FOR ADULTS
Special Sunday Program—April 5th at 3pm
St. Helena Travel presents a “Travel Stimulus Package” to help you get through this time of doom and gloom, including ways to travel to 5-Star places on a 3-Star budget. Come learn about new travel options that can save you money. The presentation will also include an introduction to “slow travel,” not a mode of travel, but a mindset which can cure tourist burnout.
Monday Night Films
Join us every Monday evening at 7 pm for a free film: classics, favorites, oldies, goodies, and some newer ones you haven’t seen yet. Each month will include a thematic series of movie titles to entertain and captivate you. Our theme for April should put a spring in your step: British light situation comedies about people in villages.
April 6th: Greenfingers
A (green) thumbs-up for this affecting true-life tale about hardened con Colin Briggs (Clive Owen), who gets a new lease on life––behind prison bars––as an award-winning gardener. Wonderful supporting roles are David Kelly as a prisoner chum of Briggs’s who coaxes him out of his shell and Helen Mirren as a world-class gardener who fears for her daughter when she falls for Briggs.
April 13th: Saving Grace
Newly widowed Grace (Brenda Blethyn) finds herself in financial ruin when she discovers that her dearly departed husband has left her deep in debt from his failed get-rich-quick schemes. With the help of her gardener, Matt (Craig Ferguson), Grace turns her green thumb to growing ganja, and soon, everyone in her small English town is getting high on more than life. Director Nigel Cole’s comedy won the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award.
April 20th: Waking Ned Devine
How can dead Irishman Ned Devine collect his lottery winnings? Well, longtime cronies Jackie O’Shea (Ian Bannen) and Michael O’Sullivan (David Kelly) have the answer. After discovering that Ned croaked from the shock of hitting the jackpot, Jackie and Michael mastermind a scheme to impersonate the lucky stiff and collect his prize money. Now all they need to do is persuade the rest of the town’s residents to go along with the ruse.
April 27th: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain
Befuddled English cartographer Reginald Anson (Hugh Grant) and his corpulent partner George Garrard (Ian McNeice) upset an entire Welsh community when they arrive to measure the town’s peak and declare it 16 feet shy of mountain status. Incensed that their local landmark and source of civic pride is about to be downgraded to a hill, the townsfolk band together and devise an ambitious scheme to remedy the situation. Based on a true story.
Wednesday Events
Prerelease Film Night. On the first Wednesday of each month, we show an independent or foreign film that has been featured in a film festival but has not yet been widely released in theaters.
April 1st. Eldorado
Yvan and Elie are two loners who wander aimlessly through their lives. Yvan is a quick-tempered, 40-year-old vintage car dealer, while Elie is a young burglar and ex-junkie. One day Yvan catches Elie trying to rob him. Instead of beating him up, he becomes strangely attached to him and agrees to drive him home to his parents in his old Chevrolet. Yvan and Elie are both nostalgic about lost relationships, which is what leads them to undertake a bizarre journey through a region that is as spectacular as it is crazy. Both are trying to find the pieces of a puzzle that they want to put back together, but it might be too late. From Belgium; in French with English subtitles.
April 8th: Ekphrastic Expressions: The Merging of Art and Poetry
Janet Manalo, a mixed-media artist, and Suzanne Bruce, a poet, create unusual and stunning pieces of art that combine both painting and words. Come to see and hear––and enjoy––these works of art, and learn what the strange word ekphrasticism is all about. Join Janet and Suzanne at 6:30 pm for an opening reception of the gallery exhibit, on display at the library during April. RSVP requested for the reception.
Elsie’s Book Club. One Wednesday of each month is dedicated to a book discussion. The Book Club will meet the third Wednesday in April. You need not have read the book to participate.
April 15th: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
In April we will discuss this popular title by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It is January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of WWII, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. She finds it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, she is drawn into the world of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the German occupation. The book boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters. (Throughout April on Monday nights, we will be showing a series of movies set in the English countryside, as well.)
Check Elsie’s Book Club at http://shplbooks.wordpress.com/ for more information and reader comments.
April 22nd: Classical Guitarist Peter Fletcher
Enjoy a very special encore musical concert with award-winning classical guitarist Peter Fletcher, who has played Carnegie Hall three times. Fletcher will treat library patrons to selections from the Renaissance period through twentieth-century composers, including music that he has transcribed especially for classical guitar. RSVP requested.
April 29th: Gary Silva, Napa Valley’s Poet Laureate, and Friends
As Napa Valley’s Poet Laureate, Gary Silva has many friends––poets and poetry lovers alike. Come to hear Gary Silva read some of his works. He will be joined by two other well-known Napa Valley poets: Leonore Wilson and George Stratton. Book signings will take place at the end of the event. In celebration of National Poetry Month.
FOR CHILDREN
Kids’ Movies
Movies for children and teens take place every Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 pm in the Teen Room. Here are the selections for April.
April 1st: Bolt
Featuring the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, this animated adventure (nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar and Golden Globe) centers on a dashing German shepherd named Bolt, a canine actor. Forced into making an action-filled cross-country trek, he is accidentally shipped from Hollywood to New York. Believing that he and his fictional character are one and the same, Bolt gets a glimpse of what it takes to be a hero in the real world.
April 8th: Bedtime Stories
Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) is a down-on-his-luck guy who is always telling bedtime stories to his niece and nephew, and whose life is turned upside down when these fantastical stories suddenly turn into reality. All the outrageous characters and situations that Skeeter has ever imagined have morphed into actual people and events in his life. Can he manage his own unruly fantasies now that they’ve come true?
April 15th: Tale of Despereaux
Despereaux (voiced by Matthew Broderick) is different from other mice: he reads books, has ears too big for his too-small body, and loves the human Princess Pea (Emma Watson). With his friend, a rat named Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), Despereaux sets out to escape the castle dungeon and win the girl of his dreams. Sigourney Weaver, William H. Macy, and Kevin Kline also lend their voices to this adaptation of Kate DiCamillo’s Newberry Medal-winning books.
April 22nd: Misty
This 1961 family film, recently released on DVD, is based on the novel by Marguerite Henry. The story inspired a generation of children to name their pet dogs, cats, turtles, and so on after the lovely colt of the title. Set on Virginia’s coastal island of Chincoteague, the film begins on “Pony-Penning Day,” an annual celebration that involves rounding up for auction wild ponies on neighboring islands. Two young children, a brother and sister (David Ladd, son of Alan, and Pam Smith), capture an elusive mare nicknamed Phantom and hope to take ownership of her colt, Misty. A stranger has other plans, however, setting his mind on buying both animals, and the disappointed kids turn to the sympathetic townspeople to find a way out of the dilemma. A great-looking film shot on location, Misty is an effusive adventure about that special, even mythic, bond between children and wild creatures. Performances are strong, the scenery is splendid, and the film lingers in the memory for a long, long time.
April 29th: Because of Winn-Dixie
A lonely 10-year-old girl (Annasophia Robb) adopts an orphaned dog, Winn-Dixie (named for the supermarket where she found him), who helps her make friends in a small Florida town. The inseparable bond between the girl and her beloved companion unites the townspeople and helps heal her own troubled relationship with her father. Directed by Wayne Wang, the movie also stars Jeff Daniels, Eva Marie Saint, and Cicely Tyson.
Children of all ages and their adults are invited to join children’s librarian Leslie Stanton three times a week for storytime. Storytime includes books, music, crafts, and more.
Weekly Storytimes for Preschoolers:
Tuesdays 10:30 am
Wednesdays 12 pm (Bilingual—en español)
Fridays 10 am
School-age Story & Craft time: Fridays 3:15 pm
PAWS FOR READING
Tuesdays 4 pm
Children are invited to come to the library and read to a special friend—a canine one! Come pick out a good book and practice your reading skills on a great (furry) listener.
SPRING BREAK CRAFT SERIES Daily, April 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, 1-3pm.
Are you worried that your kids will be bored during spring break? Are you looking for something for them to do with all those hours of leisure while you wait for school to start again? Look no further!
The library will be offering daily craft programs throughout spring break. Kids are invited to visit every afternoon, Monday through Friday, to participate in a special art program from 1-3 pm.
Drop in any time during the two-hour session to create something fun and exciting.
