Library News

January 9, 2025

FDL Reads: Serviceberry

Jacob reviews a nonfiction book about the deep connections between nature, culture, and the wisdom of Indigenous practices.
January 3, 2025

Best-Selling Teen Manga of 2024

It's time to look at the best-sellers of 2024! Manga is a worldwide industry worth over $15 million in the United States alone, and teens are becoming the top audience!

Upcoming Events

This event is in the "School-aged Children" group.

PokĂŠmon Club Session #1

4:00pm - 5:00pm
School-aged Children
Registration Full
Registration
Library Branch: Fondulac District Library
Room: Story & Craft Room
Age Group: School-aged Children
Program Type: Gaming
Registration Required
Seats Remaining: 0
Event Details:

Do you want to be the very best? Stop by for some PokĂŠmon Trading Card Game fun. Kids are encouraged to bring their TCG cards to battle and trade with other trainers. New players welcome!

This event is in the "School-aged Children" group.

PokĂŠmon Club Session #2

10:00am - 11:00am
School-aged Children
Waitlist
Registration
Library Branch: Fondulac District Library
Room: Story & Craft Room
Age Group: School-aged Children
Program Type: Gaming
Registration Required
Seats Remaining: 0
Event Details:

Do you want to be the very best? Stop by for some PokĂŠmon Trading Card Game fun. Kids are encouraged to bring their TCG cards to battle and trade with other trainers. New players welcome!

This event is in the "Adults" group.

90's Pizza Party

2:00pm - 4:00pm
Adults
Registration Open
Registration
Library Branch: Fondulac District Library
Room: Civic Complex Room 111/112
Age Group: Adults
Program Type: Special Events
Registration Required
Seats Remaining: 1
Event Details:

Do you miss the 90’s? Well step back in time and come join us for a 90’s Pizza Party! Play Nintendo, design your own snap bracelet, make a friendship bracelet, answers some 90’s trivia, play Simon, enjoy a game of MASH, and much more!

Disclaimer(s)

Open Food Present as Part of Program

Patrons will be handling open food as part of this program. The library intends to keep this event as safe as possible but cannot guarantee that food handled at this program has no allergens and has not come into contact with allergens. Please contact the library with any questions concerning potential allergens.

This event is in the "Teens" group.
This event is in the "Adults" group.

Sit & Stitch After Dark

6:00pm - 7:30pm
Teens, Adults
Library Branch: Fondulac District Library
Room: Kolb Memorial Conference Room
Age Group: Teens, Adults
Program Type: Arts & Crafts
Event Details:

Sit & Stitch…at NIGHT!  One Monday night each month, share ideas and skills while making new friends.  Bring your own counted cross stitch, quilting, applique, knitting or crochet projects and supplies.  This is n

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "Babies & Toddlers" group.
This event is in the "Preschoolers" group.
This event is in the "School-aged Children" group.

Loud N' Proud Storytime

12:00pm - 12:45pm
Children, Babies & Toddlers, Preschoolers, School-aged Children
Library Branch: Fondulac District Library
Room: Story & Craft Room
Age Group: Children, Babies & Toddlers, Preschoolers, School-aged Children
Program Type: Storytimes

A great storytime for all the energetic kids out there! We will dance, sing, let the kids shout, and of course find some time for a couple stories! Every storytime will have a fun theme that is always accompanied by a game or activity at the end!

Disclaimer(s)

Accompanying Adults

This program is designed for children and accompanying adults. Please plan to attend and be engaged with your child for this program. 

Open Food Present as Part of Program

Patrons will be handling open food as part of this program. The library intends to keep this event as safe as possible but cannot guarantee that food handled at this program has no allergens and has not come into contact with allergens. Please contact the library with any questions concerning potential allergens.

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "School-aged Children" group.

DIY Snowglobes

6:00pm - 7:00pm
Children, School-aged Children
Waitlist
Registration
Library Branch: Fondulac District Library
Room: Story & Craft Room
Age Group: Children, School-aged Children
Program Type: Arts & Crafts
Registration Required
Seats Remaining: 0
Event Details:

We'll have glitter galore to make your own winter wonderland in a jar! It is optional to bring along a small favorite photo to laminate and stand up in the jar.

FDL Features

Young woman holding an urn against a pink background

I'm Glad My Mom Died

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. 

Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

close up of a hand opening a book against a dark backgroud

The Woman in the Library

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

"Investigations are launched, fingers are pointed, potentially dangerous liaisons unfold and I was turning those pages like there was cake at the finish line." --Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times must-read books for summer 2022

Ned Kelly award winning author Sulari Gentill sets this mystery-within-a-mystery in motion with a deceptively simple, Dear Hannah, What are you writing? pulling us into the ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library.

In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning--it just happens that one is a murderer.

Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

What readers are saying about The Woman in the Library:

"I loved this intelligent, high tension, addictive, unputdownable book so much!"

"I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!"

"This is a smart, well-written whodunit with an interesting cast of characters and a well-developed plot."

"A murder mystery that starts off in a crowded library full of book lovers? SIGN ME UP!"

"What an outstanding job and literary work in the crime-fiction genre!"

Image for "The Women"

The Women

A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times!

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam. 

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

Image for "Ready or Not"

Ready or Not

A surprise pregnancy leads to even more life-changing revelations in this “absolutely buoyant read” (Elle).

“Bastone delivers on this truly heartwarming, funny, and real story. Come for the dog bar, stay for the special, slow-burn romcom.”—Abby Jimenez, New York Times bestselling author

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Elle

Eve Hatch lives for surprises! Just kidding. She expects every tomorrow to be pretty much the same as today. She loves her cozy apartment in Brooklyn that’s close to her childhood best friend Willa, and far from her midwestern, traditional family who has never really understood her. While her job is only dream-adjacent, it’s comfortable and steady. She always knows what to expect from her life . . . until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night stand.

The unplanned pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve’s loyal friendship with Willa is feeling tense, right when she needs her the most. And it’s actually Willa’s steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help Eve. He has always been friendly, but now he’s checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her complaints, and is . . . suddenly kinda hot? Then, as if she needs one more complication, there’s the baby’s father, who is (technically) supportive but (majorly) conflicted.

Up until this point, Eve’s been content to coast through life. Now, though—maybe it’s the hormones, maybe it’s the way Shep’s shoulders look in a T-shirt—Eve starts to wonder if she has been secretly desiring more from every aspect of her life.

Over the course of nine months, as Eve struggles to figure out the next right step in her expanding reality, she begins to realize that family and love, in all forms, can sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Five books on a window ledge facing a picturesque landscape

Miss Morgan's Book Brigade

From the New York Times bestselling author Janet Skeslien Charles and based on the true story of Jessie Carson—the American librarian who changed the literary landscape of France—this is “a moving tale of sacrifice, heroism, and inspired storytelling immersed in the power of books to change our lives” (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author).

1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild destroyed French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.

1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. In her obsessive research, she discovers that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than their work at New York’s famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.

Based on the extraordinary little-known history of the women who received the Croix de Guerre medal for courage under fire, Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade is a “rich, glorious, life-affirming tribute to literature and female solidarity. Simply unforgettable” (Kate Thompson, author of The Wartime Book Club).

Image for "Project Hail Mary"

Project Hail Mary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING RYAN GOSLING AND DIRECTED BY CHRISTOPHER LORD AND PHIL MILLER

From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science.

HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century 

“An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today

“If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Image for "Dear Mothman"

Dear Mothman

Winner, LGBTQ+ Middle Grade Lammy Award (Lambda Literary Award)

Robin Gow's acclaimed middle grade novel in verse about a young trans boy dealing with the loss of his friend by writing to his favorite cryptid, Mothman

Moving and lyrical, Dear Mothman is a story about finding belonging and hope in the most unexpected places.

A few months ago, Noah's best friend and the only other trans boy in his school, Lewis, passed away in a car accident. Feeling lost and alone, Noah starts writing letters to Mothman, Lewis's favorite cryptid, wondering if he would understand how Noah feels.

At first, Noah isn't sure whether he actually believes in Mothman--not like Lewis did. But when strange things start to happen around his wooded home, Noah wonders whether there might be something to the stories.

He decides to make his science fair project about Mothman, despite his teacher's urging to study something "real." As Noah's mind begins to open, so does his world. He makes friends with a group of girls in his grade and finally feels like he belongs.

But most people are not so accepting, and he has no evidence to prove that Mothman exists. With the science fair looming closer, Noah decides to risk everything, trek into the woods, and find Mothman himself.

"A hauntingly moving examination of grief, friendship, and identity, reminiscent of my favorite classics. Robin Gow has a magic with words, stirring and shining a light on the deepest of emotions, leaving behind goosebumps (and tears) for Noah's story. This book is a gift." --Kacen Callender, author of the National Book Award winner King and the Dragonflies

Image for "Saving Chupie"

Saving Chupie

2025-26 Louisiana Readers' Choice Award Nominees

2024 New York Public Library's Vibrant Voices Titles for Kids

2024 Texas Little Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List

2024 Texas Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List

CYBILS 2023 Graphic Novel Finalist

IndieBound Indie Next List

Violeta Rubio and her friends are on a mission to protect their local chupacabra from international smugglers and monster hunters in this supernatural island adventure by acclaimed author Amparo Ortiz and debut illustrator Ronnie Vazquez.

Violeta Rubio only has one goal in mind for her first-ever trip to Puerto Rico: help Abuelita reopen her beloved restaurant. The only problem is that Violeta's whole family thinks they can do it without her. Now Violeta doesn't have anyone to hang out with or anything to do. But when best friend duo Diego and Lorena need help capturing the rumored chupacabra, Violeta sees her chance to change all that.

What she isn't expecting is to run straight into the beast. Only...he isn't as monstrous as everyone assumes. Sure, he's got some scales and spikes, big red eyes, and pointy fangs--but he's totally puppy and loyal to a fault. Violeta must find a way to keep Chupie hidden and convince her newfound friends that he isn't anything to be scared of.

And if that isn't hard enough, a new threat lurks around the corner that is dead set on capturing Chupie for their own nefarious means. Will Violeta be able to save Chupie from the danger that surrounds them without sacrificing everything else in the process?

Saving Chupie captures the resilience of a young girl, a family, and an island in the face of nearly impossible odds and proves that love and friendship conquer all in this timely new adventure inspired by Puerto Rican culture and lore.

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