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Summer Reading Ending Soon!

This is not a drill! Summer session is ending soon. We have just two more weeks of prizes before we wrap up our summer reading program and move onto the Fall season. Minutes must be submitted before August 31st and prizes must be picked up before September 1st. Also the week 8 prize in this year’s summer reading iron on patch. It is an exclusive MPL design and the most fashionable accessory of the year.

Stil need to sign up? You can back date all your minutes for the summer and collect prizes now before we run out. (We have supplemental prizes for the weeks that have run out, so don’t worry). To add to our minutes and help us reach our goal of 600,000 hours read as a community log in or set up your Beanstack account. It is the Beanstack Tracker app on mobile or use this link to get to the website. bit.ly/BeanstackMPL

Teeth Time 8.21.25 @ 11am

Start the school year off right! Join us Thursday August 21st at 11am for a fun and informative program about proper brushing. Establishing proper tooth brushing habits early leads to a lifetime of positive outcomes. Even the smallest teeth can be susceptible to tooth decay. So learning how to brush is important to help prevent cavities and other oral health problems. This program aims to teach kids the best way to brush their teeth while making it fun. Help your little one learn to love cleaning their teeth! Join us for Teeth Time.

Mind Your Business! A Local History Game

TONIGHT! Malden Public Library and Malden Chamber of Commerce is hosting ‘Mind Your Business: a logo guessing game’ on August 11, 6-8pm, in the library’s historic Converse Memorial Building. Participants will guess edited logos of local businesses for a chance to win prizes! It will be a fun night, so be sure to register using the QR code, or at: bit.ly/lh-myb
This is a recreation of a game that Mary Caroline (Parker) Converse devised in 1896. On December 31st of the same year, Malden Evening News describes the event: “Mrs. Converse had prepared a large number of popular advertisements, such as are seen in newspapers and in street cars, and had omitted the advertiser’s name. The game was to guess the advertiser.” She hosted this game for her Malden High School peers with whom she graduated four years earlier.
Converse had varied interests. In addition to creating the clever game mentioned above, she was a sea captain and composer. Her nautical passion began in her early adult years when she and her husband, Harry Converse (son of Elisha Converse), would sail on their personal ship, Penelope. She would pursue this further to become the first woman awarded a government issued ship navigating license and the first woman commissioned by the United States Merchant Marine.
Mary Parker Converse was also one of Malden’s notable musicians. She was a vocalist, pianist, and composer, and, in January of 1910, she demonstrated all three of these talents in one performance. Converse sang (while accompanying herself on piano) her ‘Wonder Songs’ for an audience in Boston. ‘Wonder Songs’ is a collection of tunes for children. The score is unique in that it is illustrated, much like a children’s book. She was involved with several other local concerts and served on the ‘Committee on Musical Exercises’ for Malden’s 250th anniversary celebration.
Please join us in celebrating Malden’s rich history and industry in this fun game on August 11, 6-8pm, at the Malden Public Library!

August Artist: Kareemah Abdusamad

The Malden Public Library will be showcasing the artwork of Kareemah Abdusamad throughout the month of August.  Kareemah has been a fiber artist for years and her journey began with what we often think of as traditional quilts and evolved into more art quilts, even though she now does both.

A reception for the artist will be held on Tuesday August 12th from 7-8pm and the public is welcome to attend!

Mystery Making with Sisters in Crime New England

Tuesday, Aug. 5th from 7-8pm, join us at the library for MYSTERY MAKING with Sisters in Crime New England! In this fun, fast-paced improv game, authors Susan Cory, Toni L.P. Kelner, and John Nardizzi will brainstorm on their feet to create a brand new mystery, using suggestions from the audience! WAS it the butler? It could be up to you!

With “Sisters in Crime New England“.

MEET YOUR AUTHORS:

SUSAN CORY was an award-winning residential architect in Cambridge, MA before she retired to write mysteries full time. She earned a brown belt in karate and visited 100 countries along the way. Her mystery series, beginning with Conundrum, features Iris Reid, also a Cambridge architect, as an amateur sleuth trying to uncover a murderer at her Harvard reunion. Susan found inspiration for starting this series at her own 20th architecture school reunion, not that anyone was killed then. That she knows of.

Her seven books in the series have won praise from Kirkus who calls her sleuth “an appealing and believable hero” with supporting characters who are “outstanding” and “hone this remarkable story.” “Cory gleefully breezes through subplots and twists with a resourceful protagonist at the helm.”

Her 8th book in the series, The Forger’s Daughter, is due out in August 2025.

TONI L.P. KELNER is two authors in one. As Leigh Perry, she writes the Family Skeleton series featuring a walking, talking skeleton named Sid. The series debuted with A Skeleton in the Family. As Toni L.P. Kelner, she’s the author of the eight Laura Fleming mysteries and the three books in the “Where are they now?” series. She also co-edited seven urban fantasy anthologies with NYT bestseller Charlaine Harris. In between novels and anthologies–and under both names–she writes short stories about pirates, PIs, serial killers, zombies, and demonic phone calls. A dozen of her stories were recently collected in her most recent book, The Skeleton Rides a Horse and Other Stories, from Crippen & Landru Publishers. Toni and/or Leigh have been nominated multiple times for the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer, and she has won an Agatha Award for Best Short Story and an RT BOOKreview Career Achievement Award. Her short story “Baby Trap” was selected for the anthology Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024, edited by S.A. Cosby and Steph Cha.

JOHN NARDIZZI is an award-winning writer and investigator. His crime novels have won praise for crackling dialogue and pithy observations of detective work. THE BURDEN OF INNOCENCE earned a 2022 Shamus Award nomination for Best PI Paperback. He speaks and writes about investigations in numerous settings, including World Association of Detectives, Lawyers Weekly, Pursuit Magazine and PI Magazine. His work on innocence cases led to the exoneration Gary Cifizzari and James Watson (he was awarded the Arc of Justice for the Watson case in 2021), as well as million dollar settlements for clients Dennis Maher and the estate of Kenneth Waters, whose story was featured in the film Conviction. Prior to his PI career, he failed to hold any restaurant job for longer than a week. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

MassArt Comics Arts Workshop with the MBLC comes to the Malden Public Library 8.14.25

Join MassArt and the MBLC at the Malden Public Library on Thursday August 14th, 4pm for a Comic Arts Workshop. Registration is required. Please use the link: https://bit.ly/MassArt_Comics_MPL or sign up in person at the library.

The workshop provides an opportunity to deconstruct the comic creation process in an engaging and accessible way that applies to a wide range of skillsets. It introduces the storytelling structure and starts with a simple activity where students sketch different shapes on their pages. MassArt Comic Arts instructor LJ Baptiste will demonstrate how these shapes can be fleshed out into full characters. Participants will learn techniques they can utilize to understand a character they’re creating and develop their own 4 panel comic strip featuring one of their original characters.

For kids and teens ages 7 and up.

Happy Little Trees: A gently guided paint night 8.7.25

Join Cait in the program room on Thursday August 7th at 6pm for some light refreshments and a refreshing paint night. Paint along with everyone’s favorite PBS painter and make some happy little trees and maybe a big ol’ rock. Materials will be provided so space is limited. Registration is required. You can sign up at the link: https://bit.ly/Happy-little-trees-MPL or call the library to be added to the list.
Prior painting skills are not required. In fact, Cait can’t paint at all. So plan to laugh along and learn through the magic art of trial, error, and happy accidents.

YA Craft: Soap Making on Tuesday, August 12th @ 3PM

Young Adults in the 5th through 12th grade are invited to the MPL for a clean cut and wishwashy craft program. Design and frangrance your own bar of soap on Tuesday August 12th @ 3:00 – 4:00 PM.

Sign up is required for this program, but if you miss it we will try to do it again in the Fall once school is back in session.

The Poop Museum – Thursday, July 31, 11 a.m.

At The Poop Museum, everyone learns many fantastic, fabulous and fun facts about human, animal and insect poop, many of which truly amaze and surprise. Just a few of the poopers that visitors to the Poop Museum will meet include:

– The world’s messiest pooper

– The animal that has poop attack powers

– The animal that uses poop as protection

– The rainbow pooper

– The animal that has to hold its poop ALL winter long

At The Poop Museum, everyone learns A LOT, and some of the facts that are shared are mind blowing! But The Poop Museum is also full of laughter … because … well … our subject is poop and Susie has found a wonderful way to blend solid science, with the hilarity that humans love, when it comes to poop. Recommended for ages 5-10.

This program is funded by Preotle, Lane & Associates, Ltd.

Special Event Summer Movie Night: Wed., August 6th: 6:00-8:00pm

Please join us for a Special Event Summer Movie Night on Wednesday, August 6, 2025: 6:00-8:00pm at the Malden Public Library. We will be showing one of the best films of the year about Flow. This movie won the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2025. It is directed by Gints Zilbalodois.

This film is “A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, [it] follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. From the boundless imagination of the award-winning Gints Zilbalodis (Away) comes a thrilling animated spectacle as well as a profound meditation on the fragility of the environment and the spirit of friendship and community. Steeped in the soaring possibilities of visual storytelling, [this film] is a feast for the senses and a treasure for the heart.” Rated PG (85 min.) (2025) 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

This Special Event Summer Movie Night is generously supported by The Friends Of The Malden Public Library. Thank you Friends!

We will have a free raffle of movie-themed prizes. Free snacks will be provided. Movie times are approximate.