Events Calendar
Unemployment Assistance Drop-in
Autumn VanderMolen, our region's Community Liaison from the State of Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency, will be available at the Elk Rapids District Library on
Monday April 29th from 10am to 4pm to assist and answer questions.
No appointment is necessary, just stop by!
For a speedy process, be sure to bring your Michigan Driver’s License or State of Michigan identification card along with a Social Security card or birth certificate or U.S. passport.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Island House Readers Book Club: "The Bohemians” by Jasmin Darznik
In this novel of the glittering and gritty Jazz Age, a young aspiring photographer named Dorothea Lange arrives in San Francisco in 1918. As a newcomer—and naïve one at that—Dorothea is grateful for the fast friendship of Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, who introduces Dorothea to Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the artist whose iconic Depression-era “Migrant Mother” photograph broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation.
A vivid and absorbing portrait of the past, The Bohemians captures a cast of unforgettable characters, including Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams, and D. H. Lawrence. But moreover, it shows how the gift of friendship and the possibility of self-invention persist against the ferocious pull of history.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Pokemon Club
Pokemon fans meet at the library the first Sunday of the month to talk, play and craft all things Pokemon. New fans are welcomed! No sign up required, just drop in.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Antrim Writer’s Series: Author visit and book discussion.
Register here to attend the reading and discussion of Brittany Cavallaro’s Study in Charlotte, the first book in a new series about a brilliant new crime-solving duo: the teen descendants of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. To be held at Bos Winery. Register early and get a free copy of the book in advance!
Brittany Cavallaro is the New York Times best selling author of A Study in Charlotte and the Charlotte Holmes series, the historical fantasy duology Muse, and other books for young adults from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books. A poet and writing teacher, she lives in Traverse City, Michigan.
Antrim Writer’s Series: Fiction Short Story Writing Workshop
Register here to attend the non-fiction writing workshop with Brittany, focused on creating short works of fiction. To be held at the Happy Camper Coffee Shop.
Brittany Cavallaro is the New York Times best selling author of A Study in Charlotte and the Charlotte Holmes series, the historical fantasy duology Muse, and other books for young adults from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books. A poet and writing teacher, she lives in Traverse City, Michigan.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
Meetings are held at 5:00 p.m. at the Government Center, 315 Bridge Street, Elk Rapids, MI 49629. We welcome the public to attend.
A meeting agenda will be posted on the Board of Trustees page once it's available.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Books on Tap
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus
After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.
Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.
A limited amount of copies are available for check out at the library and on Libby. Copies can also be requested through MEL.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Island House Readers Book Club: "The Housemaid” by Freida McFadden
Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.
I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.
But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.
They don’t know what I’m capable of…
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
Meetings are held at 5:00 p.m. at the Government Center, 315 Bridge Street, Elk Rapids, MI 49629. We welcome the public to attend.
A meeting agenda will be posted on the Board of Trustees page once it's available.
Island House Readers Book Club: "Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
Meetings are held at 5:00 p.m. at the Government Center, 315 Bridge Street, Elk Rapids, MI 49629. We welcome the public to attend.
A meeting agenda will be posted on the Board of Trustees page once it's available.
Island House Readers Book Club: "I Must Betray You” by Ruta Sepetys
Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force.
Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.
Cristian risks everything to unmask the truth behind the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. He eagerly joins the revolution to fight for change when the time arrives. But what is the cost of freedom?
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
Meetings are held at 5:00 p.m. at the Government Center, 315 Bridge Street, Elk Rapids, MI 49629. We welcome the public to attend.
A meeting agenda will be posted on the Board of Trustees page once it's available.
Island House Readers Book Club: "The Warsaw Orphan” by Kelly Rimmer
In the spring of 1942, young Elzbieta Rabinek is aware of the swiftly growing discord just beyond the courtyard of her comfortable Warsaw home. She has no fondness for the Germans who patrol her streets and impose their curfews, but has never given much thought to what goes on behind the walls that contain her Jewish neighbors. She knows all too well about German brutality--and that it's the reason she must conceal her true identity. But in befriending Sara, a nurse who shares her apartment floor, Elzbieta makes a discovery that propels her into a dangerous world of deception and heroism.
Using Sara's credentials to smuggle children out of the ghetto brings Elzbieta face-to-face with the reality of the war behind its walls, and to the plight of the Gorka family, who must make the impossible decision to give up their newborn daughter or watch her starve. For Roman Gorka, this final injustice stirs him to rebellion with a zeal not even his newfound love for Elzbieta can suppress. But his recklessness brings unwanted attention to Sara's cause, unwittingly putting Elzbieta and her family in harm's way until one violent act threatens to destroy their chance at freedom forever.
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
Meetings are held at 5:00 p.m. at the Government Center, 315 Bridge Street, Elk Rapids, MI 49629. We welcome the public to attend.
A meeting agenda will be posted on the Board of Trustees page once it's available.
Island House Readers Book Club: "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us.
Island House Readers Book Club: "1776” by David McCullough
In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence—when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.
Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.
Story Time
It’s another Destination Storytime. Meet us Pine Hill Nursery and let’s get ready for Spring!
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Foodie Cookbook Club
The Moosewood Cookbook has inspired generations to cook simple, healthy, and seasonal food. A classic listed as one of the top ten best-selling cookbooks of all time by the New York Times, this 40th anniversary edition of Mollie Katzen's seminal book will be a treasured addition to the cookbook libraries of fans young and old.
Homeschool Hangout
Join us for another Homeschool Hangout. Meet other homeschool families while doing a craft. Appropriate for all ages.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Seed Swap @ ERDL
Join us at the Elk Rapids District Library for a community seed swap. Browse a selection of vegetable, herb, native, and ornamental seeds, and take home a variety to plant this spring.
Bring leftover seed packets or self-saved seeds to share. If you don’t have seeds to offer, come anyway! All are welcome to attend.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
Meetings are held at 5:00 p.m. at the Government Center, 315 Bridge Street, Elk Rapids, MI 49629. We welcome the public to attend.
A meeting agenda will be posted on the Board of Trustees page once it's available.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Books on Tap
An instant New York Times Bestseller this book is sure to spark intense discussion. What would you do if you knew the length of your life? In Nikki Erlick’s debut novel, a mysterious box arrives on everyone's doorstep, revealing their exact lifespan. The novel explores how eight people grapple with this knowledge and the societal upheaval it triggers.
A limited amount of copies are available for check out at the library and on Libby. Copies can also be requested through MEL.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Pokemon Club
Pokemon fans meet at the library the first Sunday of the month to talk, play and craft all things Pokemon. New fans are welcomed! No sign up required, just drop in.
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
ER Knitters
Join the library knitting circle. Every Thursday we meet on the library porch. Bring your projects from home!
Story Time
Join us each week as we read stories, practice early literacy skills and do a craft activity. Thursday and Friday story times will be identical; pick whichever fits your schedule best! This story time is designed for kids 0-5, but all are welcome.
Tech Help @ the Library
Free tech support from our resident guru and technology coordinator, Aaron Hill. Whether you’re having trouble with your computer, phone, or anything technology-related, Aaron will do his best to help you figure it out! This is a free program for all library members.
Island House Readers Book Club: "The Love Songs of W.E. B. Du Bois” by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.
Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.
To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.