Richards Free Library

Engage, Enrich, Entertain

events

2025 Library Festival!

The Library Festival Book Sale is on August 23rd!

Don’t miss our famous annual Library Festival with its huge book sale, raffles, cookie walk, giant bubbles, children’s craft, and face painting!
Right across the road from the giant Apple Pie Craft Fair, the Book Sale opens at 8am for members only, and 9am for everyone else. Stock up on books for the year at incredibly low prices! Teachers get books half-price starting at 1pm with their school ID. Everyone gets books for 1$ a bag starting at 2pm!
Fun for the whole family! Children will love getting their face painted, trying our free craft, and enjoying our famous giant bubbles! Come early to do the “cookie walk” to fill a bag with cookies before they sell out!
The Library Festival has been hosted by the Friends of the Richards Free Library in Newport NH for well over 50 years. The whole community pitches in to help put together this huge event, from Friends volunteers who spend hours sorting books, to local sports teams who help move books and tables, to the community sponsors. Thank you all for your incredible support!
This year will look a little different! The library is reseeding the grass on the giant side lawn after getting trees taken down over the winter, so the event will take place in the parking lot! The library will still be open during their Saturday hours of 10am-2pm, so folks can cool off in the AC, have a rest, or use the facilities.
Look for the special pre-sale event, new this year, called Books and Brews Preview Night, August 22nd 5pm-7:30pm. $25 tickets will buy you access to the preview-sale to get an exclusive first chance to buy books, as well as two drink tickets, with beer provided by Rockingham Brewery West.
For more information or to volunteer to bake cookies or help with the event, please email friends@newport.lib.nh.us

May 12th-17th 2025 Teen Programs

Monday May 12th: No program, but feel free to come hang out in our teen space and use the computers, coloring pages, or board games.

Tuesday May 13th: No program, but feel free to come hang out in our teen space and use the computers, coloring pages, or board games.

Wednesday May 14th: Teen Advisory Board @ 3pm: Share your thoughts on teen programs, YA books, and more! Teens 14+ can earn volunteer hours on Teen Advisory Board.

Thursday May 15th: Video Games @ 3pm: Hang out in the Oval Room and play classic Nintendo games on the library’s Switch!

Friday May 16th: No program, but feel free to come hang out in our teen space and use the computers, coloring pages, or board games.

Saturday May 17th: Dungeon’s and Dragons @ 10-2pm: Local DM Reggie from the Dragon’s Maze leads a drop-in campaign free for all!

Keep Sarah Warm 2024

This year, we’re inviting our community of knitters to come together once again to create a beautiful scarf for the Sarah Josepha Hale statue in front of the library.

Here’s how you can contribute:

  • Knit a piece measuring 8 inches on one side.
  • Bring your knitted piece to the front desk of the library.
  • Fill out a card with your contact information

If you don’t have your own supplies, don’t worry! There will be knitting needles and yarn on display at the library, generously provided by the library. You can knit your contribution right there. Signs will provide knitting instructions to help you get started.

Need some yarn to get started at home? Stop by the library for a free skein, generously donated by a fellow craft enthusiast.

We will kick off this years “Scarf Season” by celebrating Sarah Josepha Hale’s 236th birthday on October 24th at the RFL! Then it’s time to bring your pieces in and register to be a part of the scarf! A dedicated volunteer will assemble all the contributions into a single, magnificent scarf.

Come and sip some cider at the “Wrap Party” on November 22nd and help wrap the scarf around the Sarah Josepha Hale statue in time to honor her for Thanksgiving. The scarf will remain on display until the first snowfall and will be taken down before the New Year.

When you bring in your contribution, you’ll be asked to fill out a registration form with your contact information. This year we would love to credit contributors with a list that will be displayed next to the scarf! You can also opt to sign up for the library newsletter or express your interest in joining our knitting group.

Let’s come together to celebrate Sarah Josepha Hale and keep her warm this season. Happy knitting!

Monica Wood to Accept the 2024 Hale Award

The Richards Free Library proudly announces best-selling Maine author, Monica Wood, as the recipient of the 2024 Sarah Josepha Hale Award. 

Monica Wood is an award-winning novelist, memoirist and playwright. Originally from Mexico, Maine, her writing tells character-driven stories about life-changing events. Wood was awarded the 2019 Constance Carlson Prize for contributions to the public humanities in

Maine; and the 2018 Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Distinguished Achievement Award for her contributions to the literary arts.

Her newest novel, “How to Read a Book,” has already secured translation rights in five countries. Her previous novel, the bestselling “The One-in-a-Million Boy,” has been translated into 20 languages in over 30 countries. She is also the author of “When We Were the Kennedys,” a New England bestseller and winner of the May Sarton Memoir Award. Her other fiction, “Any Bitter Thing,” “Ernie’s Ark,” and “My Only Story” have also won awards and made bestseller lists. Her short stories have been widely anthologized and featured

on Public Radio International. Her nonfiction and reviews have appeared in O, the New York Times, Literary Hub, Down East, the San Francisco Chronicle, Martha Stewart Living, Parade and many other publications. She has also written several books for aspiring writers and three plays including “The Half-Light,” “Saint Dad,” and “Papermaker,” that in 2015 debuted in an extended run at Maine’s Portland Stage. She lives in Portland with her husband, Dan Abbott, and their cat, Susie.

Please join us Saturday September 7, 2024 at 7pm at the Newport Opera House for the award ceremony, which will include a speech by Wood as well as book sales and signing. The award ceremony is free and open to the public.

We will once again host a dinner with the author at the Old Courthouse Restaurant on the same evening at 5pm, prior to the ceremony. Dinner tickets are available for purchase at the library.