Knitting Program to Benefit Local Children Starts Sept. 21

Knitting for Kids at the Stratford Library will meet for a six-week session on Wednesdays at 3:45 p.m. beginning Sept. 21. Boys and girls age 7 and up are welcome to attend. The classes are for new knitters or those wishing to refresh their skills. The fall project will be knitting scarves and hats for local children.

Knitters are asked to bring their own needles (US sizes 8-11 recommended). Class will be held in the Children’s Department’s Book Nook. Miss Tess and Miss Caitlin lead the group with the friendly assistance of volunteers Miss Martha and Miss Cynthia.

To register or for further information, call the Children’s Department at 203.385.4165 or visit: www.stratfordlibrary.org.

Library offers AARP Driver Safety Program

The Stratford Library, in conjunction with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), will offer another session of the “AARP Driver Safety Program”, a classroom driver retraining program designed to help older persons improve their driving skills on Tuesday, September 6 from 1-5 pm. The new one-day class program will be held in the Library’s Lovell Room. Developed by the AARP, the program is the first comprehensive driver retraining course geared to the specific needs of older motorists.

Persons 50 years of age or older are eligible to participate in the library program and will receive a certificate of completion at the end of instruction. The course is limited to 24 participates only and there is a nominal fee of $12 for AARP members and $14 for non-members charged by the AARP. Reservations are required and can be made by calling AARP Representative Michael Klein at 203.929.4851.

As of Friday afternoon, Mr. Klein noted that he still had about a dozen spaces available in the class. He explained that because his telephone service was only just restored after last week's storm, people who were unable to reach him earlier to make a reservation should now be able to get through.

The Library is located at 2203 Main St., Stratford.

Extra vacation, extra library programs for kids

The Stratford Library's Children's Department will offer two extra programs this week to keep kids busy during their extra week of summer vacation. Programs are free. Please register at the Children’s Desk, or call 203.385.4165.

Here are the new events just added to the library's schedule:

Book Cover Craft : Wednesday, Aug. 31 at 2:30 p.m.

Children ages 5 to 12 are invited to make book covers for their first day of school, which was pushed back to Sept. 6 yesterday. Bring your creativity, supplies provided.

School's Out Spelling Bee : Thursday, Sept. 1 at 2:30 p.m.

Kids are encouraged to practice their school skills with this lively, silly spelling bee for children ages 6 to 12. Words for all levels of spellers provided.

The Stratford Library has power, programs and plenty of items for kids and adults. Come in and charge your phone, pick up an audiobook to listen to as the sun goes down, check your email and visit with your neighbors.

Teen relationships on Teen Tuesday

This week our Teen Tuesday program deals with teen dating violence & healthy relationships. MYOthello will present a 3 act performance from "Othello" that will explore themes relating to teen dating violence. A discussion will follow the performance. Tuesday, August 2nd, 6:30 pm in the Lovell Room.

The day you were born: commemorated!

Not too long ago, the New York Times published a book that reproduces the front page of the newspaper for important events in history, like Monday, July 21, 1969 ("MEN WALK ON MOON") or Tuesday, December 8, 1941 ("U.S. DECLARES WAR, PACIFIC BATTLE WIDENS").

That's interesting enough, but that's not all... It also contained CD-ROMs with every single Times front page ever published up to 2008 -- over 50,000 front pages.

That means it's fairly easy to print out a reproduction of the front page of the newspaper for the day you were born -- a great prop for a birthday or anniversary parties.

Come by the library and ask a librarian to help you print out your special day from our copy of this fascinating volume.

The Internet vs. Encyclopedias: you don't have to choose

Remember how most families used to have an encyclopedia in their home, on a shelf in a place of honor? Usually it would be the World Book, or maybe the Britannica. Often it would be ten years old or older, because encyclopedias were a big investment and a family couldn't afford to get a new one very often. Kids would use the encyclopedia to do their schoolwork. The grown-ups would use it to settle a bet about how long it would take to drive from Detroit to Chicago.

Now, those same families probably have the internet in their home, and they'd use the computer when they once used the encyclopedia.

But as most people know, for all of its convenience and speed, the internet is not always the most reliable source of information. Let's say you want to know more about e. coli, the bacteria causing an outbreak of food poisoning in Europe. You can get the reliable, accurate information of a famous encyclopedia, at any of time of day or night, via the Internet, using the Stratford Library's subscription to the World Book Online.

The online World Book is updated constantly, so it doesn't go out of date like the set your parents may have had. And it refers you to information from many sources beyond the encyclopedia. But you can be sure it will all be reliable information from reputable sources, fact checked by the World Book editors.

How do you log on? Go to the Stratfordlibrary.org website, and click on the box that says "Get it online with your library card."

On the next page, you'll see the list of our most popular online resources, including The World Book Online.

Log on using your Stratford Library card number, and you'll be all set to get reliable, up to date information with the speed of the Internet.

Power user tip: The World Book Online offers different versions for different ages: World Book for Kids for the youngest students World Book Info Finder for middle school and high school students World Book Online Reference Center for adults

Up-and-Coming... Recommended Reads

New books that caught our eye! You may not have heard about them yet -- but you will enjoy reading them.

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Shadows Bright as Glass: The Remarkable Story of One Man's Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph, by Amy Ellis Nutt.

After a brain hemorrhage nearly killed him, Jon Sarkin awoke with an overwhelming desire to create art. Before the stroke, he was a calm chiropractor, a happily married family man. Now he devotes all his waking hours to furiously drawing and painting.

Journalist Amy Ellis Nutt interweaves Sarkin’s remarkable story with a fascinating look at how our "personality" arises from the brain's neurons and electrical pulses. Nutt brings to life the extraordinary stories of people whose personalities and abilities were dramatically altered by brain trauma, often in shocking ways.

Place a hold now on Shadows Bright as Glass-- we'll call you when it's ready for you.

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The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adria's El Bulli, by Lisa Abend

Did you know there is a restaurant in Spain that gets more than two million requests for reservations each year.... the average cost of a meal is $500 and yet it operates at a loss.... and apprentices will work there for free to learn from the "mad genius" master chef, Ferran Adria.This is El Bulli, the most avant-garde and the most sought-after restaurant in the world.

In her lively new book, The Sorcerer's Apprentices Lisa Abend immerses herself in the heat, the anxiety, and the ingenuity of this pressurized little world.

Place a hold now on The Sorcerer's Apprentices--we'll call you when it's ready for you.

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Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything by Stephen Baker.

The recent competition between all-time Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against a new IBM supercomputer was a bit of a let-down, since the computer easily trounced the two men. But the story of how IBM developed this computer to "answer questions like a human" is anything but predictable.

At its heart, Final Jeopardy is about the future of knowledge. What will Watson’s heirs be capable of in ten or twenty years? And where does that leave humans? As fast and fun as the game itself, Final Jeopardy shows how smart machines will fit into our world — and how they’ll disrupt it.

Place a hold now on Final Jeopardy-- we'll call you when it's ready for you.