Storytime at Garfield Park - Read with a Witch

The Black Hat Society is bringing a Halloween-themed storytime to the Garfield Park Branch on Wednesday, October 28, from 10:30 to 11:00 AM. It's part of the library's Fall Fun at the Library program, and the session is aimed at babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and their parents and caregivers. If you've got little ones at home, it's a good mid-morning outing to get them into the spirit of the season.

The Black Hat Society is the philanthropic arm of Irvington's dancing witches, so the "Read with a Witch" theme comes from a group that actually lives up to the name. They're the ones behind the dancing witch tradition in Irvington, and they're the ones leading the reading here. It's a short half-hour session, so it fits right into a morning with toddlers before nap time hits.

The venue is the Garfield Park Branch at 2502 Shelby Street, in the park that gives the branch its name. It's a place with some history: it was originally the Shelby Branch, and the library had a presence here as far back as 1918 when it occupied old School No. 34. A new building went up at the current Shelby Street site in 1965, and after a major renovation it reopened in 2011 as the Garfield Park Branch—a name chosen by residents after the park right next door. The branch is run by manager David Dyer and also features a Storytime Garden and a Seed Library that runs from March through September.

So, if you're around the south side on a Wednesday morning, you can bring the kids by for a Halloween story read by the witches themselves. It runs from 10:30 to 11:00 AM on October 28 at the Garfield Park Branch, 2502 Shelby Street.