Baby Songs & Stories
Monday, December 11
10:30 am - 11:00 am
For parents and caregivers of babies up to 24 months.
Join children’s librarian Gina to learn songs, fingerplays, and more that you can do with your baby. Each meeting will leave time for open discussion and connection with other parents/caregivers.
Email childrens@dobbsferrylibrary.org, call (914) 693-6615, or stop by the children’s room for information and to sign up.
Tween Book Club: “The Barren Grounds”
Monday, December 11
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Ages 8-12
Join us for a once-a-month kids’ book club! We read a new book every month, then meet discuss our thoughts and do a trivia battle against each other! This month, we will be reading The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson.
Place a hold so it’s ready to pick up when you come in! Registration is REQUIRED – please email dobchildref@wlsmail.org, call (914) 693-6615 or stop by the Children’s Room to register.
Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in an epic middle grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.
Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home — until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission. Accompanied by Arik, a sassy Squirrel they catch stealing from the trapline, they try to save Misewa before the icy grip of winter freezes everything — including them.
New Date: Hybrid Virtual and In-Person Town and Gown Literary Discussion Group: “Las Madres”
Monday, December 11
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
This month, we will be reading “Las Madres” by Esmeralda Santiago. Get the book!
Register with dobref@wlsmail.org to get the Zoom link — please indicate the title and date of the program you are registering for!
They refer to themselves as “las Madres,” a close-knit group of women who, with their daughters, have created a family based on friendship and blood ties.Their story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 when fifteen-year-old Luz, the tallest girl in her dance academy and the only Black one in a sea of petite, light-skinned, delicate swans, is seriously injured in a car accident. Tragically, her brilliant, multilingual scientist parents are both killed in the crash. Now orphaned, Luz navigates the pressures of adolescence and copes with the aftershock of a brain injury, when two new friends enter her life, Ada and Shirley. Luz’s days are consumed with aches and pains, and her memory of the accident is wiped clean, but she suffers spells that send her mind to times and places she can’t share with others.
In 2017, in the Bronx, Luz’s adult daughter, Marysol, wishes she better understood her. But how can she when her mother barely remembers her own life? To help, Ada and Shirley’s daughter, Graciela, suggests a vacation in Puerto Rico for the extended group, as an opportunity for Luz to unearth long-buried memories and for Marysol to learn more about her mother’s early life. But despite all their careful planning, two hurricanes, back-to-back, disrupt their homecoming, and a secret is revealed that blows their lives wide open. In a voice that sings with warmth, humor, friendship, and pride, celebrated author Esmeralda Santiago unspools a story of women’s sexuality, shame, disability, and love within a community rocked by disaster.


