Library hosts fun out of the sun

The Coeur d’Alene Library has gone to the movies. Four Wednesdays in a row, beginning on Aug. 6, there will be free children’s movies shown in the Shirley Parker Theater at the library at 11 a.m.

“Depending on how long they are, you may get one or two each time,” said Peggy Smith, youth services clerk at the library.

“Angus Gets Lost,” “Blueberries for Sal,” “Corduroy,” “Curious George,” “Frog and Toad,” “The Napping House” and “A Nightmare in My Closet” will be shown.

“We will serve popcorn to the children, and it’s right on the park – it’s just such a nice location,” said Smith. The Coeur d’Alene Public Library opened in its new location in October.

The summer children’s reading program is over, and participants will celebrate their reading achievements at a carnival in the park on Wednesday.

“We have given out more than 700 reading logs, but we don’t know how many children will be coming,” Smith said. “There will be hot dogs and games and prizes in the park – this is something we couldn’t do in our old location.”

On Aug. 9 at 7 p.m. the library will have a screening of three classic silent films by North Idaho filmmaker Nell Shipman. Born in 1892, Shipman began her acting career as a teen and, after marrying Ernest Shipman, quickly became a movie star. Shipman made some of her own movies in Hollywood, a very unusual thing for a woman at the time, then in 1922 moved to North Idaho, where she set up camp on the banks of Priest Lake.

Locals often appeared in her films, and she had quite a menagerie of animals living with her – but success never came.

The Coeur d’Alene Library will show three films that she made near Priest Lake. They are part of the “Little Dramas of the Big Places” series Shipman wrote and produced.

“She was outspoken and innovative and daring; I think she must have been a hoot to know,” said Smith. “These films would be fun for the whole family to watch, not just the adults.”