HARDWICK – Grass is growing along the gentle slopes that grace the front of the Jeudevine, providing us with a glimpse of the new places we might soon sit with a good book or friend to pass a few idle moments. A small terrace sits immediately outside the entrance to the original building. Granite retaining walls are in place, and granite facades are being framed around the arched entryways on both West Church and North Main Streets. The parking lot has been brought up to grade and a boundary wall constructed along its southern edge. Inside, the sprinkler system is being activated, stairways built, walls framed, the excitement (literally) is building!
On the Jeudevine Memorial Library website you can find a 360-degree, 3-D virtual scan of the new building. Follow the guidelines to take your own tour. It remains a construction site, so you’ll bump into insulation and rough framing, but you can better understand the space than you might from poring over a 2-D blueprint.
It’s August, our children will be back in school before the month is out. The library has scheduled events with young readers in mind. Educator and young adult author Kenneth Cadow will visit us on Thursday evening, August 8, at 6:30 p.m., to read from and discuss his new book, “Gather.” The story follows Ian, a Vermont teenager, as he grows up in a world touched by poverty, hunger and addiction. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2023 and was chosen by Vermont Humanities as the Vermont Reads book for 2024. Free paperback copies of the book will be available at the library, courtesy of Vermont Humanities.
Earlier that same day, August 8, at 10:30 a.m., the Summer Reading Fun event at Atkins Field will feature a Dr. Seuss book, “If I drove an Ice Cream Truck,” as authored by the Cat in the Hat. Appropriately, Hardwick’s very own ice cream truck, Street Treats, will be on hand. All children in attendance will receive a ticket for a free treat. This will also be Miss Marilyn’s last day as our youth librarian. Please come by to thank her and to wish her well.
By now, most readers understand that a library provides a community with so much more than books: on-line access (including assistance navigating to various sites), DVDs, meeting space, educational programming, the coordination of volunteer services to those in need. Additionally, the Jeudevine has free Covid-19 test kits, Strider bikes (with and without pedals) for new young cyclists, Jasper Hill cheese samples (if you’re lucky), and, on a limited basis, tickets to the Craftsbury Chamber Players (summer Thursdays through August 15, 7:30 p.m., at the Hardwick Town House).
“When the Sea Came Alive” is one of the newest books to hit our shelves. It is a gripping history of the D-Day invasion. The author, Garrett Graff, writes through the memoirs of those who experienced the invasion, from both sides of the battle. For those who prefer a summer mystery read, try Liz Moore’s “The God of the Woods,” which opens with the disappearance of a
13-year-old girl from her Adirondack summer camp, fourteen years after her then 8-year-old brother had also disappeared. Are these connected? Read on!
Our trustee profile this month introduces Andrea Brightenback, who joined our board in 2019. Prior to that she had worked with the community planning committee around the Jeudevine expansion project. Brightenback retired from teaching in 2015. Over the course of her 37-year career she worked first as OSSU speech language pathologist and later as a music teacher. She believed in music deserving as prominent a place within a school curriculum as math or English, and was instrumental (pun very much intended) in developing a Craftsbury marching band and in guiding students towards participation in Northeast Regional Music Festivals. Beyond the school calendar year, Brightenback cofounded Get Thee to a Funnery, the Shakespeare two-week summer camp that continues to this day.
Brightenback continues to play music, with local groups, and as principal oboist for the Vermont Philharmonic. She loves the outdoors, whether tending to her magnificent gardens, or exploring our back roads and fields on her bike or cross-country skis. She comes from a family of librarians and hopes our expanded library becomes a thriving and inclusive center for our community for decades to come.
Brendan Buckley
