We now offer discounted passes to Old Sturbridge Village through our museum pass program! 

The pass grants 

50% off daytime admission for up to 4 individuals.

Passes are available on a first-come first-served basis, although Southbridge residents may call ahead to reserve passes for a specific day. 

Thank you to the Friends of the Jacob Edwards Library for sponsoring this program!

Check out our website for more details and information on all of the free and discounted passes we offer to local museums and attractions.

All teens and tweens (ages 12-18) are welcome to join us for Teen Tuesdays! Stop by the Pioppi Room every Tuesday for video gaming, crafts, movies, Anime, and more - we'll have something different every week.

This month's schedule:

Jan 6: Author Matt DeBettencourt - Meet a published author! Matt lives right in Worcester, and is the author of The Island of Time and

 its new sequel, The Island of Legends Past. Stop by to learn about his books, and the process of writing and getting published.

Jan 13: Sorry, no Teen Tuesday this week

Jan 20: Movie: If I Stay - We'll be showing it on the big screen!

Jan 27: Anime Day - See how much you really know - stop by to play Anime Jeopardy!

Teen and Tween Chess Club 

Every other Saturday from 10:30 a.m. - Noon, stop by the Teen area to play chess! You can get lessons from Adam & Ben Piche, who will be there to help, or just challenge them to a match.  

This month's dates are January 10 and January 24.

All are welcome to join us for a discussion of B.A. Shaprio's The Art Forger in the Reading Room. New participants are always welcome (no commitment!) - copies of next month's book, My Beautiful World by Sonya Sotomayor, are available at the Information Desk for checkout.

"On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art today worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there's more to this crime than meets the eye.

Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting-a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum-in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery.

Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life." 

Our featured local artist for January is Rose Ann Reed. Her work will be on display throughout the month. Please join us for a reception for the artist on Thursday, January 8th at 6:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served thanks to the Friends of the Jacob Edwards Library.

"My name is Rose Ann Reed and I've lived in Southbridge for over 35 years. I enjoy doing a variety of art which includes charcoal, needlepoint, acrylic, photography, and watercolor. My formal training in watercolor was two sessions at the Worcester Art Museum taught by William Griffith, an excellent teacher.

I chose watercolor to work with because it was the least expensive. I use the primary colors only - red, yellow and blue - for my artwork. The brushes don't have to be expensive to do a good job, and are easy to clean. My photos are what I paint from. I'd like to thank to the library staff for the opportunity of exhibiting my work."
 

B. Eugene McCarthy and Fran Quinn, authors of Sound Ideas: Reading and Speaking Poetry, will be at JEL for an author discussion and book signing. All are welcome! Light refreshments will be served, compliments of the Friends of the Library.

"Hearing and speaking are essential to making poems live. Poems are a physical experience. This book explains how to find your way to the heart of a poem by taking it off the page. The authors have taught poetry successfully with this method for many years and now they share it beyond their own classroom."

 B. Eugene McCarthy has a degree in English and a Masters from the University of Detroit. He took his PhD at the University of Kansas in 1965. He taught a full range of undergraduate courses at Holy Cross College until his retirement in 2000. He has been an editor of The Worcester Review and participates in the Milton Ensemble which offers dramatic performances of books of Paradise Lost each year.

Fran Quinn has a bachelors degree from Assumption College and an ABD from UMass, Amherst. He taught literature in high schools and in colleges in New England for many years. One of the founders of the Worcester County Poetry Association in 1971, he organized Robert Bly's Mother Conference for years. He now conducts regular poetry workshops in Indianapolis, Chicago, New York City, and elsewhere.

Please join us for a book talk with Gayle Suzanne, author of It's in the Little Things. Light refreshments provided compliments of the Friends of the Library - all welcome! 

"Do you have a voice deep down inside that you are not good enough? Do you believe a happy life is meant for others but not for you? Are you ready to shift energy and improve your life? Obstacles can bring us down but after we dust off and pick ourselves up, those obstacles can be valuable lessons in disguise. Through commitment and action, you can turn your life around for the better! 

With nearly 50 humorous or emotional stories from her personal experiences, Gayle Suzanne shares ideas and lessons that have had the most transforming impact on her life. Most stories have messages of how to appreciate seemingly insignificant events and how to take minor steps to improve your own circumstances. Sometimes in our lives people may have said negative things to us that might have left a damaging scar on our hearts. We believe those things to be our truth. Unless we dig deep and remove those negative thoughts, we may carry them with us our whole lives, even though they are not true. It is up to us to discover our real truth - that we are all special and unique individuals and we are all worthy of love."