The winter reading program continues all month and though the first half of March at the Cosmos Library. Stop in to sign up and you’ll get a book bag, while supplies last. You’ll also get a reading log to track and rate the books you read beginning the day you sign up. If you read 3 books by the time the program is done on March 14, you can choose a small prize. If you read 3 more, you can pick an additional prize. The program can be completed only once per year.

In the past we’ve limited participation to adults, but this year teens age thirteen and up are welcome to participate if they wish.

The prize choices include mugs, candy bars, book lights, notebooks, and can coolers, while supplies last.

You can read any books you choose: library books or your own, fiction or nonfiction, print or audiobook or ebook.

Craft Circle will be held on February 28^th, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Drop in with your craft project to have some social time while you work. No messy crafts such as paint and dye, please, in order to protect the library’s carpet. No craft of your own? The library will provide adult coloring sheets. Open to adults and teens age 16 and up. No need to sign up.

The library will have Valentine’s Day take-home craft kits for kids available beginning February 3. The craft is a foam yeti with hearts.

Looking for some new books to keep the kids busy? These nonfiction books are available at the Cosmos Library for children to learn about real things:

Nonfiction books for younger children:
“Flurry, Float, & Fly!: The Story of a Snowstorm” by Laura Purdie Salas
“Liftoff!: How the Apollo Moon Missions Made Alma Thomas’s Art Soar” by Nina Crews
“Science Takes a Trip” by Maria Rentetzi

Nonfiction books for older children:
“Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels” by Lindsey Fitzharris
“Drone Racing” by Tom Jackson
“Octopus Ocean: Geniuses of the Deep” by Mark Leiren-Young
“The Pokémon Encyclopedia” by Arnold Ringstad

Pioneerland libraries will be closed on Monday, February 16, for Presidents Day.

The library’s hours are Mondays 10-5, Tuesdays 2-5, Thursdays 2-6, Fridays 2-5, and Saturdays 10-1. Find us in city hall, at www.cosmos.lib.mn.us, or at 320-440-1012.

Pioneerland Library System has released the lists of the top checkouts of 2025:

Top adult fiction

• The quiet librarian / Allen Eskens.
• The women / Kristin Hannah.
• Battle mountain / C.J. Box.
• Lethal prey / John Sandford.
• Hidden nature / Nora Roberts.
• The tenant / Freida McFadden.
• My friends : a novel / Fredrik Backman ; translated by Neil Smith.
• The boyfriend / Freida McFadden.
• Apostle’s Cove : a novel / William Kent Krueger.
• Spirit crossing : a novel / William Kent Krueger.

Top adult nonfiction

• The let them theory : a life-changing tool that millions of people can’t stop talking about / Mel Robbins.
• The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness / Jonathan Haidt.
• Gunflint falling : blowdown in the Boundary Waters / Cary J. Griffith.
• The ultimate Minnesota cookie book : 100 best recipes from the star Tribune’s Holiday Cookie contest / Lee Svitak Dean.
• The small and the mighty : twelve unsung Americans who changed the course of history, from the founding to the civil rights movement / Sharon McMahon.
• Framed : astonishing true stories of wrongful convictions / John Grisham ; Jim McCloskey.
• House of Kahmanns : a memoir : a story about family love and shattered bonds, about finding each other in the aftermath
• The house of my mother : a daughter’s quest for freedom / Shari Franke.
• Melania / [Melania Trump].
• Everything is tuberculosis : the history and persistence of our deadliest infection / John Green.

Top young adult fiction

• Sunrise on the reaping / Suzanne Collins.
• Tokyo guru:re. English
• Bleach / [story and art by Tite Kubo ; English adaptation, Lance Caselman ; translation, Joe Yamazaki].
• One piece / story and art by Eiichiro Oda.
• Yu yu hakusho. English
• The ballad of songbirds and snakes / Suzanne Collins.
• The summer I turned pretty / Jenny Han.
• The seven deadly sins / Nakaba Suzuki ; [translator, Christine Dashiell ; lettering, James Dashiell].
• Tokyo guru:re. English
• A good girl’s guide to murder / Holly Jackson.
• Powerless / Lauren Roberts.
• Mockingjay / Suzanne Collins.
• Ouran High School host club / [story and art by] Bisco Hatori ; [English adaptation, Gary Leach ; translation, Kenichiro
• The inheritance games / Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
• One of us is lying / Karen M. McManus.
• Catching fire / Suzanne Collins.

Top picture books

• Will the Pigeon graduate? / words and pictures by Mo Willems.
• The pigeon has to go to school! / words and pictures by Mo Willems.
• The wild robot on the island / words and pictures by Peter Brown.
• The duckling gets a cookie!? / words and picture by Mo Willems.
• Creepy crayon! / Aaron Reynolds ; illustrated by Peter Brown.
• Creepy carrots! / words, Aaron Reynolds ; pictures, Peter Brown.
• Creepy pair of underwear! / words, Aaron Reynolds ; pictures, Peter Brown.
• Pete the cat screams for ice cream! / Kimberly & James Dean.
• Little Excavator / by Anna Dewdney.
• Bluey : daddy putdown.

Top juvenile fiction

• Dog Man. Big Jim begins / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. The scarlet shedder / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog man. Lord of the fleas / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. For whom the ball rolls / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Hot mess / by Jeff Kinney.
• Dog Man. Brawl of the wild / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. Twenty thousand fleas under the sea / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. A tale of two kitties / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog man. Grime and punishment / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Baby-sitters Club. Vol. 17, Mallory and the trouble with twins / a graphic novel by Arley Nopra.

Top DVDs

• Wicked / Universal Pictures.
• Moana 2 / directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller.
• Dog Man / Universal Pictures.
• The wild robot / DreamWorks Animation.
• Twisters / directed by Lee Isaac Chung.
• Despicable me 4 / Universal Pictures.
• Gladiator II / Paramount Pictures.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 / directed by Jeff Fowler.
• It ends with us / Columbia Pictures.
• A minecraft movie / director, screenwriter Jared Hess.

Pioneerland Library System protects your privacy according to state law and library system policy.

Per the library system’s Confidentiality of Patron Records policy:

The Library has the responsibility to protect each individual library user’s right to confidentiality and privacy relating to information sought or received and materials consulted, borrowed, or acquired.

All patron records are confidential. No library employee shall reveal the identity of a borrower to any requestor or make known in any manner any information contained in patron records.

The confidential information in these records includes, but is not limited to:

• Subjects researched
• Materials consulted
• Individual titles borrowed
• All information on the patron record
• The presence of a patron in library facilities or space

Check out a free state park pass at the Cosmos Public Library! These seven-day passes cover the vehicle entrance fee to any state park or recreation area in Minnesota, making it easy to spend time outdoors and see nature at any time of year. To check out a pass, visit the Cosmos Library and ask a staff member. If one is available in the library system, you’ll be issued a 7-day vehicle pass, no library card needed. Passes cannot be reserved in advance. A limited number of passes are available each week in Pioneerland Library System.

Your state park pass should be clearly displayed on your vehicle’s dashboard. If you would like to camp, you will need to make and pay for reservations separately. When you are done exploring with your pass, just recycle it!

State park passes are provided through the Minnesota State Parks Library Program, a collaboration between our library and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Learn more about the state parks library program at mndnr.gov/librarypass

Crafters, bring your works in progress for some social time with other creative people! On the 4th Saturday of the month, January through May, drop in to the library between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm. No need to sign up or to stay the entire time. For adults and teens age 16+; teens age 13+ can attend with an adult. No messy crafts that may stain the carpet, please, such as paint. No craft of your own? The library has adult coloring sheets and felt bookmarks for you.

Dates:
January 24
February 28
March 28
April 25
May 23

The Winter Reading Program begins January 2!

January means the start of Winter Reads, the adult winter reading program for Pioneerland Library System. The program starts at the Cosmos Library on Friday, January 2, and ends Saturday, March 14.

You can sign up anytime until early March. When you sign up, you’ll get a book bag, while supplies last. You’ll also get a reading log to track and rate the books you read beginning the day you sign up. If you read 3 books by the time the program is done, you can choose a small prize. If you read 3 more, you can pick an additional prize. The program can be completed only once per year.

In the past we’ve limited participation to adults, but this year teens age thirteen and up are welcome to participate if they wish.

The prize choices include mugs, candy bars, book lights, notebooks, and can coolers, while supplies last.

You can read any books you choose: library books or your own, fiction or nonfiction, print or audiobook or ebook.

Thank you to the organizations and businesses that donated to Cosmos Library’s summer reading program this year!  The businesses donated prizes that children and teens chose when they turned in completed reading sheets.  Thank you for supporting kids and reading in our community!

Are you looking for some creative inspiration this fall? Pioneerland Library System offers access to Creativebug, a website with thousands of award-winning art and craft video classes. This service is provided by Prairielands Library Exchange, an organization that exists to help support public and school libraries in southwestern Minnesota. We are excited that our library users can use their library cards to access these online classes taught by recognized design experts and artists.

You can find the link to Creativebug on the left bar of the Pioneerland website or the Cosmos Library website: www.cosmos.lib.mn.us.

Once you have entered your library card number, the site will prompt you to create an account. Through your account, you can keep track of where you left off in a class and which videos you have watched, and you can be notified of new classes on topics you’re interested in. You can even upload photos of your own projects to share, if you’d like.

Class topics include art and design, sewing, quilting, paper, knitting, crochet, food and home, jewelry, holiday and party, and kids.

One interesting feature the website offers is daily practice. Intended to be a way to challenge yourself to a month of making, the website offers 30-day prompts for daily art practice. There are over 60 daily practice series to choose from, such as hand stitching, watercolor and colored pencil, bookmaking, and rubber stamp carving.

Beyond the video classes, the Creativebug website also offers downloadable knitting and crochet patterns.

New classes are being added to the website all the time. Recent classes are titled “Embroidered Pencil Case,” “Love Letter Quilt Top,” and “Crochet Edges for Garments.” Upcoming classes include “Accordion Book as Art Form” and “Professional Illustration 101.”

If video classes aren’t your thing but you enjoy art or crafting, you can choose from a wide variety of books in the library to learn more. The Cosmos Library collection has many books on arts and crafts, including a wide range from whittling to origami and from painting to quilting.

Crafting and art have many benefits: they can reduce stress, improve mood, and reduce cognitive decline, as the activity brings you into a focused, almost meditative state. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist or crafter, the library can be a resource for your creativity.