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).
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.
The library will be closed for Memorial Day on May 29.
Toddler Storytime and Craft: All children ages 1.5 to 3 are invited on Tuesdays, May 2 and 9 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.
Lego Club: Tuesday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m. Open to ages 5 and older. Registration is required. Gather with other Lego lovers to build something and share with other young engineers. We supply the Legos, you supply the imagination!
Kids Spring Craft-Mini Piñatas: Wednesday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m. For ages 5-12. Registration is required. Make your own mini piñatas for Cinco De Mayo. All materials are provided.
Crafting Social Hour: Saturday, May 6 at 1:30 p.m. Suggested for teens and adults.
Registration required. Do you like to chat with others while crafting? Bring your projects with you, (knit, crochet, cross-stitch, embroider, stencil, jewelry-making, etc.) and pass your creative time with new friends. Join us each month while working on individual projects. Refreshments provided.
Mother’s Day Tea: Saturday, May 13 at 1 p.m. Open to adults. Registration required. Enjoy tea and treats with us while learning the art of flower arranging. All supplies provided.
Maker’s Space Sewing: Saturday, May 20 at 1:30 p.m. Open to teens and adults. Registration required. Discover how to sew both by hand, and with machines. Also learn how to take measurements, select a pattern, and choose fabric. On May 20 make a necktie pillow.
Spring Craft for Adults-Paper Patriotic Fireworks: Wednesday, May 24 at 6:30 p.m. Open to adults. Registration required. Make a festive paper star fireworks craft for Memorial Day. All materials are provided.
Family Movie Night: Wednesday, May 31 at 6 p.m. Movie TBD. For ages 4 and older.
Registration required. Join us for movies on the big screen. Refreshments will be provided; please advise staff of any food allergies. Guardians must remain with children age 9 and under.
Recommended Reading: Upcoming titles that will be circulating in our collection soon:
The Ferryman
A Novel by Justin Cronin
Founded by the mysterious genius known as the Designer, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera’s lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.
Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process—and, when necessary, enforcing it. But all is not well with Proctor. For one thing, he’s been dreaming—which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera. For another, his monitor percentage has begun to drop alarmingly fast. And then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry.
Meanwhile, something is stirring. The Support Staff, ordinary men and women who provide the labor to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. Unrest is building, and there are rumors spreading of a resistance group—known as “Arrivalists”—who may be fomenting revolution.
Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed, entangled with a much bigger cause than he realized—and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.
The Guest
A Novel by Emma Cline
“Alex drained her wineglass, then her water glass. The ocean looked calm, a black darker than the sky. A ripple of anxiety made her palms go damp. It seemed suddenly very tenuous to believe that anything would stay hidden, that she could successfully pass from one world to another.”
Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome.
A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city.
With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.