Home » Children's Services

Children's Services

In addition to our collection of books, magazines, DVDs & videos, audiobooks on cassette & CD, and music for children the library offers:

The library's Picture Book Theater program was featured in a story last week in The Current.

Click here to read the story!

Virtual Story Time

Hear our children's librarian, Rachel Davis--as well as other area librarians--reading stories and teaching fingerplays on the Maine Humanities Council website. You can either listen to the podcasts on the "Humanities on Demand" section of their site, or download the podcasts through iTunes (search for "Humanities on Demand.")

Read to Ride Program

The Thomas Memorial Library participates in an ongoing reading program offered by Rye Airfield Skatepark in Rye, NH. The program, called Read to Ride, allows kids to earn a free day pass to Rye Airfield Skatepark (value of $33.00) for reading books. For each book read, participants need to do one of the following:

• Write a short (one to two paragraph) essay/review of the book
• Discuss the book with a librarian
• Draw a picture about the book

For each book read and reported on in this way, kids will earn one official Read to Ride bookmark; when they have earned five bookmarks, they can redeem them at Rye Airfield for a free All Day Pass. Every participant is encouraged to read as many books as they like in order to maximize the benefits of the program.

Rye Airfield is New England's premier skatepark and BMX track, located on Route One, in Rye, New Hampshire. For more information on the skatepark, please visit their website. Brochures about the skatepark and its policies, including safety and equipment guidelines, are available at the children's reference desk. Teens and school-aged kids may participate in this program. Stop by the children's reference desk to register.

Annual Summer Reading Program

The library offers a summer reading program each year, designed to encourage kids to keep reading during the long school break. Children keep track of the time they spend reading and earn prizes from the library's Treasure Chest. Children of any age may sign up--children who are not reading on their own may help keep track of books read aloud to them. The sign-up period for this year's program has ended. Kids have until the end of September to finish the program, however. Details on next year's program will be announced in the spring of 2011.

Special Events

The library offers a number of special events for children and families throughout the year, although most of them are scheduled in the summer months. Click here to view some highlights from this past summer's special events.

Public Computers

The Children's Library has four computers for public use, although one of the computers is reserved for searching the library's catalog only. In compliance with Federal Law, the computers have filtering software installed on them. Parents should be aware, however, that no software can completely screen out material that some parents may find objectionable. Parents are urged to supervise their children when they are using library computers.

In addition to Internet access, the computers in the Children's Library are equipped with the Microsoft Office suite of applications.

Parenting Collection

The library has a special parenting collection, located downstairs beneath the Children's Library and adjacent to the Community Room. The collection features books, magazines, videos & DVDs, and a small selection of audiobooks on cassette and CD. A Parent's Page for this website is under construction, so check back soon!

Reference Services

Library staff are always available to help children and parents with reference inquiries and help finding homework resources. Our children's reference collection includes general and subject encyclopedias, and a variety of other resources that can help children with research projects. Reference materials do not circulate, but a photocopier is available and the first 10 copies from any reference materials are free.