Community Calendar

If you were to take a walk through the crowded Jewish neighborhoods of New York, Warsaw, Buenos Aires, and other centers of Yiddish life in the early twentieth century, you would have come across streetscapes full of posters. Theatrical extravaganzas, political discussions, public health talks, literary celebrations—all were publicized in elaborate and striking displays of graphic art. These posters, now on view at the Yiddish Book Center, tell the story of the yidishe gas—the slogans, sounds, and laughter of the Jewish street.

The Art of 20th Century Yiddish Poster Design: Theater/Politics/Lectures is on view at the Yiddish Book Center through September 2025. The Yiddish Book Center is open Sunday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Plan your visit: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/events-and-store/plan-your-visit-hours-and-directions

South Hadley Public Library will host Carrie Finison on May 7 at 10:30am for a reading of her new picture book, Pigs Dig a Road! Kids will learn about trucks, participate in a construction-themed singalong, and have a chance to dress the part with construction helmets and vests.

Construction crew chief Rosie and her team are building a new road to the Hamshire County Fair. It’s time to put on hard hats and boots, grab their hammers and stakes, and, of course, bring out the big trucks: bulldozers, excavators, pavers, rollers, and more!

​​This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Carrie Finison began her literary career at the age of seven with an idea, a box of markers, and her father’s typewriter. She has been writing off and on ever since, though she has (somewhat regretfully) traded in the typewriter for a laptop. She is the author of Dozens of Doughnuts (Putnam, 2020), a Junior Library Guild selection; and Don’t Hug Doug (Putnam, 2021), an ALA Notable Children’s Book, which received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. She is also the author of Lulu & Zoey: A Sister Story (Running Press Kids, 2022); Hurry, Little Tortoise, Time for School! (Random House Studio, 2022); and her newest picture book Pigs Dig a Road (Putnam, 2024), a humorous story about road construction and teamwork. When she’s not writing, Carrie enjoys reading mystery novels, trying new recipes, and curling up on the couch for family movie nights. She lives outside Boston with her husband, son, daughter, and two cats who permit her to write in their cozy attic office. Find her online at www.carriefinison.com or follow her on social media @CarrieFinison.

Award-winning animator and author Sarah Lynne Reul will read from her forthcoming children’s book Beansprout at Springfield Museums on May 7 at 11:30am! Following storytime, attendees will have a chance to plant sunflowers and learn more from the museum's STEM educators.

More about Beansprout: It’s seed-planting time in Ms. Greene’s classroom! But when one student’s seed refuses to sprout, the kids embark on an adventure to learn about disappointment, emotions, and second chances.

This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Sarah Lynne Reul is an author, illustrator and award-winning animator who likes science, tiny things and drawing on photos. Her picture books include The Breaking News from Roaring Brook Press, NERP! And Allie All Along from Union Square & Co, Bubbie & Rivka’s Best-Ever Challah (So-Far) from Abrams, as well as Pet The Pets and Farm the Farm from Little Simon. Sarah Lynne’s first early-reader graphic novel series, The Fix-Its, debuted from Harper in February 2024. She spends her workdays drawing lots of animals, writing silly and serious stories, and laughing with kids during school author visits throughout New England and beyond. She has also illustrated several large-scale murals for Boston’s Museum of Science, featuring New England forest animals as well as urban, coastal and forested landscapes. Originally from Brooklyn, she now lives just north of Boston with her family.

Join the Montague Public Library for a May 7 program and drawing demo with graphic novelist and illustrator Scott Magoon. The event is focused on The Extincts, an action-packed middle grade graphic novel adventure series that follows a team of so-called “de-extincted” animals as they navigate a modern world unfamiliar to them.

A book signing will follow the program.

​​This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Scott Magoon is the illustrator of several acclaimed picture books, including the New York Times bestselling RESCUE & JESSICA: A LIFE-CHANGING FRIENDSHIP by Jessica Kensky & Patrick Downes, MISUNDERSTOOD SHARK series BY Ame Dyckman and the SPOON series by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. He is also the author/illustrator of the EXTINCTS series of graphic novels, LINUS THE LITTLE YELLOW PENCIL, BREATHE and THE BOY WHO CRIED BIGFOOT. He lives in Massachusetts. Visit him online at www.scottmagoon.com

After snuggling into bed each night, Alicia listens for the big voices of the tiny coquíes that live all around Puerto Rico and sing her to sleep. Ko-kee, ko-kee, the little frogs call. Ko-kee, ko-kee.

Después de acurrucarse en la cama cada noche, Alicia escucha las formidables voces de los diminutos coquíes que viven en todo Puerto Rico y le cantan para que se duerma. Co-quí, co-quí cantan las ranitas. Co-quí, co-quí.

Springfield City Library will host award-winning author Lesléa Newman for a bilingual (English/Spanish) storytime on Wednesday, May 7 at 4pm at Springfield City Library. Kids will hear the story Alicia and the Hurricane: A Story of Puerto Rico / Alicia y el huracán: Un cuento de Puerto Rico, which offers a tender look at the resilience of people whose lives have been disrupted by a natural disaster, and I Can Be...Me!, a joyful picture book celebrating children’s freedom to express themselves through play.

Following the storytime, kids will be invited to participate in a frog-themed craft activity!

​​This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Lesléa Newman has created 87 books for readers of all ages including the children’s books, Alicia and the Hurricane: A Story of Puerto Rico, The Babka Sisters, I Can Be….ME!, Joyful Song: A Naming Story, and Ketzel, The Cat Who Composed. Her literary awards include two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Book Award. From 2008 - 2010, she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA.

Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” Read by Sandra Seoane-Serí Introduced by Dr. Daphne Lamothe, Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Smith College
5 pm Anita Kunz Exhibition open for viewing
6 pm Reading at Rockwell in the Galleries
In partnership with The Mount, the Norman Rockwell Museum presents Readings at Rockwell, featuring local actors reading stories by writers highlighted in Anita Kunz’s exhibition Original Sisters, which honors trailblazing women.
Toni Morrison(1931–2019) was an American novelist, essayist, book editor, and professor. Celebrated for her powerful and richly expressive examinations of the experience of Black women in an unjust world, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for her novel Beloved (1987). In 1993 she became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, as an author “who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.” President Barack Obama awarded Morrison the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. In a prolific and varied writing career, Morrison only wrote one short story, “Recitatif,” which will be read at this program.
Sandra Seoane-Serí is an award-winning actress based in New York, Providence, and Boston. Sandra received her BA in Theater and Film at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is a proud alum of Shakespeare & Company’s Summer Shakespeare Intensive. During their time in Western Massachusetts, she learned the importance of collaboration, discipline, and humility. They enjoy being on stage, behind and in front of the camera. Sandra hopes to be a part of stories that challenge stereotypes and spark conversations over neglected subjects.

Readings at Rockwell will take place on the first Wednesday of each month, March to May, in the galleries of the Museum. Each program will begin with a short talk about the author and the featured story. The program will begin at 6:00 pm, doors will open at 5:00 pm for viewing of the Anita Kunz exhibition.

https://www.nrm.org/events/readings-at-rockwell-toni-morrisons-recitatif-read-by-sandra-

Join author Jason Perkins at the Mason Library in Great Barrington for an event focused on his debut picture book, Rock Stars Don’t Nap! Kids will be invited to dance along with musical instruments during this “rock n’ roll read aloud” storytime.

Inspired by classic rock songs and eighties hair bands, Rock Stars Don’t Nap is a hilarious bedtime story for anyone who’s got "Moves Like Jagger." Baby Jimmy was born to rock, but when Mama insists that showtime should be naptime, his rock star world begins spiraling out of control. With sleep closing in, he'll need to give the performance of a lifetime.

​​This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Jason Perkins is a picture book author, father of two, and special education teacher with over 20 years of experience working with children with autism. Rock Stars Don’t Nap is his debut picture book. Jason’s work has been featured by New England Public Media, CBeebies Bedtime Stories on the BBC, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

Join award-winning children’s author Corinne Demas at North Adams Public Library on Thursday, May 8 for a storytime program! She’ll be reading her new book, Once There Was, which is a magical, modern fairy tale about transformation, dreaming about being someone or something else, and the interconnectedness of the natural world.

In this simple yet vibrant book, a girl dreams she is a princess. A princess dreams she is a horse. A horse dreams she is a tree, a tree a mountain, a mountain a moon, a moon a sea, a sea a girl. Once There Was shows how important it is to dream and to reach for the stars and the moon! This storytime will be paired with an activity to celebrate the turning of the seasons.

​​This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Corinne Demas is the award-winning author of thirty-eight books for children and adults. Her numerous picture books include The Perfect Tree, Saying Goodbye to Lulu, The Littlest Matryoshka, The Disappearing Island, and, most recently, Once There Was. She is the co-author, with Artemis Roehrig, of The Grumpy Pirate, Are Pirates Polite?, Do Doodlebugs Doodle? Amazing Insect Facts, Does a Fiddler Crab Fiddle?, and Do Jellyfish Like Peanut Butter? Amazing Sea Creature Facts. Her books for adults include her new novel, The Road Towards Home, and a memoir, Eleven Stories High, Growing Up in Stuyvesant Town. She is a professor Emerita of English at Mount Holyoke College and lives in Western Massachusetts and on Cape Cod. www.corinnedemas.com

Northampton’s Forbes Library will host Mass Book Award-winning author Mary Wagley Copp on May 8 at 4pm! Mary will read from her picture book Yoshi’s Big Swim, an awe-inspiring story about a turtle who swam more than 22,000 miles to her true home–the longest journey of any animal ever tracked.

Following the storytime, kids will learn more about sea turtles like Yoshi and participate in a turtle celebration! Environmental educators from the Hitchcock Center for the Environment will be on site and attendees will have the opportunity to meet a real-life turtle and better understand these incredible creatures.

Books will be available for purchase and signing from The Odyssey Bookshop.

​​This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Mary Wagley Copp is the award-winning author of Wherever I Go, Sometimes We Pray (forthcoming), and Yoshi’s Big Swim. Her professional life has also included community organizing in Appalachia, teaching in Ecuador, and being executive director of two nonprofit organizations. When she’s not writing, Mary teaches ESL to newcomers in her community. She graduated from Smith College and earned an MPH from UNC-Chapel Hill and lives in Westport, Massachusetts with her husband, their rescue pup, many chickens and so many bees! They have three grown children.

The Jones Library welcomes award-winning graphic novelist Jonathan Todd on May 8 at 4pm for a comics-making workshop tied to his 2024 graphic novel, Timid! Attendees will create their own biographical comics during this hands-on session.

Timid is a semi-autobiographical middle-grade graphic novel about frenemies, fitting in, and finding your voice. With vibrant illustrations and relatable action, we follow middle-schooler Cecil Hall as he moves across the country, builds new friendships, and navigates pre-teen growing pains.

​​This Mass Kids Lit Fest event is presented in partnership with the Massachusetts Center for the Book. For a full schedule, please visit https://www.makidslitfest.org/.

Jonathan Todd is a cofounder of the Boston Kids Comics Fest and former second-grade teacher. He was a Jacqueline Woodson Fellow in the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing program at Lasell University, where he studied writing for children and young adults. A frequent comics teacher in children’s and young adult departments in libraries and schools, Jonathan was the 2015 Graphic Novelist-in-Residence at the Morse Institute and Bacon Free libraries near Boston. Before writing and drawing graphic novels for kids, Jonathan studied journalism and illustration at Syracuse University and English and history at Emory University. He was also an education reporter and political cartoonist. His cartoons have appeared in dozens of newspapers, including the Boston Globe, the Tennessean, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. He lives near Boston with his wife, two children, and an irresistible lemon beagle named Cariño.