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Leaves fall and books call display.

October 2026

Welcome to our monthly newsletter featuring all that's happening at your library.


A fall book display at the Strathroy Library.

Ontario Public Libraries Week

Ontario Public Library Week Loud for Libraries

Next week we'll be celebrating Ontario Public Library Week!

This year's theme is Loud for Libraries. You can join in the celebration by visiting any Middlesex County Library branch and participating in activities for a chance to win!

Earn ballots by:

→ Playing our OPLW Bingo

→ Completing the OPLW scavenger hunt

→ Attending any library program

→ Telling us why the library is important to you!

There will be one winner at every branch, and a system-wide grand prize winner. Hope to see you at the library!

Programs and Services

A photo of a child playing a video game.
Register Now

Exploring Privacy in Digital Gaming

Families will explore privacy in digital gaming with researchers from Western University and the University of Waterloo. Learn how game interfaces shape privacy choices and what happens when players share personal information, at this hands-on workshop for children and parents. Registration required.


Where:  Komoka Library, 1 Tunks Lane

When:  Thursday, October 29 at 5:30pm

An older woman drives a car.

Driving Safely into Your Seniors Years

Join Kristy from the MTO to learn the process for renewing your driver's license once you are over the age of 80. This session also includes statistics, trends, tips, and a review of rules. Drop-in, no registration required.


Thorndale Library: Tuesday, October 20 at 10:30am

Dorchester Library: Saturday, October 24 at 11:00am

Assorted Stack of Hardcover and Paperback Books

Fall Used Book Sales

Purchase gently used books in support of library programs.

Parkhill Library: October 19-24

Thorndale Library: November 14-21

Glencoe Library: November 23-28

Strathroy Library: November 26-28

Sorry We are Closed Sign on Window

Upcoming Closures

All Middlesex County Library branches will be closed Tuesday, November 3rd for staff training and Wednesday, November 11th for Remembrance Day. 

Middlesex EarlyON

Orange and Yellow Leaves Falling

Fall Loose Parts Play & Creative Expression

Fall will inspire us to explore a variety of loose parts, recycled materials and natural elements for open-ended play and creative expression! Children age 2–6 years and caregivers.


Weekend Explorers 

Saturday, October 17 | 10 a.m.–12 p.m. Ilderton Library 

Drop-in — no registration required!


Evening Explorers 

Wednesday, October 21 | 5:30–7 p.m. Dorchester Library Registration required: register now.

Zumbini in Ailsa Craig

Get ready to sing, move and have fun together! Zumbini® uses music and movement to support early childhood development while creating a special bonding experience.


Where: Locality Wellness Hub
138 Ailsa Craig Main St., Ailsa Craig

When: Tuesdays | 5:30–7:00 p.m.
October 27 • November 24 • December 1 • December 8


For children 6 months to 4 years & their caregivers.

No cost to participate. Drop-in — no registration required!

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Little Sensory Seekers

Experience the magic of light sensory play! Light sensory play uses lights, shadows, and transparent materials to stimulate imagination and creativity in child development. 


Where: Strathroy Library, 34 Frank Street 

When: Saturday, October 17 | 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.


Drop-in — no registration required!

For more information about Middlesex EarlyON email earlyon@middlesex.ca or call 519-666-3227. 

 Community Pantries

Community Pantries are intended to provide emergency food relief to residents of the local community.  They are maintained through community partnerships and the support of community members. Anyone is welcome to anonymously take what they need from a Community Pantry.  Donations are needed at all locations, simply leave appropriate items in the pantry. 

Pantries can be found at the Dorchester, Glencoe, Lucan, Parkhill and Strathroy Libraries.

Visit our website to learn more.

Staff Picks

Click on the book cover to place a hold.

The Castaways

Lucy Clarke

Two years ago, a small plane disappeared over Fiji. For Erin, it's been two years of obsessing over every detail, refusing to move forward even as life does. Her sister Lori was on that plane, and Erin was meant to be, too, but after a bitter argument, she failed to show. Everyone thinks Lori is dead, but Erin refuses to let go. Just when Erin is on the verge of losing hope, the pilot of the missing plane turns up, seemingly with no memory of the crash. In a final bid to find her sister, Erin travels alone to a remote Fijian island-but what she discovers is beyond anything she could have predicted.


Suggested by Victoria, Library Assistant

Venom by Cullen Bunn: The Complete Collection

Cullen Bunn

Cullen Bunn's explosive Venom run is collected in full.

One of comics' wildest writers takes on the symbiotic super hero: Flash Thompson, the Secret Avenger called Agent Venom.


Suggested by Quinn, Thorndale Student Assistant

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Matt Dinniman

You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That's what. Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world--or just get to the next level--in a video game-like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that's actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy.


Suggested by Carolyn, Dorchester Branch Assistant

Land

Maggie O'Farrell

On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster. The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is unexpectedly sent off course by an unsettling encounter.


Suggested by Shelah, Komoka Branch Assistant

The Midnight Train by Matt Haig

Palaces of the Crow

Ray Nayler

Neriya, a young Jewish girl who dreams of becoming a biologist, has befriended a local flock of crows in her shtetl. Czeslaw is an underage Polish soldier who deserts the Red Army and runs into the freezing Lithuanian woods. Kezia is a Roma horse trader whose family is on the run from Soviet collectivization. As the German blitzkrieg crashes across the border in June 1941, all three are caught up in the onslaught. Along with Innokentiy, an abandoned boy who cannot speak, they are driven into the primeval forest, where they survive by forming an unbreakable bond with one another--and with Neriya's intelligent crows, who for years have been bringing her intricate gifts suggesting they are no ordinary corvids.


Suggested by Krista, Parkhill Branch Assistant

We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada's Troubled Hockey Culture

Rick Westhead

A hard-hitting and powerful look at hockey's moment of reckoning in Canada, and the ways in which a game that is so universally loved has been rocked in recent years by court cases involving sexual assault and startling incidents of hazing and abuse throughout junior hockey.


Suggest by Amanda, Dorchester Branch Assistant

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