The Atlantic County Library System/Hammonton is located at 451 S. Egg Harbor Rd. and may be reached by calling (609) 561-2264. Follow the Atlantic County Library System on Facebook (facebook.com/atlanticlibrary), Twitter (@ACLSLibrarian) and Instagram (instagram.com/aclslibrarian).
The library will be closed on January 2 for New Year’s Day and January 16 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Many library services are available 24/7 at www.atlanticlibrary.org.
To view their full calendar of events, visit atlanticlibrary.org. Registration required for all programs.
Masks are optional, but social distancing is still in effect. All programs are subject to change or cancellation.
Lego Club: January 3 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Open to ages 5 and older. Registration is required. Join our Lego Club and create your own Lego designs. All supplies are provided.
Toddler Storytime and Craft: All children ages 1.5 to 3 are invited on Tuesdays, January 17, 24 and 31 at 10:30 a.m. Registration is required. The latest books and some old favorites will help introduce new vocabulary and reinforce learning. Children and their caregivers will enjoy stories, songs, crafts, games and movement while building language and literacy skills.
Family Movie Night: Suggested for ages 4 and older; registration required. Join us on January 18 for a movie on the big screen. Refreshments will be provided; please advise staff of any food allergies. Check with the branch for upcoming titles. Guardians must remain with children age 9 and under.
Homemade Cookie Cutter Birdfeeders: Wednesday, January 25 at 6:30 p.m. Open to all ages. Registration required. Feed our feathery friends this Winter with homemade birdfeeders. All materials are provided.
Recommended Reading: Upcoming titles that will be circulating in our collection soon:
Exiles
A Novel by Jane Harper
Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend’s baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation.
This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie’s disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim’s older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can’t leave the case alone.
As Falk soaks up life in the lush valley, he is welcomed into the tight-knit circle of Kim’s friends and loved ones. But the group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk’s closest friend, the missing mother and a woman he’s drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?
The House in the Pines
A Novel by Ana Reyes
Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed....
Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer.
Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer—the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.
At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank’s cabin....