For April:

• Cooking the Books: Baking Yesteryear

Leave the kids at home for a night of creativity and grown-up fun.

Participants will select a recipe from Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s. This book will be stored at the Circulation Desk where patrons can peruse the book and select their historic recipe. On the event night, they will bring recipe samples and talk about their experience creating it.

Come join us, make new friends, and express your creativity!

A FUn get-together for crafters!

Bring your crocheting, knitting, cross-stitching, lace-making, tatting, or whatever it is you like to do and spend some time with others who do it too!

Share your writing with other storytelling enthusiasts or join to make friends! Join the Creative Writers Club for ages 18+. We will share your favorite piece of writing and talk about why writing is our passion.

Come join your fellow community members for a lively discussion of both classic works and modern masterpieces.

Unless otherwise noted, a limited number of book club reading copies will be available for checkout from the circulation desk about a month prior to the meeting.

FOR April:

We’ll be reading Gloryland by Shelton Johnson.

Born on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of black and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave — but his self-image as a free person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed South. Exiled for his own survival as a teenager, Elijah walks west to the Nebraska plains — and, like other rootless young African-American men of that era, joins up with the U.S. cavalry.

The trajectory of Elijah’s army career parallels the nation’s imperial adventures in the late 19th century: subduing Native Americans in the West, quelling rebellion in the Philippines. Haunted by the terrors endured by black Americans and by his part in persecuting other people of color, Elijah is sustained only by visions, memories, prayers, and his questing spirit — which ultimately finds a home when his troop is posted to the newly created Yosemite National Park in 1903. Here, living with little beyond mountain light, running water, campfires, and stars, he becomes a man who owns himself completely, while knowing he’s left pieces of himself scattered along his life’s path like pebbles on a creek bed.

We hope to see you there!

Madison Library’s Reading Challenge

All ages can play. We have a bingo card for kids 11 and under, and one for teens and adults 12 and older. Read fun new books and audiobooks and win great prizes!

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Read the challenges and pick a bingo line that most appeals to you.

Step 2: Read a book that completes a challenge. Read another. And another.

Step 3: When you are able to cross off 5 squares in a row on the board, bring your sheet in to the Circulation Desk for a prize and an entry in our monthly drawing. We will have a separate drawing for each age group.

Step 4: Keep reading! You can get as many prizes and entries as there are bingos on the board.

Madison Library's Year-Long Reading Adventure

For patrons ages 12 and older.
Read fun new books and audiobooks and win stickers and other great prizes!

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Sign up at the Circulation Desk to get your reading log.

Step 2: Read a book set in a state listed in one of the challenges. Read another. And another. You can get a sticker for each state.

Step 3: For every challenge completed, bring your log in to the Circulation Desk for a small prize and an entry for the grand prize final drawing at the end of the year.

Step 4: Keep reading! If you complete your journey across the United States, you'll receive a special travel bag in commemoration of your achievement.

If you finish early, you can obtain an international passport and start your journey around the world, earning extra prizes and entries into the final drawing!

Reading can take you places and we are going on an adventure!

ARE YOU READY? GET PACKING, HERE WE GO!

PRESS RELEASE

Josi S. Kilpack to be the featured speaker for a community presentation at the Madison District Library, with a booksigning to follow that evening at the Rexburg Deseret Book Store.

Best known for her Sadie Hoffmiller Culinary Mystery series, Josi S. Kilpack is the author of more than 30 novels, a cookbook, and several novellas. Writing in a variety of genres over the years, Kilpack has covered everything from modern mystery to historical fiction and is known for addressing difficult issues in an approachable way. She has published two general fiction titles through Kensington Press under the pen name Jessica Pack.

Kilpack is a sought-after instructor for writing conferences and enjoys mentoring other authors while also challenging herself to do better with each new story she writes. Kilpack has been the recipient of the Utah Best in State award for fiction as well as several Whitney Awards, including two Novel of the Year awards for Lord Fenton’s Folly and As Wide as the Sky.

At the library event hosted by the Madison Library District located at 73 North Center Rexburg, Kilpack will be talking about her writing journey as well as sharing her thoughts regarding personal development. She will also be taking questions from the audience. Later that evening she will be the featured author at a book signing hosted at the Deseret Bookstore located at 180 W 2nd S, Rexburg. The public is welcome to bring books already purchased for her to sign, or purchase copies from the store.

Josi lives in Garden City, Utah where she gets to see beautiful things every day. She is the mother of four adult children and a real estate agent in both Utah and Idaho.

Most Items Located on the East Side of the Building

We have a wide variety of materials for all you learning and entertainment needs!
Having a hard time finding something? Ask a librarian!

Along with Fiction and Nonfiction we also provide the following materials:

• LARGE PRINT – we have both fiction and nonfiction titles.
• AUDIOBOOKS – books on CD.
• eBOOKS and eAUDIOS – downloadable from the Libby app on your phone or tablet.
• MAGAZINES
• MUSIC CDs – in a wide variety of genres.
• DVDs & BLU-RAYs – these are located in the front lobby.
• SPECIALTY COLLECTIONS:
  • COOKBOOKS
  • BIOGRAPHIES
  • GRAPHIC NOVELS and COMICS
  • FOREIGN LANGUAGE COLLECTION – located next to the Children’s materials.
  • IDAHO COLLECTION – materials dedicated to books on Idaho. You’ll find specialty books here on the great gem state, biographies, studies on the flora and fauna, local histories, and books by Idaho authors.
  • SPECIAL and RARE ITEMS – located in the glass cases. These items do not circulate, but can be read in the library.
  • KITS – we have several types of kits:
    • ADULT EXPLORATION KITS – like having a college course in a red or yellow bag!
    • BOOK CLUB KITS – with several copies of the same book and other education materials; in burgundy bags.
    • SPEEDY READER KITS – the entire book series in one bag; in pale blue and grey bags.

Do you love writing?

Enter the Madison Library District’s short story writing contest!

Our theme is “Capturing 100 Years.” Give us your impression of what that means to you. Fiction or non-fiction are accepted.

All entries receive a prize. 1st prize winner will be awarded the choice of either a $50 gift card to Barnes and Noble or a feather quill pen and ink set.

Email submissions ONLY accepted. 

RULES

Entries are submitted online via email: Submit to programs@madisonlib.org

The contest is open to writers 18-years-old and up. No minors may enter the contest.

No employees, relatives of employees, or former employees of the Library or its divisions are eligible.

Entries must be 1,000-1,500 words in length. It must not exceed 1,500 words. Entries that do not meet this requirement will not be accepted.

Entries are allowed to be either fiction or nonfiction so long as they meet the requirements of the theme.

No entries containing violence or derogatory, racist, or sexist language or situations will be accepted, at the sole discretion of the judges. 

No published works will be accepted. An “unpublished piece” means it has not been published anywhere. Published work includes anything posted on your own blog, someone else’s, or through a magazine or book. The idea is to get you writing and thinking creatively while following submission guidelines with a new piece.

You can submit your entry anytime before the deadline of the contest. Entries open October 1, 2022 and end December 1, 2022. All submissions must meet the entry deadline. 

Entries should be text only and may not include illustrations or photographs.

Proofread your entry before submitting. Follow these contest rules, just as you would a publisher’s submission guidelines.

The winners will be announced on our Facebook page, on our website, and in our newsletters. We reserve the right to first publication of the winning entries in our newsletter, after which all rights revert to the authors. We do not own your work product in any way, shape, or form.

All entries will be read by judges chosen by the Madison Library District staff. Winners will be notified by email (or other means) approximately 30 days after the close of the contest. 

Formatting 

1. Double space your entry.
2. Margins should be one inch all around.
3. Use Times New Roman or Courier, 12-point font.
4. Do not include a cover page with your entry.
5. Submissions will only be accepted as a PDF or Word document.
6. Be sure to list your name, library card number, email, and title of your submission in the email sent with your submission.
7. Entries will only be considered within the deadline, October 1, 2022 through December 1, 2022. 

*Entries that do not meet these requirements will not be accepted*

Library Appreciation Week is on its way, and we’ve got some great things planned.

Peeps Diorama Contest!

Depict a scene from a published book, any of our programming events, or any item you've used in the library (such as Libby).

Submit your Peeps diorama by 4:00 pm April 22nd to be considered for a prize.

All ages are welcome to particpate. Any participants under 18 must have approval from their legal guardian.