It’s the most wonderful time of the year: cheer abounds, snow is in the forecast, and winter is upon us — and with it, The Westport Library’s Winter Reading Challenges for all ages!
There’s nothing better than cozying up with a good book in the colder months, which is exactly why we’ve decided to carry over the momentum from our most successful Adult Summer Reading Challenge to date. This season, take part in our very first Adult Winter Reading Challenge!
Adults don’t get to have all the fun: Kids and their families also will have an opportunity to take advantage of their reading lists this season with our Winter Reading Program for Families.
Whether you’re up to the challenge of checking boxes for all our respective categories over six weeks, or you just want to take your time and dive into a good book, everyone is invited to read along with our vibrant community at The Westport Library this winter.
2024-2025 Adult Winter Reading Challenge
Our very first Adult Winter Reading Challenge started in December and runs through Friday, January 31.
If you’ve participated in our past reading challenges, you’ll be familiar with the rules — and if this is your first time joining us, we're glad to have you!
Inspire your reading with 10 interesting categories. Tackle all of them, just one, or anything in between. The main goal is to enjoy your reading!
There are only two rules:
Once you've finished a book that fits a category, you can submit it through the form on our website. Track your progress on our leaderboard, where you can follow the challenge’s rankings and see what other participants are reading.
You can also dive deeper with your fellow readers by joining our Westport Reading Challenge Facebook Group to discuss books, share recommendations, and stay motivated throughout the challenge.
If you’re on the fence about joining, trust the reviews from our summer participants, who said, "The summer reading program reminded me how much I love to read, and I want to experience this joy every season!"
So, are you up for the challenge this winter? We can't wait to see what you'll read!
Winter Reading Program for Families
From Thursday, January 16, through Sunday, March 16, children and families of all ages are invited to participate in our annual Winter Reading Program.
The objective of this program is simple: read anything, anytime, anywhere, as much as you like!
Reading will be measured in minutes — so every minute you spend reading counts toward your goal. From books, to comics, to magazines, poems, or even the back of a cereal box, read what you like and tally up all your time spent reading for a chance to earn free books!
Register online starting January 16 and get your activity sheet and six fox dot stickers from the Children’s Library to begin your reading journey. You can use these color-coded stickers to contribute to our communal art piece throughout the program. The more you read, the more stickers you’ll receive, with everyone’s stickers merging to create a beautiful picture to enjoy in the Library this winter!
Keep track of your minutes read and make sure to log them online throughout the season. Every 50 minutes spent reading will earn participants an additional six stickers. You can also earn a book of your choosing from our prize cart selection by reading a total of 500 minutes or completing all 10 activities on your activity sheet.
Most importantly, read what you enjoy — you might find your new favorite book!
Come read with us: December 21 - January 31
Calling all book lovers! We’ve got some great news — our Summer Reading Challenge was such a hit that we're launching our very first Winter Reading Challenge!
For those who've joined us before, welcome back! The rules for this challenge are the same. If this is your first time, we're glad to have you! We've put together 10 interesting categories to inspire your reading this winter. Feel free to tackle all of them, just one, or anything in between. The main goal is to enjoy your reading!
The Rules (just two, we promise):
Once you've finished a book that fits a category, submit it through the form on our website. You can always track your progress and see what others are reading on our community leaderboard. And there’s more — want to connect with fellow readers? Join our Westport Reading Challenge Facebook Group to discuss books, share recommendations, and stay motivated throughout the challenge.
Stay tuned for links to our book form, categories, and leaderboard, coming December 21.
So, are you ready to cozy up with some great books this winter? We can't wait to see what you'll read!
The Westport Library and Westport Country Playhouse present Matthew Greene in conversation about his new mystery, There's No Murder Like Show Murder.
Tasha Weaver has seen her fair share of divas come and go while working as the costume shop head at the Eastbrook Playhouse, but her beloved theater is put at risk when the star of the show is killed in this fun but deadly debut.
Weaver is most at home in the cozy backstage world of the Eastbrook Playhouse. As the costume shop head at the charming regional theater, she’s used to watching dramatic acts of love and revenge from the shadows. But when Kurt Mozer — the insufferable Broadway reject who stars in their production of Annie Get Your Gun — is shot center stage, the spotlight turns to her. With the help of her friends, her longtime crush Bruno Machado, and her feline colleague Hilly, Tasha must catch a murderer before the shining lights of the playhouse go out forever.
“Theater fans will appreciate the behind-the-scenes knowledge, along with the small details so essential to the atmosphere of this cozy mystery.” —Library Journal, starred review
“Greene’s deep dive behind the scenes will tempt mystery fans and theater buffs alike.” —Kirkus
“This former Thespian gives There’s No Murder Like Show Murder a standing ovation. M.S. Greene’s cozy debut is a bona fide hit. Four stars!” —Frank Anthony Polito, award-winning author of Rehearsed to Death
NoveList Plus
Get the Right Book for You
The start of June means summer is on the horizon, and The Westport Library has a pair of challenges to make sure any and every reader — of any and every age — has the opportunity to bury their nose in a book during the year’s warmest months.
So, whether you’re looking for something to read on vacation, at the beach, or on your couch, or whether you want to make sure your kids or grandkids stay sharp and build their literacy skills during the break, we have a challenge and a club for you.
Adult Summer Reading Challenge
The 8th Annual Adult Summer Reading Challenge runs June 1 through August 31.
The rules are the same as past challenges, this year with a fresh round of 25 categories (the categories will be unveiled June 1). You can do all of them or only one, or anything in between, just as long as you have fun reading!
The rules are simple and there are only two:
Once you have read a book that fulfills a category, you can submit it via the form on our website (also available starting June 1) and track your progress on our leaderboard.
The leaderboard is where you can see what everyone else is reading and give recommendations to our community of readers. You can also join our Westport Reading Challenge Facebook Group and talk books all summer long.
Why should you join the challenge? Because as Rita L., one of last year’s participants, said: “The Westport Library’s Summer Reading Challenge is one of the best in the state! I love seeing what everyone else is reading and getting ideas about books that I end up LOVING but never would have read otherwise! Reading is my favorite hobby, and the Summer Reading Challenge takes me to the next level every year!”
Kids’ Summer Reading Club 2024
Starting Saturday, June 1, children may sign up for our Summer Reading Program, which continues through Labor Day weekend, wrapping up September 2.
Read anything, anytime, anywhere all summer long.
Register online and keep track of minutes read. For every 100 minutes, you can decorate a summer sun that will be displayed in the Library. Earn a treat from Shake Shack at 500 minutes. When you reach 1,000 minutes, you can choose a book to keep from our selection of titles.
For more summer fun and prizes, stop in the Children’s Library to play summer bingo and earn more free books.
Heyo, Readers! It is SUMMER READING CHALLENGE time! Cue the music and the fireworks for year 7!
If you have participated in the past, welcome back-- the rules are all the same. If this is your first time joining us, we're thrilled to have you, and we've got a fresh round of 25 great categories to keep you busy this summer. You can do all of them or only one, or anything in between, just as long as you have fun reading! Challenge yourself; we dare you!
Once you have read a book that fulfills a category, you can submit it via the form on our website and keep track of your progress on our leaderboard.
The leaderboard is an awesome place to see what everyone else is reading, and give recommendations to our community of readers. You can also join our Westport Reading Challenge Facebook Group and talk books all summer long.
2023 Summer Reading Challenge
2023 Summer Reading Challenge Leaderboard
Learn more about the unjust incarceration of Bobby, a boy from New Haven who was wrongly convicted of a murder in 2006 from Nicholas Dawidoff and his book, The Other Side of Prospect: A Story of Violence, Injustice, and the American City. He will be in conversation with Althea Seaborn.
Please let us know if you'll be joining the discussion by registering here. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
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Dawidoff, a New Haven native, returned to the city and dedicated eight years to researching and writing this book. Urban decay, white flight, redlining — the transformation of Newhallville, in Dawidoff’s telling, make these symptoms of racist neglect vividly clear. As Bobby says, “Lack of jobs. Men don’t know how to be. That’s the tragedy of our world.” Without present fathers or after-school activities, boys find power and agency in guns — for example, in the case of the suspected murderer of Fields, a young man named Major who completes the book’s group portrait.
Bobby was caught in this world, but he didn’t murder Fields. Why did he confess? There’s a long history, we learn, of marginalized Americans falsely confessing. Dawidoff’s account of Bobby’s years in prison illustrates the national tragedy of mass incarceration, how it depersonalizes crime and punishment, failing to see the accused as individuals. He uncovers Bobby’s “world inside a world ... people whose second chance was giving him a second chance” — older inmates who led a book club devoted to James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and other writers who offer insight into Bobby’s world.
Miraculously, Bobby won his release from prison in 2015, aided by a dogged white lawyer, who discovered the case and fought to prove his innocence. Suddenly reentering the outside world as an adult when he’d left it as a child, Bobby struggles to adjust without the structure of prison.
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Nicholas Dawidoff is the critically acclaimed author of five books, including The Catcher Was a Spy and In the Country of Country. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has also been a Guggenheim, Berlin Prize, and Art for Justice Fellow.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Hartford Courant
JSTOR
Nexis Uni
Westporters write books on a wide variety of subjects in all sorts of genres. Authors Eve Nadel Catarevas and James Noble will share their new books - a biography and a coming-of age novel with our community. Saugatuck Scribes is a series that showcases Westport writers and their newest books.
In Eve Nadel Catarevas' children's biography, she tells the story of Rena Glickman, Queen of Judo, who was a Jewish girl who grew up to become the preeminent female judo master of her time, overcoming many obstacles. At a time when judo was a sport strictly for boys and men, Rusty was determined to practice the sport she loved. James Noble's second novel, Feels Like the First Time, continues the story of Jimmy Foxton, a teen in 1976. He has to contend with high school insecurities, love, and keg parties.
Please let us know you're attending. Books will be available to purchase at the event.
Eve Nadel Catarevas always loved to write and started a newsletter for the kids in her Connecticut neighborhood when she was eight,
featuring the “Best Backyards for Sledding” report, tips on houses to avoid on Halloween (pencils, popcorn balls, APPLES!), which raspberry patches were surrounded by poison ivy, and updates on how many more Bazooka Joe bubble gum comics she needed for that itty-bitty, fits-in-the-palm-of your-hand spy camera. It wasn’t until she began writing about little-known historical figures that she truly found her sweet spot. Discovering them, dusting them off and sharing their achievements with others was a turning point. They’ve been educational for her as well, and she’s planning to continue bringing their inspirational stories to light. Eve lives in Westport with two- and four-legged family members. Her debut non-fiction picture book, Rena Glickman, Queen of Judo was released in May and Wonderful Hair: The Beauty of Annie Malone will be published in October.
James Noble began writing and filming short screenplays in junior high school. In high school in Westport, he wrote a full length screenplay that got him accepted into the New York University Film School. Thus, he began a storied career as an advertising copywriter. He then found himself writing commercials and print campaigns for some of the most influential companies in the world. Disney, Apple, and Kia to name a few. Along the way he has shot commercials on every continent and had the fortune to work with celebrities like Ellen Degeneres, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks. Noble also won numerous awards in just about every advertising show on the planet. In 2018 he wrote his first book Nine Tana Leaves and now presents his sequel.
These books are perfect for:
