October 8, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room

Only If You Dare: 13 Stories of Darkness and Doom
by Josh Allen

Thirteen chilling short stories to keep you up at night—but only if you dare.

You never know what’s out to get you. Though you might think you’re safe from monsters and menaces, everyday objects can turn against you, too. A mysterious microwave. A threatening board game. A snowman that refuses to melt. Even your own heartbeat has its secrets. Thu-thump. Thu-thump. When you stop to listen, each beat sounds more menacing than the last.

Master storyteller Josh Allen brings thirteen nightmare scenarios to life in this page-turning collection that’s perfect for budding horror junkies. In his wondrous world, danger waits behind every doorway . . . even in the most ordinary places.

November 12, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room

The Unicorn in the Barn by Jacqueline Ogburn

We’ll be meeting with the members of the Books for Boys Book Club

For years people have claimed to see a mysterious white deer in the woods around Chinaberry Creek. It always gets away.

One evening, Eric Harper thinks he spots it. But a deer doesn’t have a coat that shimmers like a pearl. And a deer certainly isn’t born with an ivory horn curling from its forehead.

When Eric discovers the unicorn is hurt and being taken care of by the vet next door and her daughter, Allegra, his life is transformed.

January 14, 2027, at 6:00 pm in the Community Room

Ida B… and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster,
and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan

Ida B. Applewood believes there is never enough time for fun.

That’s why she’s so happy to be homeschooled and to spend every free second outside with the trees and the brook.

Then some not-so-great things happen in her world. Ida B has to go back to that Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture—school. She feels her heart getting smaller and smaller and hardening into a sharp, black stone.

How can things go from righter than right to a million miles beyond wrong? Can Ida B put together a plan to get things back to just-about perfect again?

February 11, 2027, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room

El Deafo by Cece Bell

Starting at a new school is scary, even more so with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece’s class was deaf. Here she is different. She is sure the kids are staring at the Phonic Ear, the powerful aid that will help her hear her teacher. Too bad it also seems certain to repel potential friends.

Then Cece makes a startling discovery. With the Phonic Ear she can hear her teacher not just in the classroom, but anywhere her teacher is in school—in the hallway… in the teacher’s lounge… in the bathroom! This is power. Maybe even superpower! Cece is on her way to becoming El Deafo, Listener for All. But the funny thing about being a superhero is that it’s just another way of feeling different… and lonely. Can Cece channel her powers into finding the thing she wants most, a true friend?

March 11, 2027, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room

Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand
by Gail Carson Levine

“Beware a mermaid’s wrath!” the mermaid Soop warns the water-talent fairy Rani. Soop has grown tired of waiting for the magic wand that Rani promised her in exchange for her help saving Never Land. And though Rani would love to fulfill her promise and bring Soop a wand, Mother Dove, the wisest creature in Never Land, has forbidden it. Her patience at an end, Soop sends a flood to destroy Fairy Haven. Now the only thing that can save the fairies’ home is the arrival of the wand.

Rani, Tinker Bell, and the fairy queen, Clarion, set off on a perilous quest to find a wand, a journey that takes them across an ocean, to the palace of the Great Wanded fairies. Many obstacles stand between the Never fairies and their desire for peace in Fairy Haven, not the least of which are their own secret dreams. For a wand can easily tempt a fairy into making a foolish wish, with terrible consequences.

book 2 in the Disney Fairies series

April 8, 2027, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

We’ll be meeting with the members of the Books for Boys Book Club

The day that Christopher saved a drowning baby griffin from a hidden lake would change his life forever.

It’s the day he learned about the Archipelago—a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures of every kind have thrived for thousands of years, until now. And it’s the day he met Mal—a girl on the run, in desperate need of his help.

Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure, racing from island to island, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading and why magical creatures are suddenly dying. They consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. But the closer they get to the dark truth of what’s happening, the clearer it no one else can fix this. If the Archipelago is to be saved, Mal and Christopher will have to do it themselves.

book 1 in the Impossible Creatures series

April 29, 2027, at 6:30 pm in the Community Room

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

We’ll be meeting with the members of the Books for Boys Book Club

Sixteen people were invited to the reading of the very strange will of the very rich Samuel W. Westing. They could become millionaires, depending upon how they played the game.

The not-quite-perfect heirs were paired, and each pair was given $10,000 and a set of clues (no two set of clues were alike). All they had to do was find the answer, but the answer to what?

The Westing game was tricky and dangerous, but the heirs played on, through blizzards and burglaries and bombs bursting in air. And one of them won!