Community Calendar

Join the Hitchcock Center for the Environment for a special storytime with award-winning children’s author Mary Wagley Copp on Saturday, May 9! The event will focus on Mary’s picture book, Yoshi’s Big Swim: One Turtle’s Epic Journey Home, which tells the true story of Yoshi, a loggerhead sea turtle who was rescued and cared for by scientists before being released back into the ocean. Discover an amazing story celebrating teamwork, conservation, and an animal hero who swam more than 22,000 miles to her true home—the longest journey of any animal ever tracked.

Following a fun and engaging presentation on the book, attendees will learn more about Yoshi’s real-world counterparts and have the chance to meet some of the Hitchcock Center’s turtles in residence.

Books will be available for purchase through 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’s debut picture book, Wherever I Go, won numerous awards, including NPR’S 100 Best Children’s Books 2020, Notable Social Studies Book by CBC 2021 and was the 2022 winner of the Massachusetts Book Award. Her nonfiction book, Yoshi’s Big Swim: One Turtle’s Epic Journey Home was longlisted for the 2024 Mass Book Award and was the winner of the 2024 Nutmeg Award. Mary’s students in her ELL class were the inspiration for her new book, Sometimes We Pray (2026). She and her husband live on a farm in Westport, MA. They have 3 grown children. You can learn more about Mary at marywagleycopp.com.

A multimedia immersive experience of music, images, and words drawn from internationally known scientists, poets, and wisdom-carriers from multiple spiritual traditions, including voices such as Hildegard of Bingen, Rachel Carson, Teresa of Ávila, and Dorothy Day. Come be nourished, challenged, and inspired by messages of wonder, love, insight, community, and courage. A reception will follow the program.

Next up in the Berkshire Nature Talk Series:

Ryan Shea, The Nature Institute
Butterflies are among nature’s most captivating organisms, dazzling us with their colors, patterns, and the remarkable transformation from caterpillar to winged adult. But what can they teach us about the deeper rhythms of the natural world? In this talk, Ryan Shea invites us to slow down and truly observe butterflies: to notice how their shapes and colors shift and transform, and to help us discover a “living understanding of nature.” He draws on an approach to nature observation developed by the German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which asks us to follow what we actually see rather than jump to explanation.

About the Speaker: Ryan Shea is a researcher and educator at The Nature Institute in Ghent, New York, where he explores how people can develop a deeper, more meaningful connection with the natural world — with a special focus on plants and insects.

Free for West Stockbridge Historical Society members; $10 suggested donation for nonmembers. Please register at weststockbridgehistory.org.

The Berkshire Nature Talk Series is funded in part by grants from the Alford-Egremont, Richmond, and West Stockbridge cultural councils, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Join High Five Books and local author Nicholas Day for the release of his thoughtful new picture book NICE WORK on Saturday, May 16, from 10-10:30am. This storytime is free and all families are welcome.

ABOUT ‘NICE WORK’

A wise and tender story about the patience needed for a tree-and a friendship-to grow, from award-winning author Nicholas Day.

All he wanted was a peach tree: Because when you eat a ripe peach, you get sticky and sweet, and if you don't wash up, you stay sticky and sweet. And you feel like summer.

But when the tree arrives in the spring, it isn't a tree. It's a stick. Nice work, the boy tells his parents. You bought a stick. Even his friend Maya agrees. It's a stick.

Though what happens when you plant a stick, and it grows leaves? What happens when your best friend moves away? What happens when everything that was once clear starts to change?

Here is a story of growth, the enduring power of friendship, the persistence of rabbits—and a single, glorious, impossible peach.

Come to an after-hours, forts & flashlights celebration of the newest book by local author Christina Uss!

On Thursday, May 21, 5:45-7pm at the Easthampton Public Library, sing along with Christina (and her ukulele!), try to guess some made-up sleep facts, and more! Then we'll build blanket forts to read in between the shelves after the Library closes for the night!

Christina's new book Midnight Mayhem is geared for ages 8-12, but all ages are welcome at the event! High Five Books will have books for sale.

Join us and local author Heidi E.Y. Stemple for a celebratory launch of her springy new picture book, LYDIA LOVE BUGS, illustrated by Yuliya Pankratova, on Saturday, May 23, from 10-10:30am. Storytime is free and no registration is required to attend.

ABOUT ‘LYDIA LOVES BUGS: A CHILDREN’S BOOK ABOUT INSECTS'

Discover the wonderful world of insects as Lydia collects bugs for show-and-tell in this picture book perfect for little entomologists

Lydia loves bugs. She loves big, bouncing bugs and small, squiggly bugs. You know who doesn't love bugs?

Lydia loves bugs but her father and brother do not! Scared of all things creepy crawly, they often run away or set her bugs free. But you know who else loves bugs? Lydia's mom. She's an entomologist, and she helps Lydia collect bugs for a very special day at school, when Lydia gets to show and tell her classmates all about her bugs. And now everybody loves bugs!

Packed full of adorable insects, Lydia Loves Bugs is the perfect picture book for any little nature lover or aspiring bug collector. It has singing bugs and silent bugs, slightly stinky bugs and fly-away bugs, with an underlying message about being seen and understood. Every page comes with fun wordplay from Heidi Stemple and cute illustrations from Yuliya Pankratova that make creepy-crawly insects seem not so scary, and young readers can discover facts about their favorite bugs at the end of the book. Who knows? After reading this story, even your child might develop a love for STEM and all things creepy-crawly.

SPRINGFIELD - A one-time-only tribute event will honor Eleanor Powell, who was one of the most famous and successful tap dancers in the world. The program features guest speaker, Lisa Royere, co-author of the definitive biography, Eleanor Powell: Born to Dance. The program is FREE.

Join us and local author Lesléa Newman for a celebratory launch of her inclusive new picture book, RAINBOW COOKIES, illustrated by Z.B. Asterplume, on Saturday, May 30, from 10-10:30am. Storytime is free and no registration is required to attend.

ABOUT 'RAINBOW COOKIES'
Every month Ms. Madeleine creates a special cookie of the month for her bakery. And her best customer, a little girl named Cookie, is always the first to try it. Ms. Madeleine's sweet treats never disappoint.
When June arrives, Cookie and her two moms stop in and taste the best cookie yet: a heart-shaped, rainbow-striped, crunchy, frosted confection that Ms. Madeleine baked especially for Pride.

But Rainbow Cookies make some people in the neighborhood angry. They write harsh notes. They cancel orders. Ms. Madeleine is afraid her Rainbow Cookie might be her last.

But Cookie is not about to let that happen. With great determination and a fabulous idea, she gathers friends and neighbors to support Ms. Madeleine. Together they show the whole town how colorful and fun and celebratory and delicious the combination of love, Pride, and cookies can be!