Portage Library to offer programs for all ages

HOUGHTON -- The Portage Lake District Library continues to offer programs for all ages.

At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 14, Lynn Watson, who is an Advanced Master Gardener and the head gardener at Michigan Technological University, will offer a continuation of her Houseplant Happiness series. Watson will have a variety of
houseplants to demonstrate and will explain dormancy, repotting, lighting, location, watering requirements and design. She will also explain why plants get sick and show what can be done to make them feel better. There will be hand-outs, and all plant enthusiasts are invited.

Kids! Can you do the Penguin Egg Walk? Find out at the very special Playful Penguin Storytime presented by singer/songwriter Ariel Lake at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16. Lake wrote and illustrated a story especially for this event. She will also perform on her guitar a song that she wrote for penguin lovers everywhere. Lake will share fascinating facts about penguins and lead the kids through special penguin games. The award winning film Happy Feet will also be shown. Kids are invited to bring their lunch, and popcorn will be served.

The library is the site of the 4-H Entrepreneurial Fun! program that will be offered in a series of four workshops for youth ages 12 - 19. Students will learn what it is like to turn an idea into a small business. Field work will include investigating local
businesses to learn how they started, and then students will set up a small business of their own. Workshops at the library will be held on Mondays -- Jan. 18 and 25 and Feb. 1 and 8 -- from 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. To register, call Carol Kreher at the 4-H office at 482-5830.

Area youth are invited to join the YA Book Club that meets at the library on the first Monday of each month from 7 p.m.-8 p.m. to discuss the book-of-the-month they have read. Students are currently reading the Newberry Honor Award book The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, and will meet on Feb. 1 to discuss it. Students may purchase books for the Club through the library at a discount. Facilitators for this program are Lois Berg and Christine Heppermann, who both hold MFA degrees in writing for children and young adults from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn.

Everyone is invited to attend these events, and library presentations are free. For more information, please call the library at 482-4570.