To honor the service of the Tolland Public Library Foundation’s founding president Betty-Lou Griffin, the Foundation board of directors recently donated funds for the installation of interactive wall games at the Tolland Public Library.

The Foundation thanks Betty-Lou for her many years of service, from 1996 at the Foundation’s founding until 2017. The interactive games were selected as a way to honor Betty-Lou because of her longstanding interest in the arts and in children’s programs at the library.

In addition to the games, she is also being honored with the establishment of the Betty-Lou Griffin Experience the Arts series, which will bring continuing arts programs to the library for Tolland residents and library patrons. Under her leadership, the Foundation had already offered workshops in anime, cartooning and zentangle. Though she stepped down from the board in 2017, Betty-Lou is continuing to serve as a volunteer, offering her advice to the board members.

Betty-Lou Griffin

If you’ve ever thought of publishing a book, the Tolland Public Library Foundation has the perfect talk for you on Tuesday, Nov. 27 when young adult author Dawn Metcalf will share her advice on “Getting Published.”
Metcalf will discuss the world of traditional publishing, including “the terms, resources, methods and madness” for writers aged 13 to 103! The free talk will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the library at 21 Tolland Green in Tolland as part of the foundation’s Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series.
Registration is required and can be done by calling the library at 860-871-3620 or by registering online at tolland.org/library.
Metcalf, of north-central Connecticut, is the author of “Luminous,” a paranormal fantasy, and “Indelible,” “Invisible,” “Insidious” and “Invincible,” books in her series about a fantasy world known as “the Twixt.”
The author series has brought Pulitzer Prize winners Dan Barry and Steven G. Smith to Tolland as well as writers Susan Campbell, Denis Horgan, Caragh O’Brien, Dom Amore, Jeff Goldberg, P.W. Catanese, Cindy Rodriguez, Susan Schoenberger, Jane Haddam and Lucy Anne Hurston.
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.

Young adult author Dawn Metcalf

Young adult author Steven Parlato, who spoke at the Tolland Public Library about his first book in 2014, will return Thursday, Sept. 27 to discuss his second book, “The Precious Dreadful.”
Parlato is a published poet, author, artist and an associate professor of English at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, where he also lives. He will speak at the library at 21 Tolland Green at 6:30 p.m. The talk is sponsored by the Tolland Public Library Foundation as part of its Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series.
Parlato won the 2011 Tassy Walden Award for Young Adult Manuscript from the Connecticut Shoreline Arts Alliance for his first novel, “The Namesake,” which was published in 2013.
His latest book follows teen protagonist Teddi Adler and unveils the romantic and dramatic consequences that unfold when she joins a library literary group called “SUMMERTEENS.” Combining romance and humor with elements of the paranormal, the book’s been called a profound novel about one teenage girl’s decision to redefine her life in the wake of supernatural events. Parlato says the book is intended for teens 14 and up.
The talk is free, but registration is required. To register, call the library at 860-871-3620 or register at tolland.org.library.
Since 2010, the EDK series has brought well-known authors to Tolland, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Dan Barry and Steven G. Smith, Jane Haddam, Dom Amore, Chris Knopf, Caragh O’Brien, Dawn Metcalf, Susan Campbell, Denis Horgan, Jeff Goldberg, Cindy Rodriguez, Susan Schoenberger and Lucy Anne Hurston.

Author Steven Parlato

About 30 knowledgeable baseball fans attended an entertaining talk on July 26 by Dom Amore, author of “A Franchise on the Rise: The First Twenty Years of the New York Yankees.”Amore, an award-winning sportswriter for the Hartford Courant, regaled the audience with colorful stories and Yankee lore.
In a touching moment, Louise Schott of Tolland showed Amore a tie that broadcaster Mel Allen had given to her brother, Frank Leja, a young first baseman from Holyoke, who played 26 games for the Yankees in 1954-55.
After the talk, Amore helped her identify some players in a photo of her brother and promised to get back to her with the names of the other players once he did some research.

Author Dom Amore

Louise Schott of Tolland with Dom Amore

Hartford Courant sportswriter Dom Amore reports that copies of “A Franchise on the Rise: the First Twenty Years of the New York Yankees,” are flying off the book shelves.
He will only have a few to sell at this free book talk this Thursday, July 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Tolland Public Library, but Amore says if audience members bring the books, he will sign them. They can be purchased online at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
The talk is part of the Tolland Public Library Foundation’s Eaton-Dimock-King Authors Series.
In its 115 years, the team has won a league-leading 27 world championships. Amore takes readers back in time to the era from 1903 to 1923, including the Yankees’ first ten years as the Highlanders, the move to Yankee Stadium and their first World Series in 1923.
Amore vividly recounts the snowy night that Honus Wagner was offered twenty crisp $1,000 bills to join the new franchise in New York; the story behind the holes punched in the outfield fence to facilitate the stealing of signs in 1909, and why the team thought it may have had the next big superstar in a college football player named George Halas.
Amore is a twenty-year member of the Baseball Writers Association of America who has been writing about sports for Connecticut newspapers since 1982. He has written for the Courant since 1988, covering the Yankees, Major League Baseball and baseball at all levels for much of that time. He has been named Connecticut Sportswriter of the Year four times by the National Sports Media Association and has won more than thirty state, local and national journalism awards.
The book includes a foreword by John Sterling, who has been the radio voice of the Yankees since 1989.
The talk is free, but registration is required. To register, call the library at 860-871-3620 or register online at tolland.org/library.