Students aged 8 to 13 can learn how to draw fun manga and anime characters from a professional cartoonist on Saturday, June 25 in a program sponsored by the Tolland Public Library and the Tolland Public Library Foundation.
Cartoonist Debi Hamuka-Falkenham will present the cartooning workshop from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Conference Room A of Tolland Town Hall at 21 Tolland Green.
Hamuka-Falkenham, whose website is drawfunnystuff.com, is a 1974 graduate of Paier College of Art and The Museum of Cartoon Arts’ Cartooning Program. She is also a member of the National Cartoonists Society, and her artwork has been used by Crayola, Fisher Price, GE and General Motors.
Children taking part will be able to create their own manga cartoon poster to take home.
The program is free, but registration is required. To register, call the library at 860-871-3620, use the online events calendar at tolland.org/library or email young adult and children’s librarian Ginny Brousseau at [email protected].

Cartoonist Debi Hamuka-Falkenham

Author Robert Wyss

Robert Wyss, an environmental journalist and associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut, will speak June 22 about his latest book, “The Man Who Built the Sierra Club, A Life of David Brower,” from Columbia University Press.
The free talk, part of the Tolland Public Library Foundation’s Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series, will take place at 6:30 p.m. in Conference Room A of Tolland Town Hall at 21 Tolland Green.
Brower (1912-2000) was a central figure in the modern environmental movement. Wyss says in many ways, he was a 20^th-century Thoreau. When he ran the Sierra club from 1953 to 1969, Brower transformed the group into a national force that challenged and stopped federally sponsored projects that would have dammed the Grand Canyon and destroyed millions of acres of wilderness.
To admirers, Brower was tireless and passionate. To opponents, he was contentious and polarizing.
Before joining the UConn faculty in 2002, Wyss was a reporter and editor at the Providence Journal from 1974 to 2002.
He is also the author of “Covering the Environment: How Journalists Work the Green Beat” and “Brimfield Rush, The Thrill of Collecting and the Hunt for the Big Score” about the antiques industry.
Registration is required for the talk. To register, call the Tolland Public Library at 860-871-3620 or register online at tolland.org/library.
Since 2010, the author series, funded by the Phoebe Dimock King and Elizabeth C. King Eaton Endowment, has brought writers Caragh O’Brien, Dan Barry, Denis Horgan, Susan Campbell, Cindy Rodriguez, Susan Schoenberger, Jeff Goldberg, Lucy Anne Hurston, Jane Haddam, Ken Davis and P.W. Catanese to town.
About the Tolland Public Library Foundation
The Foundation was established in 1996 to receive donations to benefit the Tolland Public Library and to enhance library services beyond what the town budget provides. Tax-deductible donations can be sent to the Tolland Public Library Foundation, Inc., 21 Tolland Green, Tolland, CT 06084.

     The Tolland Public Library Foundation will continue its informative series for small businesses and non-profit groups with a talk on “Email Marketing For Success: Newsletters and Announcements” on June 9 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Conference Room A of Tolland Town Hall at 21 Tolland Green.
April Woodcock, managing partner of Touching Clients of Norwich, will teach the most effective strategies for creating email newsletters. Participants will also learn how to get more people open their email campaigns and how to make the campaigns more effective marketing tools.
The talk is free, but registration is required. To register, call the library at 860-871-3620 or visit tolland.org/library to register.
Woodcock, an “authorized local expert” of Constant Contact who lectures throughout New England, said the marketing possibilities for small businesses can be time-consuming and overwhelming. She said she will show participants how to “make sense of the noise” so audience members will come away with a greater understanding of marketing.
The Foundation will also host Woodcock on Sept. 13 and Nov. 17, when she will deliver more marketing tips.

Marketing expert April Woodcock

The Foundation started the series in December 2014 to bring in experts to offer free advice to existing businesses or to residents thinking about starting a business. The occasional lectures also give local business owners a chance to meet one another and network.

Young adult author Dawn Metcalf

Fresh off a popular talk on how to get a book published, young adult author Dawn Metcalf will return to Tolland Tuesday, June 7 to present a talk entitled “From ‘Once Upon a Time’ to “Happily Ever After:’ How to Write Your Book from Beginning to End.”
Back by popular demand after her March 22 talk, Metcalf will give the free talk at 6:30 p.m. in Conference Room A of Tolland Town Hall at 21 Tolland Green as part of the Tolland Public Library Foundation’s Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series.
Teens and adults interested in writing a book will receive valuable advice from Metcalf on keeping the writing flowing and overcoming obstacles such as writer’s block.
Metcalf, who lives in northern Connecticut, is the author of four books: “Luminous,” a young adult paranormal fantasy, and “Indelible,” “Invisible,” and “Insidious,” which make up her trilogy about a fantasy world known as “The Twixt.”
The talk is free and open to the public, but registration is required. To register, call the Tolland Public Library at 860-871-3620 or visit www.tolland.org/library and click on the Online Library Events Calendar.
Since 2010, the author series, funded by the Phoebe Dimock King and Elizabeth C. King Eaton Endowment, has brought writers Caragh O’Brien, Dan Barry, Denis Horgan, Susan Campbell, Cindy Rodriguez, Susan Schoenberger, Jeff Goldberg, Lucy Anne Hurston, Jane Haddam, Ken Davis and P.W. Catanese to town.

Young adult author P.W. Catanese

P.W. Catanese of Bolton, the author of nine young adult novels, will make a return appearance in Tolland on Thursday, May 12 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss his latest book, “Donny’s Inferno.”
The free talk, to be held in Conference Room A of Tolland town hall at 21 Tolland Green, is part of the Tolland Public Library Foundation’s Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series.
Catanese describes his book as funny, thrilling and fast-paced, with a big dose of urban fantasy. A boy on the run is rescued from a burning building by a bewitching supernatural being named Angela Obscura. She takes Donny to the underworld, where he finds a transformation has taken place, but enemies are trying to restore the underworld to its old, terrible ways.
A graduate of the University of Connecticut who works in advertising, Catanese has seen all of his books published by Simon and Schuster/Aladdin and several, including “The Thief and the Beanstalk,” translated into other languages and published abroad. For details, visit pwcatanese.com.
He is making a return engagement in the EDK series, which has also brought writers as varied as Susan Campbell, Denis Horgan, Jeff Goldberg, Caragh O’Brien, Cindy Rodriguez, Susan Schoenberger and Lucy Anne Hurston to town.
The talk is free, but registration is required. To register or for more information, call the Tolland Public Library at 860-871-3620 or register online at tolland.org/library.

P.W. Catanese’s latest book