'est La Vie

While one of our lovely librarians vacations in Paris this week the rest of us are left here in the dreary fall weather to feel sorry for ourselves. And since I wasn’t quite envious enough I decided to read Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard. Now the Paris travel memoir/love story/ recipe book has been done to death, I know, and in some ways this book is not all that different but in other ways it is a breath of fresh air. Bard does fall for a Frenchman but she doesn’t necessarily fall for France or Paris for that matter. As a writer, art historian, and foodie she loves the idea of Paris but as a true blue New Yorker the slow walk through life that the French thrive on almost drives her nuts. When her father-in-law is diagnosed with stage IV cancer the cultural differences between her and her husband and his family are heartbreaking. As you watch her take back seat, after all this is not her father, and let them do things their way you feel her frustration and realize how different we face life’s challenges in our American culture. In the end this is a happy story about love, family, acceptance, and food (but of course) and an excellent departure from the “life is perfect over there” tradition.

Ballet @ your Library!

Ballet fun for your entire family will be held in the Lecture Hall of the Dover Public Library on Wednesday, October 19th at 4 PM when Edra Toth, founder and Director of Edra Toth's Academy of Dance & Music, brings her dancers to join the author, David Rottenberg, in a special reading & ballet performance of Gwendolyn, the Graceful Pig.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Edra Toth immigrated to Boston, MA when she was a small child, during the Hungarian uprising in 1956. E. Virginia Williams, the founder of the Boston Ballet, offered Toth a scholarship to attend her school of dance. Toth became Williams’s protégé and made her dance debut at the age of 13. She became prima ballerina at age 15 and danced with Rudolph Nureyev when she was 18. Toth performed at the White House at the invitation of the Johnson administration, and since her retirement as a dancer, has dedicated herself to dance education through her dance academies and the ballet company, NorthEastern Ballet Theatre, of which she is the artistic director.

David Ira Rottenberg, who lives in Natick, MA, has published three business books with business professor, Jeffrey Shuman, and a poetry book, Soldiers of Beauty. Gwendolyn, the Graceful Pig is his first children's book.

Following the performance, Ms. Toth will teach the children in the audience some dance steps in a mini-ballet class, and Mr. Rottenberg will be available to answer questions and sign copies of his book. Wear your tutus & dancing shoes (optional) & bring your camers! All are welcome!

Do You Collect Things?

Join us tomorrow, Oct. 18, 2011 in the Library Lecture Hall for Collections with Hetty Startup.

Want a comprehensive look at the fun, weird and wonderful history of the history of museums, collectors and collecting habits? This talk also invites you to think about your own collecting interests. Why do you collect certain things and not others? Is there a theme? If possible, bring a sample of your collection with you to this program.

Hetty Startup is an adjunct professor of art history and architectural history at the University of New Hampshire Manchester. Professor Startup’s research has focused on late 19th and early 20th century British and American women’s leadership in cultural organizations, with specific emphasis on the arts and crafts and settlement house movements. She has also written and lectured on modern architectural and design history with a special emphasis on Frank Lloyd Wright and his American and European contemporaries. Educated in the UK, Hetty has worked in museums and non-profit settings as well as teaching for over twenty years at the college level. She serves on two non-profit boards in NH, works with the NH Humanities Council in their Connections program. She likes to garden and make watercolor and felted paintings.

Free Movies On Saturdays at 2

Join us this Saturday at 2:00pm in the Library Lecture Hall for our free Saturday Matinee: Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer. This summer, Judy Moody is planning the most super-duper, double-rare summer vacation ever with best friends Rocky and Amy. Except that it turns out Rocky is going to circus camp to learn to tame lions, Amy is headed off to Borneo with her mom to save a lost tribe and Judy is stuck home with her pesky little brother Stink and second-best friend Frank Pearl. Just when she thinks things are as rotten as they can be, her parents announce that they will be going to California and Judy will have to stay behind with her Aunt Opal, who she's never even met! It looks like Judy's best summer ever has just become her way worst summer ever. But feisty, fearless Judy Moody never gives up. With help from some unexpected sources, she's headed for a summer full of surprises.

Curious as to what else we will be showing? Make sure to watch the DPL's Movie Page for updates.

National Book Award

The finalists were announced for the National Book Award. Here are the fiction finalists:

Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

We have them all in our collection so put them on hold today!

Autumn at the Library

I was inspired by the sun and glorious fall colors to document Autumn at the DPL.

Hidden Treasures

I was shelving books in the Historical Room when I noticed a pile of papers hidden away in the dark recesses behind the histories of Maine. I pulled the row of books forward so I could reach the papers. It was a stack of banquet advertisements and receipts from the Strafford County Republican Club circa 1880s. I love this advertisement for dinner and "jollification". Dinner includes such treats as cold ox tongue and escaloped oysters. I hoped I had discovered a lost copy of the U.S. Constitution, or an unpublished Edgar Allan Poe manuscript. Turned out to be nothing so valuable, but it was interesting.

The Library will be closed Monday

The Library will be closed this Monday, October 10th, in honor of Columbus Day. We will be open our normal hours ( 9 - 5) on Saturday the 8th. Don't miss the 2PM free matinee; we will be showing Africans Cats, a Disney documentary.

Teen Loft

The Teen Loft, located on the mezzanine level of the library, has expanded! This collection, which includes teen fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short stories, graphic novels, and comic books, has been growing more popular each year, and so it needed a bit more space. We are extremely happy that Dover kids are bucking the national trend towards reading less. We welcome you to come in and take a look around.

Museum Passes Available

It looks like its going to be a beautiful weekend if the weather forecasters can be believed. Why not get out and enjoy New England's most splendid season by taking a day trip? The Library has many museum passes available for the holiday weekend. The Shaker Farm in Canterbury should be lovely this time of year. Give  us a call and reserve your museum pass.

Museum passes which can be borrowed from the library are:
The Currier Museum of Art, Manchester
Historic New England (SPNEA houses throughout New England)
Isabella Stuart Gardner
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of NH History, Concord
The Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
The Portland (ME) Museum of Art
The Children's Museum of NH, Dover
McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
The Museum of Science, Boston
New England Aquarium
The NH Farm Museum, Milton
The Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne State Park, Rye
Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth

Choose Your Own Adventure...

Do you remember those books? Well, last night when I was stumbling around the web, I came across SF Signal's Guide to Navigating NPR's top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books. They have made an awesome flowchart to lead you down the path to the adventure of your choice. Check it out athttp://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2011/09/flowchart-for-navigating-nprs-top-100-sff-books/.

Get Creative With Your Pumpkin

Come check out our Halloween display which has a number of books devoted to the art of pumpkin carving. You don't need to be an expert with a knife to carve most of these pumpkins. There are funny pumpkins as well as scary pumpkins. When I used these books last year the neighbors voted the puking pumpkin their favorite.