Marathon County Public Library

July 12, 2017

This summer, children can brush up on their reading skills by attending our weekly Paws to Read events, happening at our Wausau Headquarters, Mosinee Branch and Rothschild Branch. During these sessions, kids have the opportunity to read to very relaxed and well-behaved therapy dogs, courtesy Therapy Dogs of Central Wisconsin. They can sit with their parent, guardian or caretaker as well as the dog’s handler and read from a book of their choosing. Reading to a therapy dog can be a great benefit for a child because it gets them to read out loud without fear of being ridiculed. Some children don’t have a sibling, parent or friend willing to listen to them, or may have been teased in the past for mispronouncing a...

July 6, 2017

Escape rooms are all the rage these days and the Marathon County Public Library is getting on board by offering its very own escape room for teens and adults! Will you be able to stop a zombie virus outbreak before it's too late?? Join us and find out! Dr. Johnson (who has been briefing you and your group about the important scientific experiments she's been conducting), has left her office to speak with a colleague. After snooping through the doctor’s files, you discover that Dr. Johnson has something more nefarious up her sleeve—a full-on zombie virus that she’s planning to unleash on the unsuspecting public! Worse yet…it’s airborne, and anyone who comes in contact with this virus is guaranteed to...

June 30, 2017

Borrowers of library e-books and audiobooks, please take note! In June of 2017, OverDrive announced a new mobile app for Wisconsin's Digital Library called Libby. This app is designed to simplify the OverDrive mobile user experience, especially for new users. Libby will be added to Wisconsin's Digital Library in August as the preferred app for new users. Currently, there is no definitive timeline for when the current OverDrive app will be discontinued. Libby is currently available for download in the app stores for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire. If you have any questions about borrowing e-books and digital audiobooks from the library, please contact us or schedule a Tech...

June 24, 2017

If your family enjoys nature and reading, you’re in luck! MCPL and Monk Botanical Gardens are teaming up again to present the second annual StoryWalk® Weekend July 15 and 16 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Monk Gardens, located at 1800 N. First Ave., Wausau. The pages of eight children’s storybooks will be mounted page-by-page along scenic walking trails, and children and their families can read these pages while enjoying the sights and sounds of nature. This year’s featured books include “The Pout-Pout Fish” by Deborah Diesen, “Creepy Carrots” by Aaron Reynolds and “Katie and the Sunflowers” by James Mayhew, among others. Attendees can also participate in a variety of activities at the end of each trail,...

June 23, 2017

Whether you’re reading on the lake, at the beach, on a hammock or on the couch, summer is prime time for reading. With family road trips, long holiday weekends and plenty of leisure time, it’s best to never be without a book once the days get longer and hotter. Below is a list of six highly anticipated new and soon-to-be released books that will keep you turning the page all the way to Labor Day weekend.

June 23, 2017

What better way to beat the heat than to escape to your local (air-conditioned) library for a few hours of crafting? Throughout June and July, multiple MCPL locations will host crafting events for children of all ages. Crafts will include making sparkling dragonflies, dazzling suns, salt paintings and more! Examples of some of these crafts are shown in this article. Visit www.mcpl.us/crafts for the complete schedule of forthcoming craft events!

June 16, 2017

The kids are out of school, the temperatures are rising and summer is finally upon us! June, July and August are always busy months here at the Marathon County Public Library (and just about everywhere else), with a full calendar of events and activities to attend throughout the summer. We have plenty on our plate with our annual Summer Library Program offerings, with many of our events corresponding with other events and holidays happening across Marathon County. While it’s far from a complete guide, take a look at some of the crossover events we have planned for the coming months in relation to other popular events happening this summer in your community! Celebrate the USA Story TimeTue...

June 12, 2017

Today marks the beginning of OverDrive's next Big Library Read, where patrons can get immediate access to Marie Benedict's debut novel The Other Einstein without having to wait! Now through June 26, MCPL patrons can log into their account on OverDrive (also known as Wisconsin's Digital Library) and borrow The Other Einstein on their smartphone, computer or tablet using the OverDrive app. The Big Library Read, held a handful of times each year, is a huge global e-book club where patrons can all read and discuss the same title together. The Other Einstein is the story of Albert Einstein's wife Mitza Maric, a brilliant physicist in her own right. Mitza has always been a little...

May 25, 2017

The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood in 1985, has been a popular dystopian novel that’s never gone out of print. Set in a near future East coast city, the U.S government has been overthrown by a religious totalitarian regime, and due to environmental and medical catastrophes much of the population is infertile. Besides the elite, women have lost all autonomy, and the fertile few are cast as Handmaids, their only purpose to reproduce for those in charge. Atwood’s writing comments on the social, political, and religious trends of America, speculating what reality would become if those trends were taken to the limit. The Handmaid’s Tale has been a feminist favorite...

May 18, 2017

Netflix's new hit series 13 Reasons Why has been in the news a lot recently due to its popularity with viewers and a bit of controversy. The show, based on the 2007 young adult novel by Jay Asher, follows a a teenager named Clay who receives a box of cassette tapes from his classmate, Hannah, detailing what led up to her suicide. The show has been criticized by some who claim the show (and book) glorify suicide, though it has garnered great reviews and has been popular with both teen and adult viewers alike. The series was recently renewed for a second season, which will air on Netflix in 2018. If you're a fan of the book or the series, here is a list of 13 other YA novels that will also captivate...