Summer Reading and Activities

Upcoming Events

This event is in the "Toddlers" group.
This event is in the "Preschool" group.

Preschool Dance Party at the Fillmore Library

2:30pm - 3:00pm
Toddlers, Preschool
Library Branch: Fillmore Library
Room: FIL-Program Room
Age Group: Toddlers, Preschool
Program Type: Music
Event Details:

This program is for little ones who love to move and dance around! We will dance to different songs, practice following directions, learn rhythm, and even develop our fine and gross motor skills.

This event is in the "Preschool" group.
This event is in the "Elementary" group.
This event is in the "Middle School" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

Magic Show with Shawn McMaster @ the Fillmore Library

3:00pm - 4:00pm
Preschool, Elementary, Middle School, Family
Library Branch: Fillmore Library
Room: FIL-Program Room
Age Group: Preschool, Elementary, Middle School, Family
Program Type: Performance
Event Details:

Join us at the Fillmore Library for a magical afternoon of amazement and laughter with Shawn McMaster! Get ready to be dazzled by mind-blowing tricks, silly surprises, and interactive fun your whole family will enjoy. 

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "Elementary" group.
This event is in the "Middle School" group.
This event is in the "High School" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

Family Game Day @ Albert H Soliz Library (El Rio)

3:00pm - 5:00pm
Children, Elementary, Middle School, High School, Family
Library Branch: Albert H. Soliz Library
Age Group: Children, Elementary, Middle School, High School, Family
Program Type: Games & Play
Event Details:

Join us for an epic day of fun with Gamez on Wheelz—a mobile gaming experience for kids and teens! Kids and teens also get FREE Kona Ice to enjoy before or after their gaming session!

This event is in the "Children" group.

Perler Party at Ojai Library

3:00pm - 5:00pm
Children
Library Branch: Ojai Library
Age Group: Children
Program Type: Arts & Crafts
Event Details:

Children are invited to come to the Ojai Library and create their own pixel-inspired designs! Create small or big projects! Create your own pixel-inspired design using fuse beads!

This event is in the "Babies" group.
This event is in the "Toddlers" group.
This event is in the "Preschool" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

Avenue Storytime

4:00pm - 4:30pm
Babies, Toddlers, Preschool, Family
Library Branch: Avenue Library
Age Group: Babies, Toddlers, Preschool, Family
Program Type: Storytime
Event Details:

Children are welcome to enjoy storytelling, nursery rhymes, and finger plays in both English and Spanish.  This program is free and geared for children ages 0 - 5.

This event is in the "Adults" group.
Library Branch: Albert H. Soliz Library
Room: ELR-Library Branch
Age Group: Adults
Program Type: Literacy
Event Details:

Are you learning English and want a chance to practice with other adults in your community? Ventura County Library invites you to join English classes held in partnership with Laubach Literacy of Ventura County to build fluency skills.

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "Babies" group.
This event is in the "Toddlers" group.
This event is in the "Preschool" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

Fillmore Storytime and Stay and Play!

10:30am - 11:30am
Children, Babies, Toddlers, Preschool, Family
Library Branch: Fillmore Library
Room: FIL-Program Room
Age Group: Children, Babies, Toddlers, Preschool, Family
Program Type: Storytime
Event Details:
  • A drop-in early literacy Storytime for ages birth - 5 years
  • Features stories, movement, rhymes and songs, followed by a simple craft and open playtime
This event is in the "Babies" group.
This event is in the "Toddlers" group.
This event is in the "Preschool" group.

Hill Road Storytime

10:30am - 12:00pm
Babies, Toddlers, Preschool
Library Branch: Hill Road Library
Age Group: Babies, Toddlers, Preschool
Program Type: Storytime
Event Details:

Family Storytime

Join us every week for stories, poems, music, movement, & fun!

This event is in the "Children" group.
This event is in the "Elementary" group.
This event is in the "Family" group.

Level Up at the Innovation Lab!

2:00pm - 4:00pm
Children, Elementary, Family
Library Branch: Ray D. Prueter Library
Room: PRU-Innovation Lab
Age Group: Children, Elementary, Family
Program Type: Arts & Crafts, Games & Play, Science & Technology
Event Details:

Level up your curiosity this summer in the Rosenbluth Family Innovation Lab! Build your own foosball game, create a design with a 3D pen or learn to CODE with Botley robot! It's all happening this summer at your library!

Spring Reads

Image for "The Cherokee Rose" is a painting of a path through a garden with trees and a house in the background

The Cherokee Rose

Three women uncover the secrets of a Georgia plantation that embodies the intertwined histories of Indigenous and enslaved Black communities—the fascinating debut novel, inspired by a true story, of the National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of All That She Carried, now featuring a new introduction and discussion guide.

The Cherokee Rose is a mic drop—an instant classic. An invitation to listen to the urgent, sweet choruses of past and present.”—Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST

Conducting research for her weekly history column, Jinx, a free-spirited Muscogee (Creek) historian, travels to Hold House, a Georgia plantation originally owned by Cherokee chief James Hold, to uncover the mystery of what happened to a tribal member who stayed behind after Indian removal, when Native Americans were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homelands in the nineteenth century.

At Hold House, she meets Ruth, a magazine writer visiting on assignment, and Cheyenne, a Southern Black debutante seeking to purchase the estate. Hovering above them all is the spirit of Mary Ann Battis, the young Indigenous woman who remained in Georgia more than a century earlier. When they discover a diary left on the property that reveals even more about the house’s dark history, the three women’s connections to the place grow deeper. Over a long holiday weekend, Cheyenne is forced to reconsider the property’s rightful ownership, Jinx reexamines assumptions about her tribe’s racial history, and Ruth confronts her own family’s past traumas before surprising herself by falling into a new romance.

Imbued with a nuanced understanding of history, The Cherokee Rose brings the past to life as Jinx, Ruth, and Cheyenne unravel mysteries with powerful consequences for them all.

Image for "When the Apricots Bloom" Tree limbs with blooms against an apricot orange background

When the Apricots Bloom

“Breathtaking…Riveting and profound! I adored this book!” —Ellen Marie Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Collector

“A deeply involving and important novel by a master storyteller.” —Susan Wiggs, # 1 New York Times bestselling author

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

In this moving, suspenseful debut novel, three courageous women confront the complexities of trust, friendship, motherhood, and betrayal under the rule of a ruthless dictator and his brutal secret police. Former foreign correspondent Gina Wilkinson draws on her own experiences to take readers inside a haunting story of Iraq at the turn of the millennium and the impossible choices faced by families under a deadly regime.

A BuzzFeed Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Release
A Target Book Club Pick
A Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books Selection

At night, in Huda’s fragrant garden, a breeze sweeps in from the desert encircling Baghdad, rustling the leaves of her apricot trees and carrying warning of visitors at her gate. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, lives in fear of the mukhabarat—the secret police who watch and listen for any scrap of information that can be used against America and its allies. They have ordered her to befriend Ally Wilson, the deputy ambassador’s wife. Huda has no wish to be an informant, but fears for her teenaged son, who may be forced to join a deadly militia. Nor does she know that Ally has dangerous secrets of her own.

Huda’s former friend, Rania, enjoyed a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a sheikh. Now her family’s wealth is gone, and Rania too is battling to keep her child safe and a roof over their heads. As the women’s lives intersect, their hidden pasts spill into the present. Facing possible betrayal at every turn, all three must trust in a fragile, newfound loyalty, even as they discover how much they are willing to sacrifice to protect their families.

“Vivid…secrets and lies mingle as easily as the scent of apricot blossoms and nargilah smoke. Wilkinson weaves in the miasma of fear and distrust that characterized Hussein’s regime with convincing detail. Richly drawn characters and high-stakes plot.” —Publishers Weekly

Image for "Peach Blossom Spring"  Red background with pink flower petals punctuated by round pictures including one of a peach tree in blossom

Peach Blossom Spring

A "beautifully rendered" novel about war, migration, and the power of telling our stories, Peach Blossom Spring follows three generations of a Chinese family on their search for a place to call home (Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author).



A country at war. A family searching for home.



China, 1938. Meilin and her four-year-old son, Renshu, flee their burning city as Japanese forces advance. On the perilous journey that follows, across a China transformed by war, they find comfort and wisdom in their most treasured possession, a beautifully illustrated hand scroll filled with ancient fables.



Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter, Lily, is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood in China. How can he tell his story when he's left so much behind?



Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving story about the haunting power of our past, the sacrifices we make to protect our children, and one family's search for a place to call home.



A BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK AND NOMINEE FOR "BOOK OF THE YEAR"

NOMINATED FOR THE GOODREADS CHOICE "BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR"



"An accomplished first novel." --New York Times Book Review



"A stunning achievement . . . I absolutely adored this novel about love and war, migration and belonging." --Christy Lefteri, author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo



"I so enjoyed this book." --Alisa Chang, NPR's All Things Considered



"Magical and powerful, Peach Blossom Spring brings to life the costs of wars and conflicts while illuminating the spirit of human survival."―Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, author of The Mountains Sing



"Expansive, atmospheric, and affecting." --Susie Yang, author of White Ivy



 

Image for "April May June July" shows the title in bright blue letters against a white background

April May June July

A triumphant family story and sharply observed exploration of privilege, identity, and love in all its forms, following four estranged siblings whose lives collide in the lead-up to a family wedding, when new clues surface about their long-missing father



"Truly a great American novel that does the very best of what fiction can do: sink us into other people's lives, show us new worlds, make our hearts pound and our breath catch. Superb." --Julia Phillips



April, May, June, and July Barber don't have much in common anymore. An upcoming family wedding will place the four siblings in the same room for the first time in years. But shortly before, when April spots their father, who went missing while serving overseas a decade ago, their reunion becomes entirely more complicated.



While the siblings' search for the truth about their father forces them back into each other's lives, it also intensifies their private dramas. April loves her husband, but seeks excitement outside their marriage. May had big dreams for the future, but she's still stuck living at home. June is eager to marry her girlfriend, so why does she need a drink at every wedding-related event? And then there's baby brother July, whose unrequited love for his straight roommate has him more confused than ever.



Confronting the past together, April, May, June, and July will find not only answers about their father, but new romance, hope, and understanding as they learn to embrace the beauty of their shared history.