Kids of all ages are invited to join us on the grounds of the Library for old-fashioned carnival games, live entertainment, and food. Play free games and win prizes!

Details.

Explore the splendor of autumn through songs, listening, musical stories, creative movement and instruments with Miss Melinda from The Music School of Delaware.

Details.

Details.

Let's learn about our Community Helpers! We'll gather outside in the library's backyard to get an up-close look at some of the trucks and vehicles in our community, and talk to the people who drive them.

No registration required.

Details.

Homeschool Connection | The Science of Skating

Participants will learn about the history of skating, and how engineering (and reverse engineering) play a part in that history. Participants will then work in groups of up to four, using reverse engineering to better see how the skate plate is built. Time permitting, participants will take what they have learned and begin the design process of creating a new feature for a roller-skate (or improving an existing feature).

***PLEASE REGISTER SO WE HAVE ENOUGH MATERIALS FOR ALL***

Details.

Workout with your stroller-aged kiddo(s) in tow at MamaTot's Halloween-themed stroller-based workout. Mama will receive an incredible workout while interacting with her child from the safety of their stroller. Water bottles and a yoga mat/towel are recommended.

No registration required.

Details.

Join us on in our backyard for a family-friendly evening of not-too-scary ghost stories and a costume parade around the fire pit. The Lewes Historical Society will be on hand to tell the tales. Wear your Halloween costume, and bring chairs or a blanket to sit on.

Please register just the children attending. We will have treat bags to send home with you, and we want to make enough.

Details and registration.

Come learn about fire safety with us. We'll learn to Stop, Drop & Roll, and watch a real Lewes Fire Department firefighter get dressed in his or her gear.

No registration required.

Enjoy books, music, and fingerplays for preschoolers.

No registration required.

I Spy

Check out our library story time visits on our YouTube Channel.

The Imagination Library provides FREE books by mail for children ages birth up to 5, throughout Delaware, to develop the habit of reading, and to develop the library habit, too!

Magic: The Gathering is a fantasy tabletop card game open to teens 12 and up. It meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday in the Quiet Room.

Please bring your own Magic card deck. If you do not have one, you can borrow one from the club.

Registration is requested.

Details and registration.

Details.

Details and registration.

Tuesday, October 11 | 6:00 PM | In-person

Ever wanted to learn how to edit pictures on Adobe Photoshop? In this one-hour program, teens will learn how to manage files on Photoshop, basic navigation through Adobe Photoshop and Bridge, and will get a chance to make their own edits to a photo.

Registration is required. This is a teen program for ages 12+.  

Details and registration.

Lewes Public Library's Girls Who Code club provides a completely free plug-and-play curriculum and resources to encourage girls’ participation in STEM as they prepare for college and careers. Girls build important life skills as they join a sisterhood of supportive peers and role models and learn how to use computer science to positively impact their community. Students will also learn about inspiring female role models in tech to help increase female representation in our STEM programming. During a quarterly session, Girls Who Code will work on several projects using Scratch and Python programming, animations, chatbots, and so much more.

Details and registration.

Thursday, October 13 | 6:00 PM | In-person

Details and registration.

Friday, October 14 | 10:00 AM | In-person

Sylvan Learning Center of Lewes offers a FREE SAT/ACT practice test hosted by the Library. Practice tests will take place in the Computer Training Room. Tests are 3-4 hours long.

Space is limited so registration is required. 

Details and registration.

The Lewes Public Library Spoken Word Society is hosting Poe on Stage, a Writing and Performance Seminar for Adults and High School Students. In coordination with a scheduled dramatic reading of several stories and poems by Edgar Allen Poe, participants will read and discuss the stories and poems, identify their favorites, and develop those texts into scripts for staged performances. Finally, the group will prepare and perform their work for a live audience.

Details and registration.

Thursday, October 20 | 6:00 PM | In-person

R.O.O.T.S Youth Development Program will teach teens the basics of composting.

Participants will learn what compost is, how we use it, how it is made, how it produces less waste, and what it does for the soil. Play an interactive game to sort through materials and learn how to determine what is compostable and what is not.

Each teen will be given materials to make an origami compost bag to take home so they can start composting right away. Teens will also be given instructions on how to start their own composting pile starting with the materials gathered in their orgami compost bag.

Details and registration.

Registration required. Details and registration.

Tuesday, October 25 | 6:00 PM | In-person

The Library is now offering VEX Robotics! We invite you to a presentation about VEX and how you can join in on the fun. There is very limited space for this program; participants at this presentation will get the first chance to apply for the VEX program.

VEX Robotics is a robotics program for elementary through university students and a subset of Innovation First International. Students build, code, and manipulate their own technological designs to apply innovative ideas that improve existing processes. Educational robotics allows students to practice the engineering design process.

Details and registration.

Teen Movie Night | Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Thursday, October 27 | 6:00 PM | In-person

In the spirit of Halloween, this month's teen movie is Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019). This film has been rated PG-13.

Click here for more information about this movie and its rating.

It's 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind...but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time -- stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah's terrifying home.

Registration is required for this program. Must be 12+ to participate.

Details and registration.

Saturday, October 29 | 11:00 AM | In-person

It is time for our annual teen Pumpkin Carving Contest! Come enjoy hot apple cider and other fall treats while hanging out with friends. This year, if you want, wear your Halloween costume and be entered into the costume contest for best costume. All pumpkins and materials for carving will be supplied.

We will vote on a winner who will receive a prize for the best carving and the costume! This program will take place on the library's patio.

Registration is required.

Details and registration.

Saturdays | 12:00 PM | In-person

Details and registration.

Conversation with Jeffrey Breslow | A Game Maker's Life

Join us online for a conversation with Jeffrey Breslow, author of A Game Maker's Life: A Hall of Fame Game Inventor and Executive Tells the Inside Story of the Toy Industry.

Details and registration.

Conversation with Dan Shortridge and Rachel Kipp | Secret Delaware

Back by popular demand - join us in-person at the library or online for a conversation with Dan Shortridge and Rachel Kipp, authors of Secret Delaware: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. An "armchair guide" to Delaware history, it contains more than 80 stories about little-known narratives, oddities, attractions and ephemera from the First State's past and present.

Details and registration.

Conversation with Bill Shaffer | The Scandalous Hamiltons

Join us online for a conversation with Bill Shaffer, author of The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Fathers Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism, a story almost too tawdry to be true.

An Alexander Hamilton heir, a beautiful female con artist, an abandoned baby, and the shocking courtroom drama that was splashed across front pages from coast to coast—this is the fascinating true story behind one of the greatest scandals of the Gilded Age, and the story that gave rise to the sensational tabloid journalism still driving so much of the news cycle in the 21st century.

Details and registration.

Conversation with Elisabeth Griffith | Formidable

Join us in-person in the library or online for a conversation with Elisabeth Griffith, author of Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920-2020, the history of the struggle by both Black and white women to achieve their equal rights. Joining Elisabeth in conversation is Ann Compton, former news reporter and White House correspondent for ABC News.

Details and registration.

Conversation with Jennifer Coburn | Cradles of the Reich

Join us in-person in the library or online for a conversation with Jennifer Coburn, author of Cradles of the Reich, a historical novel about three very different women living at a Nazi Lebensborn breeding home at the start of World War II.

Details and registration.

Conversation with Josh Hitchens | Haunted History of Philadelphia

Join us in-person in the library or online for a conversation with Josh Hitchens, author of Haunted History of Philadelphia, which details the spooky stories of Philadelphia's past and present. Together we will discover the historic haunts and frightful specters that make the city of brotherly love a haven for unexplained phenomena.

Details and registration.

Conversation with Miriam Scharfman Zadek | Miriam Hearing Sister

Join us for a conversation with Miriam Scharfman Zadek, author of Miriam Hearing Sister: A Memoir, which documents her experiences growing up in a family with both deaf and hearing members from the 1930s through World War II and beyond. Throughout this journey, she presents a narrative of historical and cultural importance centered on the lives of deaf and hearing Jewish people in the mid-twentieth century.

Co-sponsored by Seaside Jewish Community. American Sign Language interpretation and closed captioning will be available during this event.

Details and registration.

Conversation with Stacey D’Erasmo | The Complicities

Join us in-person in the library or online for a conversation with Stacey D’Erasmo, award-winning author of The Complicities, a haunting and emotionally affecting story about a woman trying to rebuild her life after her husband’s arrest, and what she knew— or pretended not to know — about where their family’s money came from. Joining Stacey in conversation is Suzanne Thurman of the Marine Education, Research, and Rehabilitation Institute (MERR).

Details and registration.

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUPS

Cooks & Books - Quick and Easy Spanish Recipes

No registration required. Stop by the Circulation Desk to choose a recipe from this month's cookbook, Quick and Easy Spanish Recipes by Simone and Inés Ortega

Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift

A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a two-hundred-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction.

Details and registration.

The American Association of University Women Coastal-Georgetown Branch sponsors a Notable Books discussion.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun from Nobel-winner Kazuo Ishiguro is a radiant novel about the bond between Klara, an Artificial Friend, and Josie, her human companion.

Details and registration.

Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit

The library is pleased to host Browseabout Book Club, celebrating its 25th year, discusses works of literary fiction, poetry, non-fiction and a range of genres. Book lovers welcome any time during the season. This month's selection is Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit, a reflection on George Orwell’s passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and on the intertwined politics of nature and power.

Details and registration.

I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán

Join us in the library or online for a Delaware Community Foundation Book Circle Discussion on I Never Thought of It That Way: How To Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Copies of the book are available at the Circulation Desk, on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted—twice—for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Mónica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool we’re not using: our own built-in curiosity. Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we’re right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society.

Details and registration.

Just as I Am: A Memoir by Cicely Tyson + a movie of your choice with Cicely Tyson

The Academy, Tony, and Emmy Award-winning actor and trailblazer tells her stunning story, looking back at her life and six-decade career.

Details and registration.

Longbourn by Jo Baker

The servants take center stage in this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice.

Details and registration.

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

The heartrending story of a mid-century American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.

Details and registration.

Sign up for the Library’s BookLetters newsletters by email.

Details and registration.

Details and registration.

Details and registration.

These groups are made possible by the support of Roy Fitzgerald and Jennie Keith.

English Conversation Group

Details and registration.

Details and registration.

Details and registration.

Friday, October 28 | 10:30 AM ET | In-person | La Rafle

Registration is requested but not required. This video is available to borrow through the library's digital service, Hoopla.

Details and registration.

Registration is not required. Attendees are strongly encouraged to wear a mask.

Details.

Weekly meeting of the Rehoboth Beach Writers' Guild Poetry FreeWrite. ​Explore your writing passion! Attending a Free Write is a fun, low commitment way to dip your toes into the writing pool. Writers at all levels are welcome; you do not need to be a member to attend.

Details.

Details and registration.

FreeWrite! is an weekly informal gathering of writers of ALL skill levels who meet to practice their writing in a friendly and nurturing atmosphere. The goal of the FreeWrites is to provide a place and an opportunity for people to have fun with their writing, to explore different genres, and to do this in the company of other writing enthusiasts. Registration is not required.

Co-sponsored by Rehoboth Beach Writers' Guild

Details.

Details and registration.

Did you know approximately 16% of the US population is 65 and over but here in Sussex, the over 65 population accounts for almost 30% of the population? Join Jo-Ann Vega for a look at the recently released 1950 census followed by a lively discussion on how the country has changed since 1950. This includes an examination of population growth and demographic shifts. 

Details and registration.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, and commissioning was completed in early July 2022. With its 6.5 meter golden eye, and cameras and spectrometers covering 0.6 to 28 µm (microns), Webb is already producing magnificent images of galaxies, active galactic nuclei, star-forming regions, and planets. Dr. John Mather will describe how the Webb telescope was built and what we hope to find. Webb is a joint project of NASA with the European and Canadian space agencies.

Details and registration.

Join us in the library for a presentation by the Alzheimer’s Association on the 10 warning signs of Alzheimer’s. This workshop will cover:

Details and registration.

Stealing identities and other data has become BIG business! Learn ways to safeguard your identity while still using the Internet.

This workshop is presented by The Delaware Department of Technology and Information and is designed for Senior Citizens.

Details and registration.

The Lewes Public Library Spoken Word Society is hosting Poe on Stage, a Writing and Performance Seminar for Adults and High School Students. In coordination with a scheduled dramatic reading of several stories and poems by Edgar Allen Poe, participants will read and discuss the stories and poems, identify their favorites, and develop those texts into scripts for staged performances. Finally, the group will prepare and perform their work for a live audience.

Details and registration.

Details.

It is important to gain the skills to differentiate legitimate activities from scams that seem to be real. Join us to learn about current scams and what you can do to not become a victim. This workshop is presented by The Delaware Department of Technology and Information and is designed for Senior Citizens.

Details and registration.

Join us in the library for Jo-Ann Vega's 2nd Annual Celebrating Italian American Series, highlighting Lee Iacocca, born in Allentown, PA to Italian immigrants from the Campania region of Italy. He was known for his leadership at Ford [think Mustang] and Chrysler, and responsible for the restoration of Liberty and Ellis Islands.

Details and registration.

Details and registration.

Join us in the library for a presentation by the Alzheimer’s Association on understanding Alzheimer’s and dementia. This workshop will cover:

Details and registration.

Presented by instructors with The Money School, a program of the Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council (DCRAC).

Registration required. Walk-ins welcome, as space allows.

This class examines various tax issues related to retirees, including how Social Security benefits are taxed, Medicare premiums, RMD's (Required Minimum Distributions), charitable giving, and other tax-related items.

Details and registration.

Details and registration.

Social security can be hard to understand. The system is complex and the rules keep changing. To make the most of your social security benefits, it is important to stay up-to-date on the latest changes. Join us for a Money School seminar to learn about seven key things to watch for to maximize your Social Security benefits in 2022.

Details and registration.

Annuities are some of the most complex investment instruments ever created. This class presents an unbiased and educational look at how annuities work, the different types and features of annuities, as well as the benefits and downsides to each.

Details and registration.

This Money School class focuses on steps to take so assets transfer at death, to the intended beneficiaries by operation of law, immediately and automatically. This class teaches how to prepare an estate in such a manner that the entire probate process can be avoided and the will never comes into play.

Details and registration.

Details and registration.

Since 2015, the award-winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company (ELTC) has been presenting what has become a yearly ritual for many: "Poe by Candlelight." Held on only one night annually near Halloween, it involves ELTC actors reading their favorite stories and poems penned by the master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe. The Lewes Public Library Spoken Word Society now brings this remarkable piece to our community.

Details and registration.

Click here for more information or to access Kanopy with your Delaware library card!

Meeting rooms in the library are available for use by outside groups, as outlined on our website under Meeting Room Descriptions.

Looking for a job? Need a career change? Hoping to land a better job? Re-entering the work force? This FREE program offers resources designed to help you be successful.

Schedule a FREE 30 minute phone consultation! An Employment/Career Advisor will call you at the appointed time to discuss any questions you have regarding career and related needs.

A certified Consumer Health Information Specialist is here to help you!

a trained staff person is available to help with:

Services are free, confidential, and available to everyone. More information here. _____________________________________________

Mid-Atlantic Hearing Organization is offering free hearing screenings for anyone age 5 years or older at the Library. Screenings take about 5 minutes. No appointment is necessary.

Mid-Atlantic Hearing Organization is a non-profit organization run by local audiologists who provide hearing screenings and donated hearing aids for qualifying individuals.

Details.

Representatives from the League of Women Voters of Sussex County, Delaware will have a table in the lobby. They will provide information and answer questions.

Representatives from the The Delaware Department of Technology and Information will have a table in the lobby. They will provide information and answer questions.

Representatives from the Delaware Senior Medical Patrol will have a table in the lobby. They will provide information and answer questions.

What's New at Lewes Public Library | Come Visit the Friends Shop

See how the Friends of the Lewes Public Library supports the library's collections and programs with the Just Between Friends Shop. There you can purchase new and used books, and start your holiday shopping with lots of gifts to choose from.

Check out this video of the Shop and all we offer!

Friends is able to accept up to 10 donated books per person. Due to volunteer and space limitations, this donation limit will be in effect for the near term. Thank you for understanding.

Before bringing in your donations, please review our Book Donation Policy to determine whether we can accept the items.

The library is free to use, but running it is not. As an independent library, every year the Lewes Public Library must raise 50% of its annual operating budget.

If you value your local library and appreciate everything it does for your community, your friends, family, and neighbors, please consider supporting the library.