Summer Reading Wrap-up

Thanks to everyone who participated in Youth Services's 2017 summer reading program and weekly contests! This year's theme was "BUILD A BETTER WORLD."

Please take a look at the four happy winners of our weekly contests! They had to guess how many candies were in the jar each week.

It was a great year for summer reading-- 351 kids signed up and read 1,144 books in total!

This year, Perrot will make a donation based on each book read by our summer readers to Habitat for Humanity of Lower Fairfield County. Habitat's work in Fairfield County includes more than just building homes for families-- they are a construction company with a green focus, a family services agency, a non-profit financial institution, an affordable housing advocate and a community service project provider for thousands of people each year. They also operate a ReStore in Stratford, CT-- a nonprofit home improvement and donation center that sells quality new and used furniture, appliances, home accessories and building materials to the public at low cost.

If you were one of our very special signer-uppers, you can still keep track of the books you read, even though our "official" program has ended! You can either take your reading record home with you, or leave it here in the library. We will also continue to give out prizes for books read (while supplies last, so HURRY!).

We'd also like to give a special mention our teen volunteers, who helped record books for our reading program participants. This year we had 62 volunteers, who together worked 585 hours staffing our summer reading table. Thanks, guys!

And remember, we still have another month of summer left, so please KEEP READING!

Countdown to Kindergarten Storytime

It's that time of year again... time for our annual Countdown to Kindergarten Storytime-- featuring stories, songs, and a craft to help your child get ready for the first day of Kindergarten! This program is for children entering Kindergarten in Fall 2017 ONLY. Children attend independently, but parents and caregivers should remain in the Library.

Parents! While your child participates in the storytime, please join us for a Q&A with retired Greenwich Public Schools psychologist, Dr. Linnea Stenberg, who will discuss how you can help your child with this important transition. 

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017 at 1 PM in the Children's Program Room

Sign up now at the Youth Services Desk

Upcoming Event: Book Discussion on The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal

Greenwich Pen Women/Perrot Memorial Library Book Discussion Group

PRE-REGISTER NOW AT THE ADULT CIRCULATION DESK AND GET YOUR COPY OF THE BOOK- SEATING IS LIMITED TO THE FIRST 20 REGISTRANTS!

THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES: A HIDDEN INHERITANCE, by Edmund de Waal
Theme: Art, Emotion, and Memory
Facilitated by Sarah Darer Littman of Greenwich Pen Women
Monday, September 11th, 2017, at 7 PM
The Rand Room, Perrot Memorial Library

For nearly a century, the Ephrussi family controlled a business empire in Europe, massing wealth and objets d'art. A Parisian Ephrussi, Charles, who was a patron of the Impressionists, and inspiration for Marcel Proust's Charles Swann, purchased a collection of 264 tiny Japanese carvings called netsuke, including a hare with amber eyes.

In 1899, Charles sent the collection as a wedding present to his cousin, Viktor Ephrussi, in Vienna.

When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, they confiscated the Ephrussi's business interests, and their extensive art collection. The netsuke escaped their clutches, hidden in the mattress of a loyal maid, Anna, for the duration of the war.

Edmund de Waal, a noted ceramicist, inherited the netsuke from his uncle Ignace, who had left for America before the war and served in U.S. Army Intelligence. The collection provides a thread weaving together this fascinating memoir of art, history, and family.

Upcoming Event: The Great American Total Solar Eclipse- A Talk with Paul Alimena

Upcoming Event:

The Great American Total Solar Eclipse- A Talk with Paul Alimena

Wednesday, August 2nd, 2017, at 7:30 PM

Paul Alimena, a member of the Westchester Amateur Astronomers and friend of the Astronomical Society of Greenwich, will give a presentation about the upcoming solar eclipse that will occur on August 21st, 2017. This will be the first time totality will contact the lower 48 United States since 1979, and the first coast-to-coast path of totality since 1918. Mr. Alimena will share his photos, videos, and experiences viewing two previous total eclipses, and will explain what will be visible in our area. Special Eclipse Viewing Glasses will be distributed.

Movies in the Park: La La Land

Perrot is pleased to present our eleventh annual series of Movies in the Park in Binney Park. 

Bring your picnic, your chairs, and enjoy the show!

LA LA LAND (2016, Rated PG-13, 128 minutes)

Saturday, July 15th, 2017 at 8:30 PM

[No Rain Date]

Winner of 6 Academy Awards® including Best Director for writer/director Damien Chazelle, and winner of a record-breaking 7 Golden Globe® Awards, LA LA LAND is the story of Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart. (Plot summary from IMDb.com)

Perrot's Summer Reading Club and Contest for Kids

Summer is here-- and that means it's time to sign up for Perrot's summer reading club! You can participate (and win prizes for reading!) starting today, June 21st, through July 28th. Our Summer Reading theme this year is BUILD A BETTER WORLD.

To sign up for our summer reading club, simply visit our volunteer table by the computers in Youth Services. Our friendly teen volunteers will sign you up, tell you the rules and start a reading record for you. You'll also get to put your name up on our bulletin board! We'll keep your reading record here in the library. When you've read a book, tell a volunteer next time you're in the library and they'll write it in your reading record. After you read your first, third, and fifth books, you get a prize! Also, this year, for each book you read, Perrot will make a donation to Habitat for Humanity of Lower Fairfield County.

Parents, you can take home a reading record for children who are not yet reading independently. We have special sheets to record books you have read aloud with your child. Children get a sticker for each book they've read with a grown-up.

We're also having a contest this summer. During the last 4 weeks in July, we will have a new jar of candy at the desk each week. Guess how many candies are in the jar, and fill out a guess slip. Whoever's guess is closest wins the whole jar! (If more than one person guesses correctly, we will draw randomly from among all correct answers.)

Register Now for Summer Programs in Youth Services

Registration for Youth Services' Summer 2017 Program Session is going on NOW through Sunday, June 11th. [View the summer program schedule]

• Our preschool programs are drop-in during the summer, but registration is still required for our Stuff & Nonsense (for kids entering 1st grade), and Spotlight (for kids entering 2nd/3rd/4th grade) programs
• Our program registration is by lottery
• You must have an active library card in good standing to register
• Obtain a registration postcard for the program of your choice from the Youth Services Circulation Desk
• Fill out ALL of the required information. Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Address the reverse of the card to yourself
• Affix a first-class stamp (47¢)
• Drop off your card at the Youth Services Desk by June 11th
• Registration cards will be mailed back to you a few days after the close of registration with your registration status

Questions? Please give us a call at 203-637-8802.

Greenwich Reads Together 2017: News of the World, by Paulette Jiles

News of the World, by Paulette Jiles, has been chosen as the Greenwich Reads Together selection for 2017. Greenwich Reads Together is a community-wide reading experience which engages all of Greenwich in exploring a single book, culminating in a month-long series of special events and programs in the fall.

About the book:
In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence. In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows. Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act "civilized." Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember-- strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become-- in the eyes of the law-- a kidnapper himself.

About the author:
Paulette Jiles was born in Salem, Missouri, in the Missouri Ozarks. Raised in small towns in both south and central Missouri, she attended three different high schools, an exhausting process of social dislocation and fashion wobbles, and with relief graduated from the University of Missouri (KC) with a degree in Romance Languages. After graduation, she worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto and in the far north of Ontario and in the Quebec Arctic, helping to set up village one-watt FM radio stations in the native language, Anishinabe and Inuktitut. Jiles taught at David Thompson University in Nelson, BC and grew to love the British Columbian ecosystems and general zaniness. She spent one year as a writer-in-residence at Philips Andover in Massachusetts and then returned to the United States permanently when she married Jim Johnson, a Texan, and has lived in Texas since 1995.

Companion Selections for Children:
For middle grade readers: The Ransom of Mercy Carter, by Caroline B. Cooney
For younger readers: The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble

Visit Greenwich Library's website for more information on Greenwich Reads Together.

Upcoming Event: What a Fish Knows, with Biologist and Author Jonathan Balcombe

Upcoming Event:

What a Fish Knows, with Biologist and Author Jonathan Balcombe

Wednesday, May 24th, 2017, at 7:30 PM

Perrot Memorial Library

Do fishes think? Do they really have three-second memories? And can they recognize the humans who peer back at them from above the surface of the water? Find out the answers to these questions when Perrot welcomes biologist Jonathan Balcome for a discussion of his best-selling and award-winning book, What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins. The Director of Animal Sentience at the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy in Washington, D.C., Balcombe will take us under the sea, through streams and estuaries, and to the other side of the aquarium glass to reveal the surprising capabilities of fishes.

Teens: Looking for a summer volunteer opportunity?

. . .Perrot needs you! Perrot is looking for teen volunteers for its Youth Services department to help run the summer reading program for kids.

Who can be a Perrot Library Summer Teen Volunteer?
Anyone who is going into Grades 7 and up, and who can volunteer at least 5 hours during the summer.

When do volunteers work?
From June 21st to July 28th, whenever the library is open. You can set your own schedule and sign up for shifts during mornings, afternoons, or evenings.

Why volunteer?
• To help others
• To learn job skills
• To earn community service hours
• To meet other teens and have fun!

How do I become a Summer Teen Volunteer?
Easy! Just pick up an application at the Youth Services Desk (or download one here- PDF), have a parent or guardian sign it, and drop it off.

How do I learn what to do?
All volunteers must attend a 30-minute training session in June where we’ll teach you everything you need to know. (Even if you volunteered last summer, you must attend this year's training session.)

Have more questions?
Please call us at 203-637-8802.

Upcoming Event: Whassup? James Joyce Got Culture- with Joyce Scholar Jesse Meyers

Upcoming Event:

Whassup? James Joyce Got Culture- with Joyce Collector and Scholar Jesse Meyers Wednesday, May 17th, 2017 at 7:30 PM

Perrot Memorial Library

Join us as James Joyce collector and scholar Jesse Meyers leads an examination of Joyce's global impact on literature, music, art, theater, tattoos, and more. Mr. Meyers has been teaching and lecturing on Joyce in the U.S. and Ireland, France, Italy, and Switzerland since 2003. His most memorable teaching moments took place at a retirement community-- 11 students, ages 65-92, attended an introductory class on ULYSSES. Happily, Meyers reports, "several fell asleep, but no one died."

Young Critics' Club's Favorite Books of the Year

Breaking News! YCC, Perrot's book club for 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-graders, has voted on its favorite books of 2016-2017... and the winner is.... KINGDOM OF ASH AND BRIARS by Hannah West! Be sure to check out the entire list for some great middle school book picks.

Y2C2's Favorite Books of the Year!

This just in! Y2C2, Perrot's book club for 4th- and 5th-graders, has voted on its favorite books of 2016-2017... and the winner is.... FRAMED! A T.O.A.S.T. Mystery by James Ponti! Be sure to check out the entire list for some great book picks.

Winners of the Semi-Annual Y2C2 Jeopardy Tournament

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the Semi-Annual Young Young Critics' Club (Y2C2) Jeopardy Tournament!

The Winning Team, The Whatchamacallit Whales

(L-R) Maggie, Amrutha, Ellie B., Cindy, Charlotte, and Rohan

They are the current holders of the coveted Wonderful Golden "Y" Award! The winners have demonstrated their mastery of trivia questions related to the books that the Young Young Critics' Club (our book club for 4th- and 5th-graders) has read during the past year. (Yes, it looks like a lobster, but trust us, it’s also a wonderful golden 'Y.')

Upcoming Event: Talk with Thomas McQuillan, Director of Sustainability at Baldor Foods

Upcoming Event: Eliminating Food Waste: Changing Culutural Norms to Solve an Age-Old Dilemma, A Talk with Thomas McQuillan, Director of Sustainability at Baldor Foods

Wednesday, April 26th, 2017, at 7:30 PM
Perrot Memorial Library

In honor of Earth Day, Perrot presents a talk with Greenwich resident Thomas McQuillan, Director of Sustainability at Baldor Foods, one of the largest produce distributors in the northeast. At Baldor, McQuillan created an initiative called "SparCs" (scraps spelled backwards) to reinvent the way people feel about unused food. McQuillan eliminated food waste from Baldor's facilities, and his revolutionary program has served as a template for other corporations across the country. An influential voice in the sustainability movement, he has presented his work at Harvard, NYU, Stanford, and even the White House. Come hear about McQuillan's transformative work, and learn how you, too, can help eliminate food waste.