Blog Entries

A few times a year the children’s department goes on a storytime break. But what does that mean for you? It means every April, August, and December we pause our daily storytimes to prepare for the upcoming season. Fear not, there are still plenty of things to do at the library during a storytime break! 

Each week, we will have a different themed playtime experience set up for you and your littles to explore during the usual storytime timeframe! Everything from gross motor play to music and art exploration. See the list of themes by week below:

The Handley Library branch is very excited to introduce the next phase of our Grow a Reader brand to you all with a new annual special event called Read and Seed on Saturday, November 15th from 11am-1pm on the Youth Services floor at Handley Library! Consider this your official invitation to join us for a fun day of nature themed crafts, activities, and fun. 

Fall is here, and the weather is cooling down. Perhaps you are spending time outdoors with your family, trying to savor the moderate temperatures and evening daylight before we descend into winter. If only there was a way to combine literacy and your outdoor adventures…

When you think of memoirs written for kids, a graphic novel might not be the first thing that comes to mind. A graphic memoir is an autobiographical story told in comic format. There are some fantastic juvenile titles available at the library. Young readers might find relatable events in the true life stories of their favorite authors. Kids can expand and enhance their world view by learning about the lives of others. 

Check out these suggested titles:

Looking for fun things to do this season? We’ve got you covered! Our brand-new September–December 2025 Programming & Resource Guide is packed with events, activities, and resources for all ages.

From storytimes and book clubs to teen hangouts and special programs, there’s something for everyone at all three of our branches—Handley Library, Bowman Library, and Clarke County Library.

We hope everyone had a great time at our How-To Fest on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Handley Library branch. 

Save the date for next year – Sept 26, 2026. If you would like more details, contact Handley Library Branch Manager Adrienne Davis at 540-662-9041 ext. 13.

If you missed it, our annual How-To Fest is an out-of-this-world learning experience for humans of all ages to connect, create, and acquire new skills. Knowing how to human is hard.

Have you ever been stuck in a difficult parenting moment and wanted resources to help you through? Maybe you were deep in a google rabbit hole or scrolling instagram for answers. Perhaps you were convinced to buy an online course to help you get through, or maybe you even bought the book that someone told you would solve all your problems…

At this point, I would imagine many of you reading this have had a chance to check out a Grab-and-Grow kit from the Handley Youth Services Department. If you haven’t yet, hopefully after reading this post you will hurry to the second floor to check out your very own kit! 

In April, we launched an exciting new program, the Grow a Reader Playgroup! This 5 week program met on Thursday mornings starting before library hours at 9:30am and ending at 11:00am, and it took place in the Benham Gallery. You may be familiar with this space from our other programs, but you wouldn't have recognized the space once we had it set up for playgroup!

Graphic novels are becoming increasingly popular with kids, and you may be worried that your littles aren’t getting much out of them. I’m here to ease your worries and make the case for the medium. From the visual art styles to the story lines, graphic novels have more to offer than you may realize.

Summer at the Handley Regional Library System is bursting with color, creativity, and community—and it all starts with our brand-new 2025 Summer Programming & Resource Guide! 🎉

This season, we’re inviting everyone to Color Our World with an exciting lineup of programs, events, and reading challenges for all ages.

Stop paying for ebooks and audiobooks—Libby gives them to you FREE with your library card!

Say hello to Libby, the app that brings the Handley Regional Library System to your phone or tablet. Whether you're relaxing at home, commuting, or heading out on vacation, Libby lets you borrow books anytime, anywhere—with zero late fees and zero cost.

Why Libby is your new go-to:

I’m sure you spend a lot of time reading books with your littles- perhaps the same book several times more than you would like to. Have you ever thought about how many books you will read to your child between birth and the time they go to kindergarten? 100? 500? 1,000? One thousand may seem like a big number, but its completely feasible for you to read that many books with your little (and probably more!) before they start kindergarten. Want to log those books for fun prizes, extra storytimes, and incentives for parents? Well you’ve come to the right place!

If you’ve spent much time at the Handley Library branch lately, you’ve likely seen this logo in a few places when you’re on the children’s floor. This is the logo for our new brand that we are launching this spring: Grow a Reader! This brand is something we have been working on for a long time, and we are so excited to bring it to life starting this month.

The Kanopy database has been upgraded to include 30,000 titles. Kanopy Kids is one of the great features of the database. Kanopy Kids has unlimited viewing! You can access any title on Kanopy Kids without spending any of your monthly tickets. From storybook videos to read-alongs to TV shows and movies, you will find it all on Kanopy Kids.

Great news! We are excited to announce that patrons now have access to all hoopla BingePasses! If you love digital entertainment, learning, and exploring new topics, this is your golden ticket to unlimited access—completely free with your library card.

Have you been a faithful attendant of babytime for many months now, but your little is starting to walk, and the baby time activities just aren't keeping them engaged as much anymore? I’m sure that your little’s readiness to move up has come long before you are emotionally ready to move past babytime, and to admit that perhaps you have a toddler, not a baby anymore! When my own daughter was 16 months, I didn’t feel ready for toddler time, but I knew it was time for us to move up.

STEAM: What Does it Mean?

You’ve heard of STEM, but what is STEAM? It encompasses the same core tenets of science, technology, engineering, and math that STEM does, with the addition of an A for arts! In 2006, researcher Georgette Yakman found that the creativity and design focused thinking of the arts help contextualize STEM programs. Think of the liberal arts addition as the “who and why,” to the “what and how” of STEM.

We are excited to announce a NEW program series for caregivers with kids ages 1-3: Grow a Reader Playgroup. This 5-week interactive playgroup will feature educational components with outside professionals each week that will developmentally support your reader through learning and play. Community professionals based on each week's theme will provide passive education to support caregivers of littles ages 1-3.  

Have you always wanted to check out a Youth Services program at Handley Library, but you’d been a little nervous about how to get yourself and all your kids from the car into the building? Maybe you’ve found our plan your visit page, but you still have questions? I get it, it’s a daunting task; street parking, stairs to the entrance, and a difficult to find elevator. Maybe you’ve lugged a car seat up those winding stairs a few times, but never found the elevator!

During my time as a parent patron of storytime programs, I’ll admit; if I walked in to the children’s room, and it was playtime instead of storytime, I was disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? Likely it took a lot of effort to get yourself and your children out the door- maybe there were tantrums, blowouts, and last minute outfit changes. You ran a marathon this morning, and you want one of the rockstars who works in the Youth Services department to entertain you and your kids for 30 minutes!

Are you ready for some thrilling updates? Handley Regional Library System has expanded our streaming video resource offerings, Kanopy, and there’s never been a better time to dive in!

What’s New?

Kanopy now offers access to over 30,000 new titles, including:

NOTE: Registration begins on December 28!

Winter is the perfect season to cozy up with a good book, and the Handley Regional Library System is excited to announce our 2025 Winter Reading Program: Be a Reading Machine! This engaging program runs from January 2 through January 31 and is open to readers of all ages.

Although I am the newest member of the Youth Services team, I have been attending the programs offered by the Children’s Department for over a year as a parent! With a current 19 month old, I have spent the last year exploring the storytime and STEAM programs offered here, so I will be writing a series of posts exploring my transition from Parent Patron to Staff Member.

The Juvenile Read-Along collection boasts more than 600 titles. Recently, many Read-Along chapter books have been added to the catalog, ranging from classics: Ramona the Brave and The Mouse and the Motorcycle to new favorites: The Wild Robot and The Last Kids On Earth. Books from some of your favorite series are now available in Read-Along format, such as Big Nate, and The Adventures of Captain Underpants. Several titles are available in Large Print.

Libby, the popular library reading app from OverDrive, is changing how people connect with books. If you haven’t tried reading with Libby through the Handley Regional Library System, now is the time! Here are 10 reasons why downloading Libby will be your best literary decision yet.

Halloween is a fun holiday for many kids. You can dress up in a fun costume and go trick-or-treating, collecting lots of candy. But what if you had a food allergy, which causes your immune system to overreact to certain food proteins? Trick-or-treating might not feel like a possibility with the high risk of being exposed to an allergen. FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) decided to help change that with the Teal Pumpkin Project. 

Here are two catalog search features that you might find useful- Subjects and Tags.

 Sleep is very important for everyone, especially your developing little’s brain. As soon as you get a routine into action, it often feels like your little starts going through a regression.

Thursday September 12 is Video Game Day and we can help you celebrate.  

Video Games

Our Middle Grade book spotlight this week is focused on graphic novels!!!  Graphic novels are incredibly visual stories that can feature pretty much anything fiction and nonfiction.  Done in the style of comic books, there is a huge variety of choices; literally something for everyone so even if you have never read one before, you will definitely be able to find something.  For our talk this week, we have a great selection of retellings, fantasy, historical, humor, and realistic to get you started.  These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the sea

A major thing that helps us in life is our executive functioning skills. Our executive functioning skills are essentially our ability to do planning, organization, and then follow through with that planning and organization by acting on it.

Get ready to learn all about the environment and how you can do your part with Smokey Bear’s Reading Challenge. Running from August 10th to November 30th, the challenge is available to all ages and accessible on your Beanstack account. 

Our middle grade book spotlight this week is taking a look at Mysteries!!!  There are so many different types of mystery books available that there is literally something for everyone’s tastes!  Some are straight mystery/detective stories while others are more suspenseful and thrilling; mysteries are usually cross genre as well meaning that not only is there a mystery element, but there may also be some fantasy, science fiction, or historical elements as well.  We have a great selection this week from realistic to fantasy, murder mysteries and crime solving so you will either

Winchester, VA — The Handley Regional Library System is proud to announce the impressive statistics from the 2023-2024 fiscal year, underscoring its vital role in the community and its ongoing commitment to providing accessible resources and services to patrons of all ages.

Over the past year, the Handley Regional Library System's three locations—Handley Library, Bowman Library, and Clarke County Library—welcomed 365,992 visitors, reflecting the vibrant engagement with our libraries. Key highlights from the year include:

Historical Fiction

Discover quick listen historical fiction favorites that explore the complexity of the human condition, like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, on @hoopladigital. https://www.hoopladigital.com/collection/5558

Mystery

Check out @hoopladigital's quick-listen mystery, suspense, and thrillers that will keep you on the edge of your seat. https://www.hoopladigital.com/collection/5552

Confidence starts with the caretaker. We are our young's first teacher and mentor. We model behavior and many other things to our children daily. Confidence can be hard even for adults, because of all the different situations we are exposed to--breastfeeding, conflict, new situations, work, etc. And although everyone can't always be confident all the time, we can try to assert ourselves consistently to lay boundaries and advocate for ourselves.

Regulating our emotions can be a very daunting thing. Now imagine being a child and doing it. Our brains are not fully developed until about 25 years old, because our prefrontal cortex is still figuring our the decision making piece, and emotions are heavily tied into that. But much of that is started in the early years. You can help your kiddo figure things out by setting them up for success with emotional intelligence.

Our middle grade book spotlight this week is is on some of our favorite staff pick reads!!!  To help us kick off these summer months filled with reading, we are sharing some of our favorite books so you can have some amazing titles to help you get started or to help you get out of a reading slump if that is where you find yourself.

Problem solving is something parents/caregivers are faced with numerous times everyday. Even things as simple as questioning 'what am I cooking for dinner?' 'Do I have all the ingredients?' 'Now what?' Each of these questions from one simple task of cooking a meal to actually feeding our kids (and ourselves) count towards solving problems. All of these questions are part of our organizing and planning, then initiating system--executive functioning.

Are you ready to embark on a summer filled with adventure and discovery? Join us for the Rally for Reading, the exciting kickoff event for our Youth Summer Reading Program, themed “Adventure Begins at Your Library.” This year, we’re thrilled to host our kickoff celebrations at each of our three library branches. Mark your calendars and get ready for a season of fun, learning, and exploration!

Our Middle Grade book spotlight this week is on more amazing nonfiction titles!

Looking for an epic summer adventure? Look no further than your local library! Here are 10 reasons why you should dive into the excitement at our library system this summer:

1. Youth Summer Reading Program: Join us for a summer of literary exploration with our Youth Summer Reading Program! Dive into captivating stories, embark on thrilling adventures, and earn exciting rewards along the way.

The Handley Regional Library System is excited to announce the "Rally for Reading" kickoff event for the 2024 Summer Reading Program, with the theme "Adventure Begins at Your Library." There are adventures to be had and unique celebrations at all three branches!

Handley Library will kick off the season with its event on Saturday, May 25, from 11 AM to 1 PM, with fun activities in the Reading Garden - Kona ice, a Drew Blue Shoes magic show, and a food drive for Bright Futures.