The After School Story Hour kicks off today from 3:30-4:30. Children ages 4 to grade 5 are invited to come for a fun time of stories, activities, crafts and snacks!

The library will be closed Monday, October 8 in observance of Columbus Day.

The Friends of the Harlem Public Library annual membership meeting will be October 10, 6 P.M. Join us for a free salad supper, a business meeting, and a cake walk! Highlights of the Friends activities from the past year will be featured and door prizes will be given away. All members and those interested in becoming a friend of the library are encouraged to attend. Annual dues of $10 may be paid at this meeting. Support your library and bring friend!

During the month of October the library is hosting a “Buy a Bag O’ Books” used book sale. A plastic grocery sack full of books will cost you only one dollar! We supply the bags - you supply the dollar!

Stop by the library this week and see what new titles are available for check out. The second book by local author Jack G. Young is called “The Wolf.” Young soldier Ethan Burke returns home seeking revenge on the man who murdered his father. Meeting his grandfather, Jasper, for the first time Ethan learns that Jasper has led a life of crime for forty years and is known as “The Wolf.” Ethan and Jasper set out together on their pursuit of justice.

Fiona Davis has written “The Masterpiece.” This story told from the viewpoint of two women fifty years apart takes readers into the glamorous lost art school within Grand Central Terminal. Clara, a teacher at the school in 1928, strives to achieve creative success while fighting public disdain for female artists and the poverty and hunger of the Great Depression. In 1974 Virginia is drawn into the battle to save a crumbling Grand Central and discovers an abandoned art school within the terminal walls and a striking hidden watercolor.

“The Sinners” is the latest Quinn Colson novel by Ace Atkins. A Hamptons murder mystery by Carrie Doyle is “Death on Bull Path.” The new Krewe of Hunters novel by Heather Graham is “Pale as Death.”

Montana author Gwen Florio has written “Silent Hearts.” In 2001 Kabul is finally free of the Taliban. American aid worker Liv Stoellner and educated Pakistani woman Farida Basra are brought together based on their mutual love of Afghanistan. But war-scarred Kabul acts in different way upon them as well as their husbands. These two resilient women are caught in the conflict of war that will test them in ways they never imagined.

“Daughter of Daughter of a Queen” is a historical fiction work by Sarah Bird. Based on the true story of Private Williams, readers are introduces to Cathy Williams, who was a slave on a tobacco farm although her mother never allowed her to consider herself a slave. She was instead a captive, bound by noble blood to escape the enemy. That she does through her decision to disguise herself as a man and join the Army’s legendary Buffalo Soldiers.

The Book Challenge for October is to read a book endorsed by someone you admire.

Library History Trivia: In 1941 the town of Harlem levied a tax of 2 mils to operate the library and provided quarters and utilities.