STEM CHALLENGE: Robo-Cubes

Stop by the Winnie Bell Maker Space in Youth Nonfiction to try our December STEM Challenge: Explore robotics with cubelets. We will offer challenges with a range of difficulties, from novice to master. This program is made possible with support from the Winnie Bell Lea......More

Stop by the Winnie Bell Maker Space in Youth Nonfiction to try our December STEM Challenge: Explore robotics with cubelets. We will offer challenges with a range of difficulties, from novice to master. This program is made possible with support from the Winnie Bell Learned Fund, and it is open to all ages.

Tech Help with Clif

Offering one on one technology help. Reservation required. Please call 802-878-6955 at least 48 hours in advance.

Current Events Discussion Group - In Person

In an age of instant news reporting from every corner of our world, sometimes the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. This current events discussion group will attempt to quiet the noise and step back to reflect on what the news means, what is its context......More

In an age of instant news reporting from every corner of our world, sometimes the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. This current events discussion group will attempt to quiet the noise and step back to reflect on what the news means, what is its context, and what the ramifications are. We will look at, reflect on, and analyze daily events and try to discern trends and understand the national picture and the larger world basing the discussion on factual information in a non-judgmental framework. This discussion group is free and open to all. Registration is not required. 

Golden Dome Award Book Group

Each month, registered students in Gr. 4-8 gather in the library to discuss a book from this year’s Vermont Golden Dome Book List. In this session, we will be discussing The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon. Students must read at least five of the year's nominated titles before v......More

Each month, registered students in Gr. 4-8 gather in the library to discuss a book from this year’s Vermont Golden Dome Book List. In this session, we will be discussing The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon. Students must read at least five of the year's nominated titles before voting in March.  This program is sponsored by the Brownell Library Foundation. Registration is closed.

Red Clover Award Book Group

Each month, students in Gr. K-4 will read two titles from this year’s Red Clover book list and complete an activity. Each month we will read two of the nominees. Voting takes place in March. This program is sponsored by the Brownell Library Foundation. Registration is c......More

Each month, students in Gr. K-4 will read two titles from this year’s Red Clover book list and complete an activity. Each month we will read two of the nominees. Voting takes place in March. This program is sponsored by the Brownell Library Foundation. Registration is closed.

Golden Dome Award Book Group

Each month, registered students in Gr. 4-8 gather in the library to discuss a book from this year’s Vermont Golden Dome Book List. In this session, we will be reading... (more details to come)  Students must read at least five of the year's nominated titles before votin......More

Each month, registered students in Gr. 4-8 gather in the library to discuss a book from this year’s Vermont Golden Dome Book List. In this session, we will be reading... (more details to come)  Students must read at least five of the year's nominated titles before voting in March.  This program is sponsored by the Brownell Library Foundation. Register here.

GMBA Group

Each month, registered students in Gr. 9-12 will gather in the library to discuss a book from this year’s Green Mountain Book Award list. Registration is closed. This program is supported by the Brownell Library Foundation. 

Brownell Library Trustees Meeting (with an Online Option)

   Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/152598013 ......More

   Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/152598013 You can also dial in using your phone. United States: +1 (224) 501-3412 Access Code: 152-598-013 New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts: https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/152598013                

Brownell Kolvoord Community Room, 6 Lincoln St, Essex Junction, VT 05452, USA

Play Time

Read one story together and play! We have giant blocks and other creative play materials. Best for ages 0-5.

Whimsical Wednesdays: Marble Run

Every Wednesday we will do a fun activity, ranging from crafts to engineering and more! This time use a variety of materials to create a marble run.

Whimsical Wednesdays

Every Wednesday we will do a fun activity, ranging from crafts to engineering and more!

The Library is closed for Staff In Service

Story Time

Picture books, songs, rhymes, crafts and early literacy tips. In the picture book area.

Afterschool Movie: Elio

Join us for a movie and popcorn. This time: Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly me......More

Join us for a movie and popcorn. This time: Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination, finds himself on a cosmic misadventure where he must form new bonds with alien lifeforms, navigate a crisis of intergalactic proportions and somehow discover who he is truly meant to be. Rated PG, Open to all ages.

Mah Jongg

 Mah Jongg takes place every Friday from 10am-12pm and it's FREE!   If you know how to play, drop by and enjoy the great game of (American) Mah Jongg!     This is an EJRP/Essex Senior Center program. Questions? Please contact Julie: js......More

 Mah Jongg takes place every Friday from 10am-12pm and it's FREE!   If you know how to play, drop by and enjoy the great game of (American) Mah Jongg!     This is an EJRP/Essex Senior Center program. Questions? Please contact Julie: [email protected] or 802-878-1375 EXT 1553

Spanish Toddler Storytime

Hola amigos! Bring your toddlers to listen to stories and learn some Spanish words.

Saturnalia 2025: A Celebration of Light

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, and everyone else of all ages: Come to the second annual Saturnalia celebration to make ancient crafts, play ancient board games, and eat ancient foods (pizza is ancient, right?)! Saturnalia was the ancient Roman winter solstice festival, ce......More

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, and everyone else of all ages: Come to the second annual Saturnalia celebration to make ancient crafts, play ancient board games, and eat ancient foods (pizza is ancient, right?)! Saturnalia was the ancient Roman winter solstice festival, celebrating light and the turn of the seasons, so we will wrap up our Hands-On Humanities program series with this celebration of history, ancient religion, and levity. Io Saturnalia!

Library Potluck

Join us for our Library Potluck! Please email the name of the dish you will be bringing to share to [email protected] and include a list of ingredients to protect anyone with food allergies. After that, just show up, enjoy the meal, and have fun! This program i......More

Join us for our Library Potluck! Please email the name of the dish you will be bringing to share to [email protected] and include a list of ingredients to protect anyone with food allergies. After that, just show up, enjoy the meal, and have fun! This program is open to adults of all ages.

Collecting Book & Media Donations

The Brownell Library Foundation will be accepting books and media for their book sale.

Illuminated Crowns

Celebrate the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, by making illuminated cardboard crowns. We’ll decorate and then illuminate ( light up!) our crowns with led lights. This is a project for all ages but our youngest artists will need adult help.

Tech Help with Clif

Offering one on one technology help. Reservation required. Please call 802-878-6955 at least 48 hours in advance.

Must Read Mondays - When the Emperor was Divine by J. Otsuka

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers, this commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese American incarceration camps that is both a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and a resonant lesson for our time......More

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers, this commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese American incarceration camps that is both a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and a resonant lesson for our times. On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her home, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family's possessions. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens and are about to be uprooted from their home and sent to a dusty incarceration camp in the Utah desert. In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells their story from five flawlessly realized points of view and conveys the exact emotional texture of their experience: the thin-walled barracks and barbed-wire fences, the omnipresent fear and loneliness, the unheralded feats of heroism. When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today's headlines. Please fill out this form to get the GoToMeeting sign in information. https://forms.gle/UE9ZDT8ZD3a7UAQs8

Must Read Mondays -

Please fill out this form to get the GoToMeeting sign in information. https://forms.gle/UE9ZDT8ZD3a7UAQs8

No Current Events Discussion Group - In Person

In an age of instant news reporting from every corner of our world, sometimes the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. This current events discussion group will attempt to quiet the noise and step back to reflect on what the news means, what is its context......More

In an age of instant news reporting from every corner of our world, sometimes the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. This current events discussion group will attempt to quiet the noise and step back to reflect on what the news means, what is its context, and what the ramifications are. We will look at, reflect on, and analyze daily events and try to discern trends and understand the national picture and the larger world basing the discussion on factual information in a non-judgmental framework. This discussion group is free and open to all. Registration is not required. 

Current Events Discussion Group - In Person

In an age of instant news reporting from every corner of our world, sometimes the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. This current events discussion group will attempt to quiet the noise and step back to reflect on what the news means, what is its context......More

In an age of instant news reporting from every corner of our world, sometimes the sheer volume of information can feel overwhelming. This current events discussion group will attempt to quiet the noise and step back to reflect on what the news means, what is its context, and what the ramifications are. We will look at, reflect on, and analyze daily events and try to discern trends and understand the national picture and the larger world basing the discussion on factual information in a non-judgmental framework. This discussion group is free and open to all. Registration is not required. 

Play Time

Read one story together and play! We have giant blocks and other creative play materials. Best for ages 0-5.

The Library closes early for the Holidays