BUCKLAND — The Buckland Public Library staff and trustees welcome area children and their adults to join them for a book festival on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dozens of new award-winning children’s books have been added to the collection and will be on display and available for borrowing.
Liz Jacobson-Carroll, the librarian, will be reading aloud — a picture book at 10 a.m., a short chapter book at 11 a.m., and excerpts from a kids’ novel at noon — and is hoping that many of her young friends will join her. Free muffins, juice and coffee will be available in the community room, and raffle tickets for two children’s quilts, made by the library sewing club, will be available for a small donation.
The library was one of 303 small rural libraries nationwide to receive a Books for Children grant from The Libri Foundation this past year. The funding enabled the librarian to select more than $1,400 worth of award-winning, critically acclaimed and best-selling volumes including board books, early readers, picture books, series fiction for “tweens” and teens, and a number of outstanding nonfiction works focused on scientific and mathematical ideas.
The Buckland Public Library has previously received similar grants from The Libri Foundation of Eugene, Ore., in 2012 and 2001.
In recent months, the library has purchased an additional 50 or so volumes of award-winning children’s books through its operating budget, supported by the Town of Buckland and the nonprofit Buckland Public Library, Inc. Individuals wishing to contribute to the latter’s endowment for books can send checks, made out to BPL, Inc. with “book endowment” written in the memo line, to P.O. Box 149, Buckland MA 01338.
The library is located at 30 Upper St., off 112 between Shelburne Falls and Ashfield. For more information, call 525-9412. This institution is an equal opportunity provider and employer.