YAfter School Program

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Once a week the library listens for the sound of twenty or more middle-schoolers eagerly bounding through the doors of the library and heading for pizza in the Hazzard Room.  A bus from the Gardiner Area Middle School brings them down to socialize, do homework and experience the library in new ways. While chatting with the students, I learned that they come for a variety of reasons but being able to chat with friends they don’t see during the school day is a big reason to come.  After the pizza is devoured, they roam the library and enjoy the freedom …

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Popular YA Reads

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The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose

If you have a middle schooler at home, chances are it’s difficult to get them to read. Finding a book that is written at their level and also of interest to them is not an easy task. Following are a few selections recommended by some area middle schoolers: The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose tells thetrue story of a group of boys who were resistance fighters after the Nazi invasion in Denmark. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is about a 17 year old art student at a boarding school in Prague. Her sketchbook is …

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School Bus Book Bags

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School bus book bags.

Have you ever been caught……READING ON A SCHOOL BUS?!!!! Students within the MSAD #11 School District have been caught reading as they enjoy the opportunity to read books on the bus to and from school!  The School Bus Book Bag project is the brilliant and creative idea of Mr. Don Sanders, a school bus driver for MSAD #75 in Topsham, Maine.  He shared books with the very youngest students on his bus from his own home library in an effort to help them learn to sit in their seats quietly as they traveled to and from school each day. He …

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New Year’s Resolutions – Archivally Inspired!

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New Year’s Resolution to lose weight.

Whether or not you’re committing to New Year’s Resolutions (or Intentions) this year, here are some great photos from our Community Archives Room that might help inspire us all to stick to our ideals in 2017…. Lose Weight Gardiner’s 1911 Police Force collectively weighed 2,800 pounds, winning a nationwide contest! Save Money Now Camden Savings Bank, Gardiner Savings Institution built their ultra-modern facility in the 1950s.   Eat Healthier MacDonald’s Bakery opened in 1921 and operated for over 70 years where the Craft Beer Cellar is now.   Spend More Time Outdoors Shown here in the 1920s, Spring Cove on …

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Happy Holidays!

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H ~ Here Comes The Easter Cat A ~ Animal Holiday P ~ Presidents’ Day P ~ Picture Book Of Hanukkah Y ~ Yuckiest, Stinkiest, Best Valentine Ever H ~ Hooray For St. Patrick’s Day! O ~ Orange You Glad it’s Halloween L ~ Long-Long’s New Year I ~ Independence Day D ~ Double Trouble Groundhog Day A ~ April Foolishness Y ~ Year Of The Perfect Christmas Tree S ~ Story Of Kwanzaa Ann Russell, Technology Librarian

Christmas Movies

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What’s your favorite holiday movie?  Is it White Christmas?  Love, Actually? A Christmas Story?  There are certainly many to choose from.  My ultimate favorite holiday movie is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacationfrom 1989.  A synopsis from the library’s copy of VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever says, “The third vacation for the Griswold family finds them hosting repulsive relatives for Yuletide.  The sight gags, although predictable, are sometimes on the mark.  Quaid is a standout as the slovenly cousin.”  Now that doesn’t sound very promising, does it?  But no matter how many times I have seen it, I swear – every time that …

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