St. John the Baptist Parish Library System will be celebrating the Easter holiday at all branches.

The Leroy D. Williams Memorial Library (Reserve) will host its monthly “Make Shoppe” at 6 p.m. April 8, where adult patrons are invited to make Wooden Easter Signs for the holiday.

Patrons are invited to the Roland Borne Sr. Memorial Library (Edgard) at 4 p.m. April 10 to create “Peeps Mason Jars.”

An “Easter Egg Hunt” will be held at 5 p.m. April 15 at the Leroy D. Williams Memorial Library, where children, ages 2 and up, are welcome to attend with their adult caregiver.

The Reserve library will also host “Morning Makers” at 10 a.m. April 16 for adult patrons. The craft made will be a Muslin Bunny Centerpiece.

An “Easter Egg Hunt” will be held at 5 p.m. April 17 at the Roland Borne Sr. Memorial Library, and children of all ages are welcome to search for eggs hidden within library premises.

The Leroy D. Williams Memorial Library invites children ages 6 and up to make “Easter Bunny Slime” at 4:30 p.m. April 17.

The Norris J. Millet Sr. Library (LaPlace) will host an “Easter Egg Hunt” at 10:30 a.m. April 18 for children, ages 1 and up, along with their parents.

The Frazee-Harris Memorial Library (Garyville) will host an Easter inspired “Simply Paint” April 18, where children, ages 8 and up, can create something beautiful.

Children, ages 10 and up, are invited to the Leroy D. Williams Memorial Library to make “Monogram Easter Canvases” at 5:30 p.m. April 18. Children, ages 6 and up, are also invited at 10 a.m. April 20 for an “Easter Craft Make and Take.”

April will be an exciting time to attend St. John the Baptist Parish Libraries as we celebrate National Library Week April 7-13 as a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association.

It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and promote library use and support. The American Library Association theme for this year is “Libraries = Strong Communities.”

The theme encourages communities to tell their stories of how libraries led them to something of value in their lives.

The Roland Borne Sr. Memorial Library will be hosting a few events to celebrate.

“Corner Bookmarkers” at 3:30 p.m. April 9, where children, ages 6 to 12, are invited to make corner bookmarks in different cool, colorful designs and shapes.

Tweens and teens are welcome to attend a “Teen Crafternoon” at 4 p.m. April 11. They will paint bookends to add some pizazz to the Teen section of the library.

On April 12, “Bookface” will be held at 3:30 p.m. — adult patrons choose a book, working themselves into the cover art and then take a selfie creating a Bookface. For more information, please call 985-497-3453.

The St. John the Baptist Parish Library System is also proud to celebrate “National Poetry Month.”

The Roland Borne Sr. Memorial Library is hosting “Blackout Poetry” at 3 p.m. April 11, where tweens and teens create a fun way to see literature in a new light with Blackout Poetry.

This technique allows the poet to blackout existing words from the page, thus revealing new meaning and life to the remaining words. They then recite their poems in a jam session style.

The Norris J. Millet Sr. Library will host a Digital Poetry Contest April 1-20. Adults, teens and children are encouraged to participate by uploading their best poem to the St. John the Baptist Parish Library’s Facebook Page.

The poem with the most likes in each age group wins a prize.

Poetry lyrics may be submitted in written or video form.

If you aren’t a poet, but know someone who may be interested in participating, please encourage them to enter. Winners will be announced April 29th.

For a full list of all programs, refer to the online calendar on our website, Facebook (St. John the Baptist Parish Library) or pick up a newsletter at any of our four branches.

All library branches will be closed for Good Friday (April 19) and for Easter on April 21.

Kearston Poché is the administrative services coordinator for St. John the Baptist Parish Library. She can be reached at 985-652-6587.