The Minnesota State Arts Board is holding an art grant application workshop in the Litchfield Library meeting room on Saturday, February 1, 1:00-2:30 p.m.

Kids, come build with LEGOs at the library! Litchfield Library will hold LEGO Night on the 2nd Tuesday of the month from January through May, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the meeting room. For ages 4-14; children under age 8 should be accompanied by a teen or adult caregiver. No need to sign up. Free to attend. The library provides the LEGOs.

Minnesota Author Mindy Mejia is rescheduled for an event at the Litchfield Library! She will be speaking on Wednesday, February 19, at 6:30 p.m. Free to attend; no need to sign up.

Learn about Mindy’s novels at MindyMejia.com.

Are you interested in being of service to your community on behalf of the library? The Litchfield Library Board is in need of one new member.

The Litchfield Library Board is an advisory board to the city of Litchfield regarding the library building and grounds. Board members also serve on the board of the Litchfield Library Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that manages and invests donations and uses them to improve the library.

Meetings are held quarterly at 5:30 p.m. on the 4th Thursday of January, April, July, and October. Special meetings are occasionally held as needed, typically including one in the spring to inspect the building.

All members of the board must reside in Meeker County, and a majority of people on the board must reside in the city of Litchfield. Terms are 3 years.

To apply, visit city hall and ask for an application.

Pioneerland libraries will be closed on Monday, January 20, for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Drop in for Litchfield Library’s Knitting Club on the 3rd Thursday of the month, January through May. The program is held in the meeting room from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. No formal instruction is provided; it’s a time for people of all ages to sit together while they knit or crochet, and to share ideas and get advice from an expert knitter on the library staff. No need to sign up.

Dates are January 16, February 20, March 20, April 17, and May 15.

Take a look at Pioneerland Library System’s top checkouts of 2024:

Top adult fiction

• The women / Kristin Hannah.
• The river we remember : a novel / William Kent Krueger.
• Three-inch teeth : a Joe Pickett novel / C. J. Box
• Toxic prey / John Sandford.
• Spirit crossing : a novel / William Kent Krueger.
• The housemaid / Freida McFadden.
• The teacher / Freida McFadden.
• A calamity of souls / David Baldacci.
• Mind games / Nora Roberts.
• The truth about the Devlins / Lisa Scottoline.

Top adult nonfiction

• Dear Jacob : a mother’s journey of hope / Patty Wetterling with Joy Baker.
• Hillbilly elegy : a memoir of a family and culture in crisis / J.D. Vance.
• The boys in the boat : nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics / Daniel James Brown.
• House of Kahmanns : a memoir : a story about family love and shattered bonds, about finding each other in the aftermath / P. G. Kahmann.
• Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI / David Grann.
• The demon of unrest / Erik Larson.
• Oath and honor : a memoir and a warning / Liz Cheney.
• Gunflint falling : blowdown in the Boundary Waters / Cary J. Griffith.
• The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness / Jonathan Haidt.
• Atomic habits : tiny changes, remarkable results : an easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones / James Clear.

Top young adult fiction

• One-Punch Man / story by One ; art by Yusuke Murata ; translation, John Werry.
• A court of thorns and roses / Sarah J. Maas.
• A good girl’s guide to murder / Holly Jackson.
• One piece / story and art by Eiichiro Oda.
• The seven deadly sins / Nakaba Suzuki ; [translator, Christine Dashiell ; lettering, James Dashiell].
• The ballad of songbirds and snakes / Suzanne Collins.
• Powerless / Lauren Roberts.
• One of us is lying / Karen M. McManus.
• If he had been with me / Laura Nowlin.
• Death note / story by Tsugumi Ōba ; art by Takeshi Obata ; translation & adaptation, Pookie Rolf.

Top easy fiction

• The Big Cheese / written by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald.
• The teeny-weeny unicorn / by Shawn Harris.
• Love from Bluey / text by Suzy Brumm.
• Bluey : daddy putdown.
• The pigeon has to go to school! / words and pictures by Mo Willems.
• Buffalo Fluffalo / written by Bess Kalb ; illustrated by Erin Kraan.
• If you give a dog a donut / written by Laura Numeroff ; illustrated by Felicia Bond.
• Creepy crayon! / Aaron Reynolds ; illustrated by Peter Brown.
• No cats in the library / Lauren Emmons.
• Penelope Rex and the problem with pets / Ryan T. Higgins.

Top juvenile fiction

• Dog Man. Vol. 12 : The scarlet shedder / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.
• Cat kid comic club. Vol. 5 : Influencers / words, illustrations, and artwork by Dav Pilkey .
• Dog Man. Twenty thousand fleas under the sea / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.
• Dog man. Mothering heights / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.
• Dog man. Lord of the fleas / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.
• Dog Man. Brawl of the wild / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.
• Dog man. Grime and punishment / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.
• Baby-sitters club. Vol. 15 : Claudia and the bad joke / a graphic novel by Arley Nopra.
• Baby-sitters Club. Vol. 7 : Boy-crazy Stacey / a graphic novel by Gale Galligan.

Call the Litchfield Library at 320-693-2483 to sign up for the January Adult Arts & Crafts program. This month’s project is winter luminaries. The class will be held on Thursday, January 23, at 6:30 p.m. in the library’s meeting room.

Free to attend and all supplies are provided. Space is limited, so pre-registration is required. If you sign up and are unable to attend, please contact the library, since this program typically has a waiting list.

This is an adults-only program.

Adults, it’s time for your annual reading program! The kids get the summer reading program, and the adults get Winter Reads, Pioneerland Library System’s program that begins in January. Litchfield Library’s program this year will run Thursday, January 2, through Saturday, March 15.

January 2nd is the first day you can sign up for the program, but you can sign up anytime through early March. The advantage of signing up early is that, since you count the books you read after you have signed up, you have more time to complete it. The other advantage is that the prize choices are available while supplies last, so the earlier you turn in a reading log, the more choices you will have.

When you sign up, you’ll get a free book bag (while supplies last) and a reading log to keep track of the books you read. You can read fiction or nonfiction, old or new, library books or your own, print, e-books, or audiobooks – it’s all your choice!

Once you have read and rated three books, bring your reading log back to the library so that you can choose a small prize. If you read three more by March 15, bring it back in to choose an additional prize. The program can’t be repeated this year once completed.

If you complete all 6 books by the end of the program, you’ll be entered in a drawing for gift certificates to local businesses, sponsored by the Litchfield Friends of the Library.

Prize choices this year are mugs, book lights, can insulators, large candy bars, small notebook and pen sets, and potholders.