As a reminder, the Friends of the San Bruno Library will be hosting their annual Winter Open House on January 6, 2009 from 10 AM to 9 PM at the Library. Come on in for some hot apple cider and treats!

Friends of the Library will be on-site to greet you, with books for sale on display. Bring a canned food donation and swap it for a book at the sale. Friends of the Library members will be able to answer questions, sign up new members and recruit volunteers to help sort the book donations for the ongoing Book Sale.

Start the new year off right with a membership in the Friends of the Library. If you are already a member, please renew! Dues remain a true bargain! Individual Memberships - $2; Family Memberships - $4

Chinese New Year at the Library
Monday, January 26 at 6:30 PM in the Children's Room
Celebrate the Year of the Ox with a Chinese/English bilingual storytime, crafts, and a snack!

Storytime
Hora de Cuentos Bilingües / Bilingual Storytime
Martes a las 11 AM / Tuesdays at 11 AM
Programa interactivo de cuentos para hablantes de inglés, español o los dos. El programa es para todos los niños, pero es ideal para los de 2 hasta 4 años de edad. Interactive storytime for speakers of Spanish, English, or both. All ages are welcome but storytime is specifically geared to 2 - 4 year olds and kids are encouraged to participate.

Pajama Storytime: Mondays at 7 PM for children 3 and up

Itsy-Bitsy Storytime: Thursdays at 11 AM for children 18 months - 3 years

Once Upon a Time: Library Storytime on San Bruno Cable
Can’t get to the library for storytime? Now storytime can come to you! San Bruno Cable Channel 11 is airing “Once Upon a Time,” a children’s storytime featuring library staff. The air times are:

10 AM - Sunday, Monday, Friday, Saturday
1:30 PM - Tuesday, Thursday
2 PM - Monday, Wednesday, Friday
7 PM - Monday, Wednesday

No access to San Bruno Cable? Storytime is also available on the Internet.

The Third Thursday Bibliomaniacs will be discussing Away by Amy Bloom in January. Life is no party for Lillian Leyb, the 22-year-old Jewish immigrant protagonist: her husband and parents were killed in a Russian pogrom, and the same violent episode separated her from her three-year-old daughter, Sophie. Arriving in New York in 1924, Lillian dreams of Sophie, and after five weeks in America, barely speaking English, she outmaneuvers a line of applicants for a seamstress job at the Goldfadn Yiddish Theatre, where she becomes the mistress of both handsome lead actor Meyer Burstein and his very connected father, Reuben. Her only friend in New York, tailor/actor/playwright Yaakov Shimmelman, gives her a thesaurus and coaches her on American culture. In a last, loving, gesture, Yaakov secures Lillian passage out of New York to begin her quest to find Sophie.

For New Year's Eve, the Library will be close at 5 PM on Wednesday, December 31 and close Thursday, January 1, 2009 for New Year's Day. The Library will reopen on Friday, January 2, 2009.

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Library will close Saturday - Monday, January 17-19, 2009. The Library will reopen on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.