Arlington Library rolls out April events

ARLINGTON — The Arlington Library, located at 135 N. Washington Ave., has a full calendar of events scheduled for the month of April.

ARLINGTON — The Arlington Library, located at 135 N. Washington Ave., has a full calendar of events scheduled for the month of April.

The first week of the month takes advantage of the schools’ spring break by kicking off with a belated celebration of April Fools’ Day at 2 p.m. on Monday, April 2, for children to fool their friends, families and each other with jokes, riddles, tricks and secret potions. At 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 3, the Just Frogs Amphibian Center will present “Fun with Frogs!” Kids can learn about species that are in trouble in the Pacific Northwest, and experience amphibians up close and hands on with “Frog Lady” Thayer Cueter. Both programs are supported by the Friends of the Arlington Library.

The Friends of the Arlington Library, along with the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation, are also supporting the Arlington Library’s April Fools’ Film Festival for kids and teens, starting at 2 p.m. on April 4-6. “Up” will be screened Wednesday, followed by “The Incredibles” on Thursday, with “Despicable Me” rounding out the trio of movies on Friday.

Mondays at 10:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. on April 2 and 9 will be reserved for the Ready Readers’ Toddler Storytime, during which toddlers aged 18-36 months and their favorite adults will be able to jump and bounce into a magical world of stories, music and movements designed to nurture the desire to read in toddlers. Playtime or crafts may follow.

Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. on April 3 and 10 will be set aside for the Ready Readers’ Baby & Me Storytime, so that babies from newborns through 18-month-olds can wiggle and giggle with their favorite adults through silly stories, happy songs, rhymes and activities tailored to inspire a love of reading. Playtime will follow.

The Ready Readers’ Preschool Storytimes will run Wednesdays at 10:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. on April 4 and 11, so that children aged 3-5 years can let their imaginations run wild with fun books, sing-along songs and creative activities intended to prepare their young minds for the adventures of reading. Playtime or crafts may follow.

Caregivers are required for the Ready Readers programs, which are supported by the Friends of the Arlington Library.

Saturday, April 14, will bring a Mario Kart tournament to the Arlington Library from 1-4 p.m., also courtesy of the Friends of the Arlington Library and the Sno-Isle Libraries Foundation. Teens can show off their skills and compete against each other teens to win prizes, but preregistration is required.

Moving on to more grownup fare, Computer Basics 1 at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, April 7, will teach adults how to use a mouse and scroll, use drop-down menus and other navigation skills, while Computer Basics 2 at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, will cover such subjects as creating a document, copying and pasting, printing and saving files, for those who already have mouse skills. Class size is limited for Computer Basics 1 and 2, so preregistration is required for both.

The Arlington Book Group’s meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10, to discuss “The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew and the Heart of the Middle East” by Sandy Tolan, will be followed by the Wednesday, April 11, meeting of the Friends of the Arlington Library at 3:30 p.m.

The Arlington Library’s activities for the month wrap up with “Librarians as Information Guides: Sno-Isle Travel and Language Databases” at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Sno-Isle Libraries. Attendees can prepare for trips to new cities or exotic countries by using the library’s online databases to make travel plans, find maps or learn foreign languages. Seating is limited, so preregistration is requested.

For more information, call 360-435-3033.