Phonics is a method of teaching children to read and write by sounding out words. It’s a key part of early reading development and helps children learn to connect sounds to letters. Baxter Memorial Library now has a growing collection of phonics books, each focusing on a different set of sounds or on putting those sounds together. Our collection currently includes Bob Books, Bright Owl Books, All About Reading books, and two by Kevin Bolger.
Feel free to place a hold online or stop by anytime and look at the top shelf of our Easy Reader collection to check out the titles below:
Bright Owl Books by Molly Coxe: Cubs in the Tub Wet Hen Hop, Frog! Princess Pig Rat Attack Blues for Unicorn Go Home, Goat Save the Cake! Greedy Beetle Lion Spies a Tiger
Bob Books Stage 1 Starting to Read Box Set (12 books) Stage 1 Phonics for Early Readers Stage 1 First Stories Stage 2 Emerging Reader Box Set (12 books) Stage 3 Developing Reader Box Set (12 books)
All About Reading books by Marie Rippel Run, Bug, Run!: A Collection of Short Stories The Runt Pig: A Collection of Short Stories Cobweb the Cat: A Collection of Short Stories
Kevin Boger books Lazy Bear, Crazy Bear: Loony Long Vowels Gran on a Fan: Silly Short Vowels
As the year comes to a close, we reflect on the incredible strength and spirit of our community. What makes us truly special is how we come together—supporting each other, sharing ideas, and growing stronger every day. The library plays a vital role in this, offering a welcoming space for learning, assistance, creativity, and connection.
These are challenging times, though. As the cost of living continues to rise, the Baxter public library remains one of the few spaces that provides free resources for everyone, making the library more important now than ever.
Baxter Memorial Library is partially funded by our town, but more than a third of our annual budget must be raised through donations.
This year, donors like you helped provide FREE access to:
4000+ books for adults
Hundreds of DVD movies
Printing/copying/scanning
Wireless internet access
Two public computers
Interlibrary loans
Job seeker resources
Online test & career prep
Building use for meetings
Tools, games, telescope & more for loan
Museum & park passes
Ebooks & audiobooks
3000+ books for kids
Themed learning kits
Weekly storytimes
Craft workshops
Summer Reading
…and much, much more! Not to mention, a librarian who goes above and beyond to help!
We are inspired by our community’s generosity and are grateful for our town’s annual support and our volunteers who donate their time and energy.
But we need your help. Please join with your friends and neighbors and support the library. A library donation is a way to keep Sharon a strong, vibrant, and resilient community by giving our neighbors access to resources they need.
Thank you for considering Baxter Memorial Library in your year-end giving. Gifts to the library are tax deductible.
Sincerely, Emma Basham, Laura DeCapua, Karen Rodis, Rebekah Bakos-Kallgren, and Finnie Trimpi, Library Trustees Shana Ronayne Hickman, Library Director
The trustees of Baxter Memorial Library are pleased to announce that our own Sharon Little Free Library next to the Town Offices parking area is completed and ready!
This Little Free Library belongs to everyone in Sharon! It is a volunteer-led book exchange, stewarded by the Baxter Memorial Library. Anyone can browse books and take books from the box. If you have a book to donate, just bring it to the library. (You don’t have to leave a book in order to take a book, though. We want to share the joy of reading with our community!)
Our Little Free Library was generously built and installed by Paula Duprat and George Ostler with the help of Kevin Gish. Special thanks to them for their time, energy, and kindness.
The Sharon Little Free Library is a chartered member of a global network of Little Free Library book-exchange boxes. As a chartered library, our location will be soon added to the map of Little Free Libraries all across the world. Curious readers can discover other Little Free Libraries by downloading the free mobile app at LittleFreeLibrary.org/app. You can get directions, create routes, save your favorites, and track all the Little Free Libraries you visit!
(Psst: Did you know that Baxter’s new Little Free Library is the second one in town? Sharon Elementary has a Little Free Library in the circle devoted to children’s books. It was donated by the PTO to honor Catherine Freese for her 20+ years as the school librarian!)
Please help spread the word about Sharon’s new Little Free Library and share our love of books. Happy reading!
As the holiday season gets underway, please take a few moments on GivingTuesday, Tuesday, Nov. 28, to support your library. Free for everyone, Baxter Memorial Library offers the gift of literacy all year long.
This year is the 11th Anniversary of the GivingTuesday movement, which was created as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Because of donors like you, Baxter Memorial Library is able to provide the community with quality programming for children, digital literacy assistance for adults, new books and movies for all ages, community programs and services — from cookbook clubs and writing groups to summer programs and story times — and so much more!
We’ve moved the date of our annual Plant, Book & Bake Sale to Mother’s Day weekend – May 13, 9am-2pm. We’re looking for donations of gently used books, all sorts of baked goodies and houseplants & seedlings. Unfortunately, because of the presence of the Asian Jumping Worm in Vermont, we can’t accept transplants again this year. For information about book donations, check out our post about donating materials. Please save all donations of books and plants for the week of the sale and drop them off during the library’s open hours (M-W, 2-6pm, Th 11am-7pm). Baked goods can be dropped off Friday while volunteers are setting up or Saturday morning before the sale.
All proceeds will support Baxter Memorial Library’s many programs and services for all ages. Questions about the sale? We’d love to talk with you! Just email sharonbaxterlibrary@gmail.com or give us a call at 802-763-2875.
April is National Poetry Month, and Baxter Memorial Library in Sharon, Vermont is offering lots of poetry-related programs all month long, including displays of poetry for kids and adults, a create-your-own-blackout-poem station, and a bulletin board full of short poems that that you can grab and keep in your pocket to read throughout the day! (Sure, “Poem in Your Pocket Day” isn’t until April 29, but why not celebrate all month long with a poem by Langston Hughes or Emily Dickinson or Naomi Shihab Nye?) We’ve also got a few poetry-related events in store:
On Tuesday, April 11 at 6pm, long-time Upper Valley educator, playwright, and poet Alan Haehnel will perform “My Ode to Joy.” Haehnel’s dynamic spoken word poetry highlights the variety, drama, music, and overall excitement that can come from poetry, and his presentations have earned high praise from attendees throughout the UV.
On Thursday, April 27 at 6pm, the library will host an Open Mic Night. We’re not limiting it to poetry, though; we invite you to share your music, dancing comedy, storytelling, poetry – or anything else that sparks you! Or, just come to watch and support your community. ALL AGES are welcome. Please email the library at sharonbaxterlibrary@gmail.com if you’d like to perform.
And, of course, poets are always welcome on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month to join Shana Ronayne Hickman, librarian and author of Writing Through the Fog: Techniques for Outwitting Brain Fog and Reclaiming Our Writing Lives, for an evening of writing exercises, prompts, and encouragement. This is an in-person event at the library designed to help patrons unlock their creative potential. Participants will engage in fun idea generating exercises and work together to get results and find joy in the writing process. All writers of any genre and experience level are welcome. If you’re curious, come check it out! Attendees will also have the opportunity to share their work with the group in an encouraging and supportive environment. Bring a journal or laptop. Masks are required for this program.
Earlier this year, one of our favorite young patrons walked in beaming and told the librarian, “I can read now!” She chose a book from our early reader section and proceeded to read it aloud from beginning to end. “See?” she asked proudly. What a heart-warming moment! She then checked out nearly a dozen more and exclaimed, “I’ll bet I can read all of these in one day!”
When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of who you are, a part of your identity, unlike any other reading you might do as an adult. And so, we’ve transformed our children’s area into an enchanting space with comfy reading nooks and LOTS of brand new books for emerging and newly independent readers. We’ve added a collection of Spanish and bilingual books, as well as board and card games, fun learning kits, and lots of space to display books and spark curiosity. Our summer reading program this year featured a reading contest, a storyteller, a dance workshop, and even a snow cone party with live music and prizes!
We held our immensely popular weekly Magic the Gathering gathering (see what I did there?) all summer long and started a weekly toddlers & preschoolers storytime. We’ve extended our hours on Thursdays and are now open 11am-7pm. And, thanks to our volunteers, Saturday mornings at the library are back!
Check out these statistics from the past year:
59 new patrons
3350 patron visits (75% more than 2021)
Over 4000 checkouts
1250 digital checkouts
476 interlibrary loans
8 museum passes used over 30 times
16 themed kits checked out 40 times
621 new items added to the collection
And we can do it all because of donors like you.
Because of donors like you, Baxter is able to provide the community with digital literacy assistance; opportunities for job training and placement; resources for exploring nearly any interest, from astronomy to Zumba; hundreds of new books, movies, and audiobooks each year; cherished community programs; and access to digital resources including ebooks, digital audiobooks, online classes, databases, and periodical subscriptions – all for free to everyone.
We are inspired by our community’s generosity and are so grateful for the support we receive from our annual town appropriation, the efforts of our many volunteers who donate their time and energy, and the legacy of generosity represented by our endowment. Still, we rely on your annual gift as a crucial source of income to meet our operating needs. Your contribution ensures that our services and resources remain available to the entire community. And so, we ask that you join with your friends and neighbors in making a gift to Baxter Memorial Library. Any amount helps and is gratefully received.
Thank you for considering Baxter Memorial Library in your annual giving. Please send donations to P.O. Box 87, Sharon, VT 05065. Gifts to the library are tax deductible.
Sincerely,
The BML Trustees: Emma Basham, Marian Weatherbee, Kit Hood, Laura DeCapua, and Sandy Johnston; and Library Director Shana Hickman
Thanks to the American Library Association’sLibraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries grant, Baxter Memorial Library received funding that allowed us to reinvigorate the children’s area, adding lots of great new nonfiction books, as well as themed learning kits, new games, comfy furnishings, and charming decor.
It’s taken quite a bit of work, but (drumroll, please)… the themed learning kits are finally ready for checkout – along with lots of new games and puzzles! What’s a themed learning kit, you ask? Let’s say your kids want to go birdwatching. You can check out the Birding Kit which contains binoculars, a field guide, a CD of birdsongs, and a few children’s books about birds. Or maybe your kiddos love to tell stories. Check out the Storytelling Kit with two decks of story cards, a set of story dice, printouts of comic panels & story writing/drawing paper, and (of course) a few books on storytelling.
Each kit is available for a two-week checkout. They aren’t easy to find in the online catalog, so if you’re interested in borrowing one, just send an email to sharonbaxterlibrary@gmail.com or call the library at 802-763-2875.
Available Kits
Birding (binoculars, bird songs CD, field guide, books) Cells (animal & plant cell models and books) Dinosaurs (write & wipe dino sheets, dino puppets, books) Electricity (Snap Circuits Jr. set and books) Gardening (gardening tools, seed pack, books) We’re looking for donations of seed packets to include in this kit Insects & Spiders (bug hut, magnifying glass, books) Juggling (juggling balls and books) Mindfulness (mindfulness cards, books) Money (play money, Exact Change game, books) Music (musical instruments and books) Shapes (shape game and books) Stargazing (home planetarium, star chart, books) Steel Tongue Drum (drum and songbooks) Storytelling (story cards, story dicce, comic panel and story writing printouts, books) Telling Time (learning clock with activities and books) Yoga (yoga mat, yoga pose cards, book)
But wait! Don’t forget the games! Baxter Memorial Library also has lots of games available for lending. (If you’re looking for a fun way to incorporate math into everyday life, games are a must!)
Available Games
Zeus on the Loose Fracto Fraction War Addition & Subtraction War Multiplication War Division War Pass the Pigs Fluxx SET Sleeping Queens Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza LCR (dice game) Zingo Bird Bingo Shut-the-Box Uno Boggle Yahtzee Scrabble Connect 4 I Never Forget a Face (matching game) Dr. Seuss Matching Game Pop! the Pig Multiple decks of playing cards
We’re still looking for donations of interesting puzzles to add to our lendable puzzle collection (both for kids and adults), but we’ve already gotten some dandies that are ready to check out. Stop by and take a look – and stay tuned for news about our upcoming makerspace!
Earlier this year, Baxter Memorial Library was selected as one of 300 libraries to participate in Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries, an American Library Association (ALA) initiative that helps library workers better serve their small and rural communities. The competitive award came with a $3,000 grant to help BML support area youth, including those being educated at home, with an updated and enhanced collection of educational materials and other resources.
Originally, the focus was on the homeschooling community in the area, so we held a virtual discussion with homeschoolers to find out what would enrich their homeschooling experiences. After that discussion, we decided to open it up to suggestions from all families. We crafted a survey that asked what Sharon families would like to find when they walk into the library – what would make the library more appealing and more useful for them, especially when it comes to educational resources – and not surprisingly, the answers from both groups were nearly identical: themed learning kits and equipment available to check out were the clear winners, with an inviting children’s area, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Math) resources, more nonfiction children’s books, and board games also making a show.
Sounds great! Now, where to begin?
First, we’ll be creating themed kits and adding them to the collection in the coming months. Imagine being able to check out books on bird identification, along with binoculars, a notebook for observations, and a CD filled with birdsongs. Or, checking out a book on yoga for kids that comes with a mat and cards showing the positions, or books on gardening that come with gardening tools, or books on addition and subtraction that come with fun math games, or even books on juggling that come with balls! How cool is that?
Next, we’ll put out a call for fun equipment that might be languishing in closets or basements so that we can begin circulating outdoor/sports gear, microscopes, art supplies, and whatever else comes our way. We’ll also adorn the children’s area with cushions for the sitting nook, more soft seating for little readers, and children’s book-themed decor. Finally, we’ll add more nonfiction books, puzzles, and educational (and fun!) board games for checkout.
Happily, we’ve received additional American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant money from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Vermont Department of Libraries which will allow us to purchase STEAM and makerspace resources in the coming months. Look for robotics, coding, engineering, and architechtural toys, as well as lots of fun art and craft supplies to be added very soon!
Thank you for helping us to reimagine what our children’s area can be! 2022 is already shaping up to be a spectacular year at Baxter Memorial Library!
The survey has ended. A hearty thank you to all who participated! If you have ideas for enriching the library’s educational resources, please email your suggestions to sharonbaxterlibrary@gmail.com.
What would you like to find when you walk into your library? What would make BML more appealing to your family? Themed learning kits? Educational games available to check out? Youth project fairs? Let us know – we’re all ears! Recently, the library received a grant to update and enhance our collection of educational materials, programs and other resources. While a portion of the grant has allowed for the purchase of lots of new nonfiction children’s books, the remaining funds are to be spent however the community would find most helpful. After talking with homeschoolers in the area about what would be most beneficial for them, we’re opening the conversation to ALL families in the Sharon area!
So, tell us what you’d like to see at your library!
Baxter Memorial Library 