Book Signings Kennebunkport

MAINE AUTHOR – CHRIS VAN DUSEN AT THE MAINE CLASSIC CAR MUSEUM – SOLD OUT

THIS EVENT IS FULL

 

We are so excited to join forces with the Maine Classic Car Museum to invite Maine Author/Illustrator Chris Van Dusen back to visit with us at the Museum on Saturday, August 10.  Chris will be hanging out among the cool cars at the Museum from 10:00 to 12:00 and to read from one of his many books.  There is no charge for children. Adult admission is $12 per person.  Registration is required.  Please call the Library (967-2778) to add your name to the list.

The Maine Classic Car Museum is located at 2564 Portland Road, Arundel.  Copies of Van Dusen’s books will be available for sale in the Museum store.  This program includes a craft to go and treat!

 

 

More About Chris Van Dusen: 

Chris lives in a little town on the Coast of Maine with his wife Lori and a dog named Opal. As a child, he spent hours drawing pictures. Dr. Seuss and Robert McCloskey were his heroes. After high school, he studied fine art at The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and graduated with a BFA. For more than ten years he worked as a freelance illustrator specializing in art for kids. His first book,  Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee was published in 2000.

Since then, Chris has written several books including The Circus Ship, If I Built a House, Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit, A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, Big Truck, Little Island, and so many more!  He also illustrated the Mercy Watson series written by Kate DiCamillo.

More About the Car Museum:

The Maine Classic Car Museum is New England’s friendliest visitor destination, with dozens of classic cars on display and an array of vintage automobilia and cultural curiosities. Come take a tour of the 2024 exhibits.  Explore the Museum store with unique gifts for that car person in your life. Every car has a story, and they can’t wait to share them with you!

 

CANADIAN/MAINE AUTHOR SUSAN D. HANNAFORD – JUNE 26 @ 6:00 PM

 

We are so excited to welcome back Susan Doherty Hannaford for the launch of her third book, Monday Rent Boy.  Susan will be here at the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library, 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport on Wednesday, June 26 at 6:00 pm.  This event is free and open to the public. A reception with light refreshments will follow.

Susan has a Bachelor of Science from Concordia University and studied journalism at Ryerson University where she was recommended for a job at Macleans Magazine. After Macleans, she worked in Paris, France for a digital publishing company, Atex France, freelancing for The International Herald Tribune, La Tribune de Genève, La Suisse, and the Independent in London UK.  Back in Canada, she started her own company, On Location Productions, and for 18 years worked in advertising.  During that time, she studied creative writing at the University of Toronto, and Concordia University.  Susan has numerous volunteer affiliations: the YMCA and the Douglas Institute and was a long-serving board member of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She was a board member of the Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF) in Montreal, and Nazareth Community, serving men and women with addictions and mental illness. As a committed volunteer, she works with patients suffering from psychosis through Montreal’s Douglas Institute and has done significant research in the area of bipolar illness and paranoid schizophrenia.  In Toronto, she created an annual event for the Royal Conservatory of Music, in a sustained effort to raise their endowment to allow all Canadian would-be professional musicians to study on full bursary.

Premise of Monday Rent Boy:

At eight years of age, Arthur Barnes and Ernie Castlefrank find themselves on the same altar boy at St. Nick’s, a situation that readies an unlikely friendship. Father Zipernowski— a pastor referred to as The Zipper, has given both boys a sterling crucifix that marks them as children conditioned to provide sexual favors for clergy members in the counties of Somerset and Avon.  As Ernie and Arthur slip into lives of petty degeneracy; dope-smoking thieves who steal from the collection plate, local shops, parked cars, and department stores in nearby Bristol, they laugh off their inner humiliation without ever speaking publicly, or privately about what has been happening in the vestry. Arthur’s book-thieving leads to an unlikely partnership with Marina Phillips, the owner of the town bookshop. He has the chance to reinvent himself as a young book critic with eyes to becoming an English major, a professor, and a scholar. Ernie’s leg-up comes in the form of a pawnshop owner, a man with a desire to profit from the exploitation of children in The Pint Room, a website on the Internet.

For more information, please call 967-2778 or visit our website:  www.graveslibrary.org

AUTHOR VISIT WITH ALBERT WAITT – THURSDAY, MAY 23 @ 6:00 PM

MAINE AUTHOR ALBERT WAITT – MAY 23 AT 6:00 PM

Local Author and friend to Graves Library Albert Waitt will be here on Thursday, May 23 at 6:00 pm to read from the second book in the LT Nichols Mystery Series.  Newly published Flood Tide is an incredible work of fiction about what happens when a body washes up on the shore of a harbor island and what LT Nichols, Maine’s Chief of Police will do about it!

 

 

Mr. Waitt will bring copies of the book to sell and sign after his reading. 

 

The Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library is at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport. For further information, please call 967-2778 or visit our website at www.graveslibrary.org.

 

MAINE AUTHOR – CHRIS VAN DUSEN AT THE CLASSIC CAR MUSEUM – JULY 15, 2023

We are so excited to join forces with the Maine Classic Car Museum to invite Maine Author/Illustrator Chris Van Dusen to visit with us at the Museum on Saturday, July 15, 2023.  Chris will be hanging out among the cool cars at the Museum from 10:00 to 12:00 and to read from one of his many books If I Built a Car!  There is no charge for children. Adult admission is $12 per person.  Registration is required.  Please call the Library (967-2778) to add your name to the list.  If you have questions, please email mlbgraves@gmail.com or karen@mainecarmuseum.com

The Maine Classic Car Museum is located at 2564 Portland Road, Arundel.  Copies of Chris’ books will be available for sale in the Museum store.  This program includes a craft to go and treat!

 

 

More About Chris Van Dusen: 

Chris lives in a little town on the Coast of Maine with his wife Lori and a dog named Opal. As a child, he spent hours drawing pictures. Dr. Seuss and Robert McCloskey were his heroes. After high school, he studied fine art at The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and graduated with a BFA. For more than ten years he worked as a freelance illustrator specializing in art for kids. His first book,  Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee was published in 2000.

Since then, Chris has written several books including The Circus Ship, If I Built a House, Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit, A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, Big Truck, Little Island, and so many more!  He also illustrated the Mercy Watson series written by Kate DiCamillo.

More About the Car Museum:

The Maine Classic Car Museum is New England’s friendliest visitor destination, with dozens of classic cars on display and an array of vintage automobilia and cultural curiosities. Come take a tour of the 2023 exhibits starring America’s holy grail of car collecting, a Tucker 48 #1028.  Explore the Museum store with unique gifts for that car person in your life. Every car has a story, and they can’t wait to share them with you!

 

AUTHOR VISIT – REVEREND DR. RUSSELL J. LEVENSON, JR. – JUNE 26

Priest, Pastor, and Friend…We are delighted to share the news that Reverend Dr. Russell J. Levenson, Jr., will be here on Monday, June 26 @ 5:30 pm to talk about his personal relationship with George H.W. and Barbara Bush.  Witness to Dignity, recently published by Center Street Books, details Reverend Levenson’s intimate relationship with the former president and his wife. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing after the discussion.  Light refreshments will be served.  Parking is available at Consolidated School (Route 9), Maine Street, and the Village Fire Station (North Street).

 

“George and Barbara Bush belonged to and were active members of a Houston church for more than 50 years. The rector of that church, Reverend Russell Jones Levenson, Jr., believes he was invited into private moments with these public individuals so he could serve as a witness: a witness to observe, and a witness to tell.  With never-before shared correspondence, experiences, and personal stories, Levenson offers new insight into the Bushes’ wit and wisdom; their commitment to family and friends; their tireless desire to bless the lives of others; and their steadfast loyalty to their church, their faith, and their God. Before embarking on writing this book on faith, Levenson sought and received the blessing of all the Bush children, including the 43rd president.  This book is for readers who yearn for our public officials to serve with faith and integrity like the Bushes. But above all else, this book shows how powerful it is when world leaders are humbled before the power that rests above all powers.”

The Reverend Dr. Russell J. Levenson, Jr., and his wife Laura, live in Houston, Texas where he has served as Rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church since 2007.  With nearly 10,000 members, St. Martin’s is the largest Episcopal Church in North America.  Levenson co-officiated and offered a homily at the state funeral for President George H.W. Bush in Washington, D.C., and in Houston, and also officiated and preached at the funeral for First Lady Barbara Bush in Houston.  President and Mrs. Bush belonged to and were active members of St. Martin’s for more than 50 years.

AUTHOR VISIT WITH LOCAL FAVORITE – ALBERT WAITT

We hope to see you on Wednesday, April 19 @ 6:00 pm for a very special visit with our friend and local author Albert Waitt right here at Graves Library.  Al will be reading from his new book – The Ruins of Woodman’s Village, a coastal mystery taut with suspense and an undertow of social consciousness.

Synopsis:  When twin sisters go missing at the height of tourist season, Police Chief Tim Nichols’ summer of patrolling beaches comes to an end.  A desperate search takes him from seaside bars and abandoned farms to million-dollar estates and cobbled-together shacks.  What happens next – come hear all about it.

Albert Waitt is a writer based in Kennebunkport.  His first novel, Summer to Fall, was published in 2013 by Barrel Fire Press.  His short fiction has appeared in The Literary Review, Third Coast, The Beloit Fiction Journal, Words and Images, and other publications.  Waitt is a graduate of Bates College and the Creative Writing Program at Boston University.  Experiences ranging from slinging drinks, teaching creative writing, playing guitar for the Syphlloids, and frying clams can be found bleeding through his work.

Copies of the book will be for sale.  Light refreshments will be served.  Please call the Library for more details  (967-2778).  Supporting our local authors is very important to us.  We hope to see you here!

 

AUTHOR VISIT WITH JOSHUA SMITH – MARCH 18 @ 2:00 PM

With the help of Vice Admiral (ret.) George W. Emery, we are thrilled to welcome Dr. Joshua Smith to the Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library located at 18 Maine Street, Kennebunkport on Saturday, March 18th at 2:00 pm for a discussion and book signing. Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812 is an innovative history of the war focusing on how it specifically affected what was then called the District of Maine. Drawing on archival materials from the United States, Britain, and Canada, Smith exposes the bitter experience of Maine’s citizens during that conflict as they endured multiple hardships, including starvation, burdensome taxation, smuggling, treason, and enemy occupation. War’s inherent miseries, along with a changing relationship between regional and national identities, gave rise to a statehood movement that rejected a Boston-centric worldview in favor of a broad American identity. [Pub. Note] “Based on impressive research, Smith provides a fascinating history of the bitter disputes

that bedeviled the prosecution of the war in an area that shared a border with British territory but was politically subordinate to Massachusetts. Making Maine is a significant addition to regional accounts of the War of 1812.”—J. C. A. Stagg, author of The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent. Dr. Smith is currently the Director of the American Merchant Marine Museum. He grew up on the coast of Maine and Cape Cod. He holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews, Maine Maritime Academy, East Carolina University, and the University of Maine. His other books include Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820 (University Press of Florida), which won the John Lyman Award in American Maritime History in 2007, and Battle for the Bay: the Naval War of 1812. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served. Doors open at 1:30 pm. For more information, please call (207) 967-2778.