Teens


Living Library Returns to Dover

The Dover Public Library hosted their first “Living Library” in November of 2019.   Approximately 60 people were able to hold conversations with one of the 14 “living books” available that day.  According to Sherrel Rieger, Adult Program Specialist, “It was so successful that we planned to make it an annual event, but the pandemic changed that for the year 2020.  We are  happy to announce that the “Living Library” will return this year on November 13.”  

The Living Library program has been enjoyed for nearly two decades in 84 countries around the world.  It is designed to bring the community together through dialogue with people who are different from ourselves. The goal is to challenge prejudices and to help people understand racial and cultural issues, to be inspired by everyday heroes, and to learn more about ourselves through our connection with other people.  

How does the “Living Library” work?  The “books” (who are real people) will be seated around the library.  You come to the library and see which “books” are available.  After you “check out” one of “books,” you sit with that person and engage in an honest conversation with him/her for approximately 15 minutes.  Then, you can check out another book. You can check out as many books as time and availability allow.  

This year’s card catalog includes:  

Greta Baker, retired teacher/librarian and fashionista, Just Me!

Gamaliel Bautista, “Dreamer”, Our Dream

Victoria Buss, CEO of Clear Communications, Living the American Dream 

Pat Crolley, artist, The Memory Painter

Fred Delphia, retired band director and principal, It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing)

Perci Garner, Executive Director of The Rainbow Connection, Dreams and Wishes are Not the Same

Larry Glasgow, Desert Storm veteran, Soldier Survives SCUD Missile Attack

Glen Groh, retired principal and naturalist, It’s Me – GGG!

Linda Kate, former judge, From Juvenile Court to the Deserts of Iraq

Kathy Neal, director of a local women’s shelter, Beneath the Shade

Kathy Neal and Company, Temptation.

You can register ahead of time by calling the library at 330-343-6123.  Walk-ins are welcome on the day of the event, which is Saturday, November 13 from 10 AM till noon in the Community Room at the library located at 525 N. Walnut Street.  


Take on the Upside Down at A Stranger Escape!

Patrons ages twelve and up are invited to Dover Public Library on Friday, October 29 from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM to take part in A Stranger Escape, an escape experience inspired by the Netflix series Stranger Things. At this special event, teams will take turns attempting to solve riddles and escape the Upside Down.

As teams enter the event, they will sign in to get the next available time slot. While participants are waiting their turn to got through the escape room, there will be games, 80’s-inspired crafts, and refreshments in the Community Room and Teen Room. The team with the best time will be awarded a prize package to share. All participants will be entered to win a door prize. Registration is required for this after-hours program. Masks are also required based on current CDC recommendations. Interested patrons can call the library at 330-343-6123 for more information.

A Stranger Escape Door Prize

This escape room was originally scheduled for March 2020, but was cancelled due to the pandemic. It’s so great to finally be able to reschedule the event.

Teams may consist of one to five players. Parents or guardians are asked to be present or sign a permission slip before leaving minors unattended at the after-hours event. Family teams are encouraged. Adult teams are welcome, but are advised that the escape room was created for teenagers. 

Knowledge of the Netflix series may be helpful, but it is not necessary to solve the escape room. There may be spoilers, though! So watch out while you’re exploring the Upside Down!

A Stranger Escape is sponsored in part by a 21st Century Afterschool Learning Grant with Dover High School, which supports educational opportunities outside of classroom walls.

-Liz Strauss, Teen/Outreach Services Manager


Countdown to Back to School Bingo

In just 8 days, the Dover Public Library is hosting its second ever Back to School Bingo event!

Saturday, August 21st at 2:00 PM, tweens and teens ages 10 and up are invited to come to the Community Room to play and win school supplies! This event is sponsored by a 21st Century Afterschool Learning Grant with Dover High School.

This year, we have 12 awesome surprise boxes of school supplies to give away! Each box has a different theme like art, science, or math, and is packed with school supplies!

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

Participants will only be able to win one of the surprise boxes. If players just can’t stop winning, they’ll be able to pick additional prizes from the Random Prize Box. Additionally, any participants not in the age range 10-18 (or Senior in High School) will be permitted to play for prizes from the Random Prize Box, so parents and younger siblings are welcome to join in!

Following the game, participants will have the opportunity to make a magnetic picture from for their lockers! If unable to stay for the craft, kits will be available to take home instead.

Registration is not required for this event!

I hope you can join us for a fun afternoon of games and crafts as we get ready for a great school year together!

-Liz Strauss, Teen/Outreach Services Manager


Perplexing, Confusing, Brain-Stumping… Puzzles!

Puzzles were created in the 18th century by John Spilsbury. The old term for jigsaw puzzles was called “Dissected Maps”. When he first designed this tool, he made a map of Europe into pieces This helped children learn geography! 

To this day, millions of people play puzzles. Studies show that puzzles help work left brain and right brain coordination. This makes puzzles great for children with autism to build fine motor skills.

Puzzle Facts: 

  1. Deepika Ravichandran holds the World Record for completing a 250 piece puzzle in 13 minutes and 7 seconds!
  2. The world’s most difficult puzzle is printed on both sides! It is a picture of Dalmations!
  3. Enigmatology is the study of puzzles
  4. In the U.S., 1.8 billion jigsaw puzzles are sold annually.

So why not give your brain some exercise and complete a puzzle! They are a fun group activity and you can even glue it together and frame it!

In the meantime, stop by the adult department and look at my collection of vintage wooden puzzles including: Sesame Street characters, Humpty Dumpty and even Snoopy!

– Ellen Lint, Library Assistant


Plastic Caps to Plastic Benches

On behalf of the library, I wanted to say thank you to the community for their overwhelming support of our plastic bench project. 

If you are not aware, the library began a partnership and a journey with an organization called the ABC Promise Partnership in the fall of 2020 with the aim of collecting plastic caps and lids which ultimately will be melted down and extruded into benches made of the recycled material.  If you did not know, the plastic that makes up caps and lids cannot be recycled with your average recyclable plastic. These plastic caps and lids would simply be discarded in the landfill. The ABC Promise Partnership strives to repurpose this plastic into something positive and useful in the community. 

For months and months we have been blessed with donations from the community. The donated caps and lids were sorted and weighed by volunteers (thank you Interact Club at Dover High School, library staff, and community volunteers!) and transported to a plastics factory in Indiana. 

At this time we have three benches made up of the donated caps and lids.  I wanted to say thank you to the sponsors who made the financial commitment to make this project a reality.

Starting with Dover Rotary and the Dover Exchange Club and expanding into donations from private individuals who care about leaving the world a better place, we were able to secure funding for five benches which will be placed on library grounds and throughout the community.

This project was a perfect example of how a group of people with a shared vision and a shared passion can transform something negative into something beautiful and sustaining. 

Thank you T-Valley!

-Jim Gill, Director


National Children’s Book Week

May 3-9 & November 8-14

Spider-Man at the Dover Public Library

Children’s Book Week started in 1919 is the longest national literacy initiative in the country. In 1913, Franklin K. Matthiews who was the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, began traveling the U.S. to promote higher standards in children’s books. He proposed creating Children’s Book Week, which would be supported by publishers, book vendors and librarians. In 1916, Matthiews with the help of Publishers Weekly and American Library Association sponsored a Good Book Week along with the Boy Scouts of America. In 1944, Children’s Book Council was formed, and they took over creating Children’s Book Week.

This years theme is “Reading is a Superpower,” which coincidentally is similar to the Dover Public Library’s summer reading theme, “Superhero Super Reader.” The Children’s Department will celebrate book week by giving away a book a day plus free stickers, bookmarks, coloring sheets and crafts.

Come visit to celebrate National Children’s Book Week!

-Jen Gardner, Children’s Room Manager


Women’s History Month

"My Mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent." - Ruth Bader Ginsberg

When you think of Historical Women in History, who comes to mind?

  • Marie Curie: a two time Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and Psychics.
  • Elenanor Rossevelt: America’s First Lady for 12 years. Later, she served as U.S. delegate to the United Nations where she was instrumental in securing passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.   
  • Malala Yousafzai: As a young girl, she defied the Taliban in Pakistan and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 but survived. In 2014, she became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.


These women and endless others have helped pave a path for generations of women to come. Congress declared March of 1987 to become the first official Women’s History Month. Since then we have welcomed and celebrated women and all of their fine achievements that make us stand out above and beyond. 

Here’s a short quiz!

1. The first African American to win an Academy Award was a woman.   True or False?     

2. The world’s first novel was written by a woman.     True Or False?     

3. What woman served as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, freeing hundreds of southern slaves and leading them to safety in the North? A $40,000 reward was offered for her capture. 

Scroll down for the answers. No cheating!

"I've neem absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do." - Georgia O'Keeffe
  1. True! Hattie McDaniel won a best supporting actress award for her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939)
  2. True! Most scholars consider  The Tale of Genji to be the world’s first novel. It was written c. 1010 CE by Murasaki Shikibu.
  3. Harriett Tumbman

Now go on to find a woman and thank her for her strength in this world that is still an uphill battle for women’s rights.

-Ellen Lint, Library Assistant