Learn About Time Banking!

On Tuesday April 1, the Dover Public Library will host a 7pm presentation by Noel Jost-Coq, coordinator of the Great Bay Time Bank. It may be April Fool’s Day but this community program is no joke - the Great Bay Time Bank allows you to use your skills and expertise to trade with others.

TimeBanking is a medium of exchange, like money, designed in 1980 by founder Edgar Cahn to reward “decency, caring, and a passion for justice.”

The idea is simple: I earn a time credit by doing something for you. It doesn’t matter what that “something” is. You turn around and earn a time credit doing something for someone else. For example, an hour of gardening equals an hour of child-care equals an hour of dentistry equals an hour of home repair equals an hour of teaching someone to play chess.

TimeBanking builds on the magic of pay it forward: one good turn leading to another and another and another. In a community, TimeBanking connects unused resources with unmet needs.

Visit the Great Bay Time Bank website at greatbay.timebanks.org or call the Dover Library at 603-516-6050 for more information.

Lewis Carroll: Puzzles & Riddles with Alice on April 15

       The Friends of the Dover Public Library will host an intriguing presentation, “The Life and Works of Lewis Carroll: a Puzzle with Riddles” on Tuesday evening, April 15 at 7pm by Rev. Robert Stiefel, PhD.  The program is an adaptation of a popular course Dr. Stiefel taught at UNH.

       Under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote two of the most widely read and beloved classics, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There”, and the epic poem “The Hunting of the Snark”.  

        Dodgson (1832-1898) was resident Lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford, and an eminent portrait photographer, logician and mathematician, inventor, theologian, an Anglican deacon. His life continues to present puzzles to be solved and riddles to tease us, ones that may or may not be answerable. In this way, both his life and his works are very much alike. The question repeatedly put to Alice and to the hunters of the Snark is one Lewis Carroll repeatedly put to himself and asks each of us:  “Who are you? And which way do you want to go?”

       Dr. Stiefel recently retired after 22 years teaching Honors Seminars and Humanities Courses at the University of New Hampshire. Earlier he also taught at Harvard University and Haverford College.  A priest in the Episcopal Church since 1979, he served as Rector of Christ Church, Portsmouth from1991-2002 and currently serves as voluntary chaplain at Maple Suites Independent Living Retirement Center.

       Reading Carroll’s books is certainly not a pre-requisite for attending, but for those who’d like to reacquaint themselves with Alice’s adventures before the program, the Dover Public Library has four copies of the recommended edition of  “The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition” (Norton, 2000) available for browsing or borrowing. This program is free and open to all. For more information, call the Dover Library at 603-516-6050.

Calling All Peeps!

The Dover Public Library is looking for creative Dover residents, Dover students, or Dover Public Library cardholders to enter our sixth annual “Peeps Show” contest this April.
 
Here’s how it works: Build a diorama using peeps of any color or species in a standard size shoe box. The theme is anything literary; recreate a scene from your favorite book, play, or poem.
The first 16 entries will receive a free plush Peep bunny or chick! Anyone who participates in the Peeps Show contest can enter in a raffle to win a copy of “Peeps! Recipes and Crafts to Make With Your Favorite Marshmallow Treat” by Charity Ferreira.
 
Those 17 or older are invited to compete in the Adult Division, while peeps, er, people 11- 16 may enter the Teen Division. Children ages 2 – 6 are invited to enter the Kids Division, and ages 7 – 10 may enter in the Youth Division.
 
On the back of your shoe box, please include your name, address, phone number, and title of your “Peeps Show”. All Peeps displays may be dropped off at the Dover Public Library beginning Monday, April 7 through Saturday, April 19. The Peeps will be displayed in the library for all to enjoy.  

Attention Overdrive Users 

Just want to remind Overdrive users that logging in now requires a Library card number and PIN. The default PIN is the last 4 digits of your phone number.

New Hampshire’s Little-Known
Black Daughters

at the
Dover Public Library

New Hampshire has a long, rich, and vibrant African-American history.  On Monday evening March 31 at 7pm, the Friends of the Dover Public Library are pleased to present a program by JerriAnne Boggis and Courtney Marshall entitled “New Hampshire’s Little-Known Black Daughters”.  They will discuss the lives and contributions of two local  African-American women:  Nellie Brown Mitchell, a renowned 19^th century opera singer and concert company owner from Dover, and Harriet E. Wilson, an author from Milford who penned “Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black”  in 1859. Re-discovered in 1982 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., this book has been documented as the first African-American novel published in the United States.  

               

This dynamic program will explore themes of community, history, and identity and the continuing importance of Black history in New Hampshire. Courtney Marshall is an Assistant Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her field of research includes African-American literature, critical race feminism, queer ethnic studies, and law and popular culture. JerriAnne Boggis is the Director of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail and the Harriet Wilson Project who works to tell the little-known stories of Black history in New Hampshire and beyond.

            

For more information on this free program, call the Dover Public Library at 603-516-6050.

Great Stone Face Book Talk #15 & 16

Members of the GSF Committee have written "booktalks" to spark interest in reading all 20 titles on the list of nominees. Last November, I thought it would be fun to post one of their book talks every week which should have taken us through the winter months--just in time for voting during National Library Week in April!  Somewhere along the way, I must have had "brain freeze" from the cold weather as there are 6 book talks left.  We don't want 6 more weeks of winter so I am posting 2 book talks this week and next!
Here is "GSF Booktalk" #15:

Prairie Evers
by Ellen Airgood

Suddenly, you aren’t in Kansas anymore…. well not in North Carolina at least. Ten year old Prairie Evers finds herself uprooted from the home she has known all her life. Her mom has inherited the family farm. As her parents and Grammy try to re-root in upstate New York, Prairie’s life is about to change forever. Prairie delves into farm life by raising little chicks, and continues her homeschooling with Grammy. Like a tornado, all breaks loose in Prairie’s life. Grammy decides to return to North Carolina, Mom takes a job and Dad is busy with his woodwork. Terrified, Prairie finds herself enrolled in the local school. Never has she been around so many kids and chaos. How will Prairie survive? Will she fit in? What about friends? Join Prairie on her journey of loss, discovery, friendship and sharing.

Booktalk by Catherine Ryan, GSF Committee

And #16:

The Prairie Thief

by Melissa Wiley

Louisa Brody is beside herself when her Pa is accused of stealing from their neighbors, the Smirches.

To make matters worse, she has to stay with them while her father is locked up in jail thirty miles away. Life with the Smirches is awful, but Louisa finds a
friend in Jessamine, the Smirches's orphaned niece. Jessamine is lively and full of stories. Jessamine claims to have seen a wee person – a brownie. Louisa doesn't believe her-until she comes face to face with the little man herself. Though he seems cranky he has a good heart. Can this cranky Brownie help solve the mystery of the stolen goods and help free Louisa’s Pa from jail?
Read The Prairie Thief and find out. 
Booktalk written by Lorreen Keating- GSF Committee/North Hampton Public Library