|
THE BIXBY BULLETIN
August 2025
| | |
It’s been great to see how many of you caught the summer reading bug in July. Circulation of adult physical books is up 33% over last month totaling 1015 checkouts plus another 1050 digital checkouts. We’ve congratulated 11 art prize and three grand prize winners for Color Your Shelves, our 2025 Adult and Young Adult Summer Reading Challenge.
The beloved Bixby/Rotary Booked For Bikes Kids’ Summer Reading Challenge has sparked ravenous reading with a whopping 511 of the 100-minutes-read forms submitted. Children’s book checkouts soared to 1,719 books checked out in July. What a community of readers!
Families are loving the summer programming, from ArtDay Fridays (vegetable stamp painting, anyone?) to Storytimes, to a birthday party for Harry Potter, with 137 attendees at July’s seven events. Pick up a Children’s Summer Program brochure and check our website calendar to plan the rest of your summer with us.
And do stop by the Bixby on Vergennes Day (August 23rd) to create works of art with chalk along our sidewalk, wave a bubble wand or craft your own frisbee. Or maybe just relax in a rocking chair on the side porch with a good book and let the world go by.
| | What's New at the Library? | | Welcome, Community Engagement Manager Miranda Degreenia! | | |
We are pleased to welcome another new staff member to the Bixby Team, Miranda Degreenia, who joins us as the new Community Engagement Manager. Miranda recently earned her B.S. in Community and International Development from the University of Vermont, focusing on effective communication and asset-based community development.
She grew up in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, spending much of her childhood reading and in local libraries after school. Miranda has completed research and communications internships with many Burlington-area organizations where she had hands-on experience in community engagement and advocacy. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Vermont, which she is set to complete in May 2026.
Miranda is passionate about how libraries foster social capital, bring together people from all walks of life, and strengthen rural communities through connection. Outside of work, Miranda enjoys traveling to new and familiar places, soaking up the sun, reading creative fiction or mysteries, and spending time with her loved ones. Connect with Miranda by emailing her at miranda.degreenia@bixbylibrary.org.
| | New Exhibit: Daily Life in a Different Era | | |
Daily Life in a Different Era offers a glimpse into Vermont’s past—when butter was churned by hand, clothes were stitched at home, and staying in touch meant a handwritten letter or a knock at the door.
Discover toys, textiles, treasure, and personal stories from right here in our five-town community. Now on display in the Kerr Room during the library’s open hours.
Thank you to History Team Volunteer Nancy Remsen and Historical Collections Associate Kelly Bartlett for curating this stunning exhibit.
| | Explore Hispanic Voices Through September 11th | | |
Celebrate Hispanic heritage in Vermont with Hispanic Voices, a multimedia exhibit featuring 29 portraits and audio interviews with Hispanic Vermonters.
Created as a service learning project at the University of Vermont (UVM), Hispanic Voices aims to build awareness of cultural differences in Vermont and celebrate the resilience and contributions of the state’s Hispanic community.
Hispanic Vermonters shared their life stories with UVM students, who, through these conversations, recognized the significance and impact of Vermont’s Hispanic Community. Students then created five-minute interviews that honor and reflect on these life stories, cultural heritage, and lived experiences. Now on display through September 11th during the library’s open hours in the Community Room.
| | |
Our popular digital services site Hoopla offers Bixby patrons three instant borrows per month. But did you know that Hoopla offers BingePass, a program that provides popular streaming content and platforms for seven days with just one borrow?
Patrons can access Hallmark+, The Great Courses, magazines, games, documentaries, Creativebug and Craftsy classes, PBS Kids, as well as entire seasons of popular shows like Midsomer Murders, Pokémon, and Wallander. The new Smile and Learn BingePass offers access to thousands of educational activities for children ages 3-12.
Developed by educators, this personalized, interactive, and bilingual platform supports effective learning through fun, engaging content. Check out a BingePass through Hoopla's website or through the app.
| |
Amber Lay, Assistant Director/Adult Services Librarian
| | |
As the summer comes to a close, don’t forget to bring your Booked For Bikes slips back to the Bixby by August 16th! The grand prize drawing will take place on Vergennes Day, August 23rd, where we’ll find out which lucky reader will ride away with a brand-new bike. Make sure to keep working on your reading slips–our top readers will be invited to an exclusive pizza party here at the library!
There are plenty of fun youth events in store this August:
Join us for Taste Test: Taste The Rainbow on August 16th from 12-2 PM to close out our super colorful summer. We’ll be trying foods of all the colors of the rainbow–then guessing what color each one was! Limited spots are available, so please email me at shelby.gagne@bixbylibrary.org to secure yours.
Our furry friend, Elia the Therapy Dog, will be visiting once more on August 20th from 4:30-6:30 PM! Elia will be in the Children’s Room ready to listen to stories. This is a great opportunity for kids to practice their reading skills before returning to school this fall!
As the summer wraps up, be sure to check out our Golden Dome, Green Mountain, and Red Clover books that have come in to be prepared for the voting in the spring. It never hurts to start early!
| | |
Our Art Wall in the Children’s Room is looking wonderfully full right now with artwork from our weekly ArtDay Friday program. During ArtDays in July, we painted with puffy paint, shaped and created projects with air-dry clay, and found out what happened when we added lemon juice to our watercolor paintings.
In August, we have decorated a doorhanger and will try out some vegetable stamp painting, start sketchbooks, and discover some things we can paint using Q-tips and plastic forks. Drop in anytime between 12-2 PM on Fridays and get creative. Come to one or come to all!
| | |
About one week remains of Color Your Shelves, our 2025 Adult and Young Adult Summer Reading Challenge! Now through August 16th, read across genres and color in your bookshelf-bookmark as you go.
Read books in 3 of 6 genres to earn an art prize (embroidery kits, diamond art, coloring books & more), and read books in all 6 genres to win a $20 gift card to Vermont Cookie Love!
Already started? Keep coloring! Haven’t picked up your bookmark yet? Find one in the library lobby and start reading your way to sweet rewards. A few readers have already claimed their prizes and are off to enjoy cookies and creemees… yum!
| | | | | |
In this gripping coming-of-age novel, a teenage girl named Jane breaks free from a life of isolation and secrets in the Montana wilderness to uncover the truth about her past and forge her own identity. Raised by a charismatic but controlling father who idealizes self-sufficiency and intellectual rigor, Jane grows up in a world shaped entirely by his philosophies—nineteenth-century literature, distrust of society and technology, and a rigid devotion to solitude.
But beneath his carefully constructed utopia lies a darker truth, and as Jane begins to push against the boundaries he has imposed, she uncovers disturbing secrets that challenge everything she’s believed about him. When she realizes her love and loyalty have made her complicit in a terrible crime, she escapes to San Francisco, where the chaotic promise of the early Internet age mirrors her own awakening. With emotional depth and lyrical prose, What Kind of Paradise explores the dangerous pull of idealism, the unraveling of trust between parent and child, and the courageous, often painful path to discovering who we are beyond the stories we've been told.
Amber Lay, Assistant Director/Adult Services Librarian
| | | | |
Full of uniquely beautiful artwork, enjoyable rhymes, and a heartwarming story, this delightful children’s picture book follows Rene and Glumfoot as Rene's dreams of opening a café finally come true when she saves up enough beams to do so. Together with her new waiter, Glumfoot, Rene’s dreams come to a halt when nobody visits her café! However, with Glumfoot’s determination, guests finally show up, though they are mythical beasts!
This tale has elements of magic that are both beautiful and bright, while also giving a cozy autumnal vibe to the story. This is the perfect book to read as the days get shorter and the air gets colder. The Café at the Edge of the Woods is a Red Clover nominee for 2025-2026, and one that I imagine any child would love.
Shelby Gagne, Children & Youth Librarian
| | | | The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides | |
This captivating psychological thriller follows Theo, a psychotherapist who becomes consumed by the perplexing case of Alicia Berenson—a famous painter who inexplicably kills her husband and then falls completely silent. Haunted by his own troubled past and driven by a deep desire to help others, Theo is determined to break Alicia’s silence and uncover the truth behind the shocking act. As Theo becomes unhealthily immersed in her case, what began as a professional challenge morphs into a problematic web of obsession and personal reflection the deeper he digs.
The Silent Patient masterfully guides readers through intertwined themes of trauma, trust, control, and the bounds of human understanding and justification for one’s actions, leading up to a truly twisted revelation about the murder and the silence that follows.
Miranda Degreenia, Community Engagement Manager
| | | | |
A retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Goose Girl, this book is set in a low-fantasy world inspired by Regency England and explores the story of Cordelia, a shy young girl struggling under the weight of her mother’s oppressive magic and deadly schemes. Cordelia has been forced into obedience and isolated her entire life by her mother, gradually realizing that other mothers don’t make their daughters silent or puppet their daughters’ bodies. Her only respite—and only friend—is her mother’s horse Falada, a proud white stallion with an otherworldly beauty and intelligence.
After a shocking murder sends their town into uproar, Cordelia’s mother has them leave their home and arrive at the estate of a wealthy man, the Squire, who her mother intends to be her new benefactor. As Cordelia grows to understand just what her mother is willing to do to get her way, she begins to fear for the kindly older man and his unwed sister who lives with him and endeavors to find a way to save them from her mother. Full of thrilling twists, A Sorceress Comes to Call tells a masterfully-crafted story about learning to stand after a life of parental abuse and finding the courage to save others from your own greatest fear.
Patty McNerney, Summer Intern
| | |
Questions or comments on this month's newsletter?
Contact Bixby Bulletin Editor-in-Chief, Miranda Degreenia.
| | |
Library Hours:
Tuesday–Thursday: 10 AM–7 PM
Friday–Saturday: 10 AM–3 PM
(802) 877-2211
Contact Us
| | | | |
