Community Calendar

The Friends of the West Stockbridge Library invite you to join celebrated local author Heather A.Campbell for an entertaining and heartfelt conversation inspired by her book, "Good Is Amazing: Stop Overstriving and Celebrate Being Enough!" In a world that constantly tells us it’s all about more, better, best, Heather asks: What if a life that is healthy, connected, purposeful, and joyful is already an amazing accomplishment? Through funny and relatable stories, Heather invites us to rethink success, quiet the inner critic, recognize the good we are already creating, and make more room for what matters.

Come for the stories, laughter, and conversation. Leave with permission to give yourself and those you love, credit and perhaps a better idea of how to celebrate being good enough.

Free and open to all.

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum presents A Reading Frederick Douglass Together Book Club, with sessions facilitated by Dr. Ousmane K. Power-Greene on October 10th and Dr. Nick Bromell on November 7th at 12:15pm. Book club materials will be available for pick up at the event and online, and sessions will be held at the Hadley Public Library at 50 Middle St, Hadley, MA 01035. Register at the ticketing link for the free book club, and find out more about this and other programming at www.pphmuseum.org/events.

It's time to celebrate!! This year join us for the 37th Annual Children's Illustration Celebration! The opening reception will take place on Sunday, November 8th from 4-6 pm.
Come meet your favorite Illustrators and Authors, at our biggest party of the year! The Eric Carle Museum will be here selling books and, as always, this event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

The Berkshire Nature Talk Series continues with a look at the insects most of us take for granted until they're gone. Kyle Bradford of the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program (FEP) joins the series to talk about bees and how they hold ecosystems and our food systems together, and what puts that work at risk.

Bradford has spent more than a decade in the field, from ant surveys in Columbia County to insect pest detection in California vineyards to graduate research on ants in the pine barrens of western Massachusetts. That range is reflected in how he talks about bees, not as an isolated topic but as one thread in a much larger web of human-managed land, landscape history, and the conservation choices we’re making right now. Expect a talk grounded in fieldwork and, given Bradford’s side career as a nature photographer, expect it to look as good as it sounds.

Bradford holds an MS in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England and a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Vermont. He first found his footing in insect ecology as an FEP intern in 2012, and his interests have ranged across biogeography, rare species conservation, and the question of how landscape history should shape the conservation work being done today.

This event is free for West Stockbridge Historical Society members and open to the public with a suggested $10 donation for non-members. Seating is limited to 80 attendees. Cash only at door. To reserve your spot, go to weststockbridgehistory.org

Join High Five Books and local author-illustrator Madison Safer for a reading of her stunning picture books THE GARLIC EATERS and HANUKKAH IS HERE, on Saturday, November 14, from 10-10:30am. Storytime is free and no registration is required to attend.

ABOUT 'HANUKKAH IS HERE'
Count down each day of Hanukkah with recipes, crafts, stories, songs, and games in this charmingly illustrated holiday book with lift-the-flaps on the cover.

Celebrate the eight nights of Hanukkah with this keepsake countdown book. Each flap on the cover reveals a clue to one of the activities featured inside--including a recipe for delicious homemade latkes, instructions for crafting a pasta menorah, silly holiday jokes to share, a retelling of the Hanukkah story, and more. This inviting, fun-filled volume features eight chapters, one for each night, packed with festive activities that honor longstanding Jewish traditions and are perfect for building your own to share together year after year.

ABOUT ‘THE GARLIC EATERS’

Deep underground, a tight-knit Yiddish-speaking family lives inside a great garlic bulb: they sleep on garlic cloves, bathe in garlic juice, and wear garlic peels for clothes. But after a very hungry mole tears through their roof, the Garlic Eaters are forced aboveground into a world that isn't sure what to make of them.

Rooted in Jewish experiences of diaspora, The Garlic Eaters is a children's story about what it's like to find a new home, and how a special ingredient can make all the difference. Garlic has long carried meaning in Jewish kitchens and folk traditions, whether tucked into pockets, hung on doors, or shared with neighbors. Author and illustrator Madison Safer weaves this history into a tale of imagination and tenderness, introducing young readers to the universal experience of starting over somewhere new—and finding, against all odds, a community to call your own.