Cosmos Library News for April 2026

Spring is here! As you get out of the house more, stop at the library for some social time, some seeds or, as always, some books or DVDs.

Pokémon Trading Card Game time has started again for the spring. Stop at the library to play Pokémon on Thursdays from 4:00 to 5:30 until the end of May. There’s no need to sign up, and it’s free! This program is for kids and teens ages 7 to 18. Children younger than age 8 must have an adult or teen caregiver with them, and parents and grandparents are always welcome to stay. New players are encouraged to attend and learn how to use Pokémon cards to play the game. The library has all of the cards needed, but kids can bring their own cards if they wish. This spring there will be some small prizes! Experienced and new players are invited to play in a friendly learning environment.

Need tax forms? The library has the basic federal 1040 and 1040-SR forms and instructions plus schedule 1-A in print available to pick up. If you need state forms or instructions or different federal forms printed, you can do that with the library computers, or library staff can print them for you, if you know what you need. Staff cannot give any tax advice. Forms printed from the library’s computers cost ten cents per page if they’re in black and white.

The seed library is available again! This is a good time of year to start seeds indoors for plants that have growing seasons that are too long for a Minnesota summer. No library card is needed, and this free resource is open to all ages. You may take four small envelopes of seeds per week. These aren’t full size seed packets, just enough to try growing something new.

Craft Circle continues on the fourth Saturday of the month: April 25, 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 has adult coloring sheets and colored pencils. Open to adults and teens age 16 and up. No need to sign up.

April’s Take-Home Tuesday craft for kids will be a spring bookmark kit. It will be available starting on April 14^th, while supplies last. One per child, please. As always, these are free.

Cosmos Public Library now has an Instagram account! Follow it to get updates on library activities.

National Library Week will be April 19th to 25th this year. The theme is “Find Your Joy.” Perhaps you can find some joy in new novels at the library, including these:

“Evelyn in Transit” by David Guterson

“A Gift Before Dying” by Malcolm Kempt

“The Heir of Whitestone” by Catherine Coulter

“Save Me, Stranger” by Erika Krouse.

Cosmos 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.

Cosmos Library is starting Thursday afternoon Pokémon Trading Card Game time again! Beginning March 19, this program will be offered every Thursday through May 28, 4-5:30 p.m. Open to kids ages 7-18. Children under age 8 must be accompanied by an adult or teen caregiver. Caregivers are welcome to stay with kids at any time.

Never played Pokémon before? We can teach you! No cards? No problem. The library has all the cards needed to play. Want to bring your own cards? That’s okay, too.

No need to sign up or to attend every week. Free!

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

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!