Upcoming Events

This event is in the "Children" group

Toddler Time @ 11

11:00am–11:30am
Children
Registration Required
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Storytime Room
Age Group: Children
Program Type: Storytimes
Registration Required
Event Details:

Introduce your toddler to early literacy and help build a foundation for reading. We pair engaging books with songs and rhymes. Toddlers and caregivers love to dance and listen during our time together.   

Disclaimer(s)

Storytime Accompanying Adults

This storytime works best if there is one child to one adult. Participation of caregivers with their child is important in order to help them learn while they are having fun.

This event is in the "Teen & Tween" group

Spring Flower Sewing Kit

All Day
Teen & Tween
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Teen/Tween Room
Age Group: Teen & Tween
Program Type: Arts & Crafts, Hands On, STEAM
Event Details:

Create a beautiful spring flower to decorate your space! Learn how to make a small pillow with decorative stitching, no sewing experience needed. Available in the Teen/Tween Room. While supplies last.

This event is in the "Children" group

Toddler Time

10:00am–10:30am
Children
Registration Required
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Storytime Room
Age Group: Children
Program Type: Storytimes
Registration Required
Event Details:

Introduce your toddler to early literacy and help build a foundation for reading. We pair engaging books with songs and rhymes. Toddlers and caregivers love to dance and listen during our time together.   

Disclaimer(s)

Storytime Accompanying Adults

This storytime works best if there is one child to one adult. Participation of caregivers with their child is important in order to help them learn while they are having fun.

This event is in the "Children" group

Preschool Pals

1:00pm–1:30pm
Children
Registration Required
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Storytime Room
Age Group: Children
Program Type: Storytimes
Registration Required
Event Details:

Hear stories, sing songs, and have fun with friends! This storytime highlights early literacy skills that prepare children for reading independently. Children attend this storytime without adults so they can practice being independent. 

Disclaimer(s)

Storytime without Adults

Children attend this storytime without their grown-ups so that they can practice independence.

This event is in the "Children" group

Lapsit Storytime

10:00am–10:30am
Children
Registration Required
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Storytime Room
Age Group: Children
Program Type: Storytimes
Registration Required
Event Details:

Help your baby grow up to love books! Caregivers and little ones share stories, songs, and rhymes in this lapsit program. Introduce them to a lifetime of reading and language enjoyment.

Disclaimer(s)

Storytime Accompanying Adults

This storytime works best if there is one child to one adult. Participation of caregivers with their child is important in order to help them learn while they are having fun.

This event is in the "Children" group

Lapsit Storytime

10:00am–10:30am
Children
Registration Required
Library Branch: Thomas Ford Memorial Library
Room: Storytime Room
Age Group: Children
Program Type: Storytimes
Registration Required
Event Details:

Help your baby grow up to love books! Caregivers and little ones share stories, songs, and rhymes in this lapsit program. Introduce them to a lifetime of reading and language enjoyment.

Disclaimer(s)

Storytime Accompanying Adults

This storytime works best if there is one child to one adult. Participation of caregivers with their child is important in order to help them learn while they are having fun.

New & Noteworthy

Staff Picks

Image for "The Ivory City"

The Ivory City

A USA TODAY National Bestseller

The Devil in the White City meets Pride and Prejudice in this romantic historical murder mystery set at the 1904 World's Fair.

The St. Louis World's Fair, 1904:

A miniature city of palaces and pavilions that becomes a backdrop for romance, betrayal--and murder.

Cousins Grace and Lillie have been best friends since birth, despite Grace's vastly inferior social status ever since her mother married for love instead of wealth. When Lillie invites Grace to the biggest event of the century--the legendary World's Fair, also known as "The Ivory City"--Grace hopes her fortunes might be about to change.

But when a member of their party is brutally killed at the fair, and suspicion falls on Lillie's brother Oliver, Grace must prove Oliver's innocence before her beloved cousins' family is ruined forever.

Along the way, she'll discover that the city's wealthy elite--including Oliver's handsome but irritable friend Theodore--aren't quite who they appear to be. And amidst the glitz, glamor, and magic of the Ivory City lurks a danger that just may claim her life.

"Grace Covington is the perfect amateur detective mixing charm and ingenuity in this richly detailed murder mystery." --Julia Kelly, international bestselling author of A Traitor in Whitehall"Vividly drawn with rich historical detail, The Ivory City is a sizzling mystery filled with intrigue, glamour and good old-fashioned romance that brilliantly ignites against the backdrop of the St. Louis World's Fair. Emily Bain Murphy's latest novel is a sheer delight!" ―Alyson Richman, USA and International Bestselling author of The Time Keepers and The Missing Pages

Cover with an illustration of a bird among berries and leaves

The Serviceberry

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice.

Image for "The Executioners Three"

The Executioners Three

An instant New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestseller!

From New York Times bestselling author Susan Dennard comes The Executioners Three, a mystery filled with rivalry, romance, best friends, and a gruesome curse that dates back centuries.

*This beautiful hardcover edition includes designed printed edges and special endpapers.*

Freddie Gellar didn't mean to get half the rival high school arrested. She’d simply heard shrieks coming from the woods, so she’d called the cops like any good human would do. How was she supposed to know it was just kids partying?

Except the next day, a body is found. And while the local sheriff might call it suicide, Freddie's instincts tell her otherwise. So, like the aspiring sleuth (and true X-Files aficionado) she is, Freddie sets out to prove there's a murderer at large.

But her investigation is quickly disrupted by the rivalry between her school and the school of the partying teens she got arrested. For over twenty years, the two student bodies have had an ongoing prank war, and Freddie's failed attempt at Good Samaritanism has upped the ante. Worse, the clever—and gorgeous—leader of the rival prank squad has set his sights on Freddie.

As more pranks unfurl, more bodies also start piling up in the forest. But it's the supernatural warning signs around town, each plucked straight from an old forgotten poem called "The Executioners Three," that worry Freddie the most. She knows the poem and its blood curse can’t be real, but she's quickly running out of time to prove it.

Because the murderer—or executioners?—knows she's onto them now, and their next target just might be Freddie.

"An irresistible blend of small-town murder mystery and spine-tingling supernatural elements."—Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying


Also by Susan Dennard

The Luminaries trilogy
The Luminaries
The Hunting Moon
The Whispering Night

The Witchlands series
Truthwitch
Windwitch
Sightwitch (novella)
Bloodwitch
Witchshadow
Witchlight

Image for "The Devil's Kitchen"

The Devil's Kitchen

A murder in Yellowstone reveals a historical conspiracy, drawing a park ranger into the heart of a centuries-old mystery.

"...a masterful blend of historical intrigue and contemporary mystery." --Gary McAvoy, bestselling author of The Magdalene Deception

When a history professor is fatally shot at the base of Yellowstone Canyon, seasonal park ranger and former homicide detective Clarence Johnson finds himself roped into the murder investigation. Alongside Special Agent Alison Nance, he quickly realizes they are uncovering more than just a killer.

As Johnson and Nance hunt for the killer, clues gleaned from the professor's research hint at a historic conspiracy involving an ancient relic believed to have been secreted away by royalists during the French Revolution. Their hunt through the wilds of Yellowstone leads them to realize that the professor's death and the missing artifact are intricately connected.

But Johnson and Nance's suspects are disappearing at an alarming rate, pitting them in a race against time before those determined to do anything to protect the secrets of the past strike again.

From the secrets of antiquity to the rugged beauty of America's first national park, The Devil's Kitchen is a masterful blend of historical fiction and suspense that challenges the boundaries between past and present--revealing that the deadliest secrets are often hidden in plain sight.

_________________________

Praise for The Devil's Kitchen: A Murder in Yellowstone:

"Thielman's novel offers something for nearly every reader..."--Library Journal, Starred Review

"Beautifully written, slyly crafted." --Jane K. Cleland, Agatha Award winning author

"Part historical and part procedural with flawlessly executed parallel timelines to keep the readers turning pages. One fantastic read!" --Bruce Robert Coffin, international bestselling coauthor of The Turner and Mosley Files

"A revealing journey to the past and the present." --Historical Novel Society

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What readers are saying:

★★★★★ "...well-researched..."
★★★★★ "...fast-paced action..."
★★★★★ "...half historical half thriller..."
★★★★★ "...strong character development..."
★★★★★ "A masterful blending of the past and present..."