2025 January-March Adult Events
Tuesday January 14th, 2025
The new year is bringing us new events here at Bradford Memorial Library. We have many exciting events for our adult patrons that we cannot wait to share with you! Click on each link below to learn more about each respective event. We can’t wait to see everyone there!
January 21st, 6:30-7:30pm: Book Club (The Bear and the Nightingale)
January 23rd, 6-7pm: Bradford Paint Night
January 29th, 12-2pm: Local Author Meet & Greet
February 3rd, 6-7pm: Winters Blues and Winter Greens (Mental Health Seminar)
February 12th, 6-7pm: Gardening Class: Seed Starting
February 18th, 6:30-7:30pm: Book Club (The Devotion of Suspect X)
March 6th, 6-7pm: Origami Flower Bouquet Craft Night
TBD: March Book Club (Sitting Pretty/Wichita Big Read)
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Winter is Coming
Thursday December 5th, 2024
December has officially started and, with winter coming, our exciting Winter Reading Challenge is officially live for teens and adults at Bradford Memorial Library! If you’ve never participated in one of our reading challenges, there’s no more perfect time than the present to get started! Patrons can register themselves or their teens for challenges on Beanstack.
For ages 12 and up, the Bundled Up in Books Reading Challenge is available. This challenge started on December 1st and concludes on February 28th. Registered patrons will have the opportunity to earn winter-themed reading badges, each of which will earn them an entry into the grand prize drawings at the end of the challenge. The badges include Read a Cozy Romance Book, Read a Chilling Mystery Book, Read a Book That Takes Place During a Winter Holiday, Read a Book with a Blue or White Cover, and Read a Book That Was Adapted Into a TV Show or Movie. Upon registration, participants are eligible to receive a free color-changing Bradford Memorial Library cup and will also receive an extra entry into the grand prize drawings. The more challenges you complete, the more entries into the grand prize drawing you will receive. The more reading the better! There will be a teen grand prize and an adult grand prize.
The Children’s Department has an ongoing fall/winter reading challenge that will end on December 13th. Children ages 0-11 are eligible for their “A Book and a Blanket Challenge.” To complete the “A Book and A Blanket Challenge,” registered kids must read (or have parents read to them) a total of 300 minutes. Completing this challenge will allow kids to receive a free book of their choice and a prize from our children’s treasure chest.
What better way to spend a cold winter’s night than to snuggle up and read a nice book? Happy Reading!
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Banned Books Week Celebration
Monday September 23rd, 2024
It’s that time of the year again! Join us in celebrating and honoring Banned Books Week 2024 (Sept. 22-28). Banned Books Week is an annual event that focuses on threats to remove or restrict access to books and draws national attention to the harms of censorship. Each book highlighted in this game is one that has been challenged for varying reasons.
This year, we are holding a fun little challenge to celebrate. At the front desk, you will find a jar full of slips that feature text from 5 commonly challenged books. Participants have to guess at least one of the books in order to be entered into a drawing that will be pulled at the end of the event. There will be a mystery prize for the winner of the game.
In our new section, you can also find a display featuring 25+ historically banned or commonly challenged titles that were chosen to highlight this important event. Each of the books selected for this display feature a piece of paper on the front that will describe why the titles are challenged for removal. Fear not though! None of these titles are in danger of being removed from our collection here at the library. They are simply being used as examples of why censorship is harmful.
Enter the challenge or check out one of the books on display to celebrate Banned Books Week with us!
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Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!
Wednesday September 4th, 2024
With the start of September, fall reading is officially live for all ages at Bradford Memorial Library! With challenges for everyone, this is the perfect chance to get involved with reading challenges at Bradford. Patrons can register themselves or their children for challenges on Beanstack.
Children ages 0-11 are eligible for the Children’s Department’s “A Book and a Blanket Challenge,” which began on August 15th and goes until December 13th. To complete the “A Book and A Blanket Challenge,” registered kids must read (or have parents read to them) a total of 300 minutes. Completing this challenge will allow kids to receive a free book of their choice and a prize from our children’s treasure chest.
For ages 12 and up, the Autumn Skies: Fall Reading Challenge is available. This challenge started on September 1st and concludes on November 30th. Registered patrons will have the opportunity to earn autumn-themed reading badges, each of which will earn them an entry into the grand prize drawings at the end of the challenge. The badges include Read a Supernatural Book, Read a Dark Academia Book, Read a Book by an Author You’ve Never Read Before, Read a Book with a Red, Orange, or Yellow Cover, and Read a Historical Fiction Book. Upon registration, participants are eligible to receive a free color-changing Bradford Memorial Library cup and will also receive an extra entry into the grand prize drawings. There will be a teen grand prize and an adult grand prize.
Summer Reading has Arrived!
Thursday June 6th, 2024
Summer reading has officially begun at Bradford. There are several challenges for all ages! For kids 0-11 they can register in the Children’s department. Sign up for the “Bradford Bucks” challenge at the Library or participate in a reading challenge through Beanstack. For Teens 12-17 they can register in Beanstack to participate in the summer reading challenge. There will be a weekly drawing for teens that are registered on Beanstack as well as a grand prize drawing. For Adults 18 and up they can also register on Beanstack for the Adventure Awaits summer challenge. There will be a grand prize drawing at the end of the challenge. The children’s program lasts til July 26th and teens and adults will go through August 31st!
Teens and Adults can earn badges throughout the challenge to earn more entries in the grand prize drawings. The badges include books about a romantic adventure, a fatherhood adventure, mystery adventure, a nonfiction adventure, science fiction or fantasy adventure, and a travel adventure!
Those wanting to register can follow the link here!
Happy Reading!
Wednesday May 8th, 2024
Prepare for Summer Reading!
We are wrapping up our Spring Reading challenge this month! Which means summer reading is upon us. We will have several programs as well as a summer reading challenge. Be on the look out to register on Beanstack to earn entries into the Grand Prize drawing!
Don’t forget to check out the Children’s schedule for the summer and as a reminder we will not have any programs for the month of May while they prepare for summer reading!