Happy Halloween!

Marley's going trick or treating, how about you?

Trick or Treat, Marley! by John Grogan

It's Halloween, the silliest and spookiest night of the year. And when Marley's around, it's also the messiest! This year the family is throwing a big Halloween party, and Marley wants to help with the preparations. But in typical Marley fashion, instead of helping he causes havoc. He gets his head stuck in a pumpkin, turns the streamers into confetti, eats all of the Halloween candy, and that's just the beginning!

Boo to You!

Boo to You! by Lois Ehlert

Garden-fresh vegetables are utilized in the illustrations of this Halloween story, in which mice are looking forward to their annual Halloween-night feast. Scary Cat has not been invited to the party, but he seems to think he's coming anyway. Can the mice come up with a clever trick to outsmart him?

Treats in the Streets this afternoon - Downtown Hartsville

 

Treats in the Streets tonight in Downtown Hartsville from 4:30 until 6:30 pm.

 

Stop in and pick up one of our cute Halloween books while you're here!

 

Dora's Halloween Adventure - Sarah Willson

 

Join Dora on the candy trail in this fun Halloween adventure!

Oh, no! Swiper swiped Boots's Halloween candy! Follow the candy trail to help Dora and Boots find where he hid it, and don't miss the other spooky surprises along the way!

 

 

 

Need any Halloween gift bags or partyware - half price!

 

Halloween gift wrap and partyware - half price! 

The Pumpkin Gospel

The Pumpkin Gospel by Mary Manz Simon

The Halloween tradition of pumpkin carving is used as a metaphor for the gospel message to show how God cleans out all of the yucky stuff and puts a light within believers to shine for Him. Shaped like a pumpkin, this book also features glow-in-the-dark ink throughout.

Do you remember your first ghost?

What a cute book!  Ghosts never get dirty, so don't try to wash your pet ghost!

My First Ghost by Maggie Miller and Michael Leviton;  Illustrated by Stephanie Buscema

This book comes with a free ghost! But, like any pet, ghosts need special care and attention. A playful riff on "My First Pet" books, My First Ghost teaches kids everything they need to know about taking care of their very own ghost. Debut picture book authors Miller and Leviton offer humorous tips on feeding, grooming, and ghostly games which are complemented by charming illustrations with a retro twist.

Ten Dollar Dinners!

Ten Dollar Dinners: 140 Recipes and Tips to Elevate Simple, Fresh Meals Any Night of the Week

Contributor(s):  Melissa D'Arabian (Author), Ben Fink (Photographer), Raquel Pelzel (With)     

Melissa d'Arabian, host of Food Network's "Ten Dollar Dinners" and season 5 winner of "The Next Food Network Star" makes good on the $10 promise of dinner for four in her eagerly awaited debut cookbook. For home cooks who care about what they feed their families and want to stretch their dollars, Melissa is the best guide for putting delicious meals on the table.

With four young girls ages six and under, and a hit show on Food Network, Melissa d'Arabian focuses on savvy budgeting, efficient shopping, and full-flavored cooking. "Ten Dollar Dinners" has 140 recipes and more than 100 creative, practical tips on great money-savers ("Clear-Your-Pantry Week"); inventive takes on old standby dinners (try her Moroccan Meatloaf); and how to get ingredients to last longer (keep your green onions in a glass of water and they will regrow several times over!). And with a coding system to help you create your own $10 menu, "Ten Dollar Dinners" celebrates spending with purpose, cooking with love, minimizing time spent in front of the stove, and savoring your homemade meal.

Melissa is a pro at creating satisfying meals that adults and kids alike will enjoy, using everyday ingredients and transforming them into delicious dinners. Her Potato-Bacon Torte (which, at 50 cents a serving, was one of her winning recipes on "The Next Food Network Star") shows how basic and inexpensive supermarket ingredients can be turned into an amazingly satisfying dish. Her Roasted Vegetable Tian is a great way to take advantage of deals in the produce aisle. The Four-Step Chicken Piccata offers a plan for getting food on the table in just minutes, using almost anything in the pantry.

Anyone can use this book--especially those who want to save money--and feel great about cooking sensibly for elevated, simple meals that are healthy family-pleasers.

Whoa! 95,000 blogs launched worldwide every 24 hours!

Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community

Joy Deangdeelert Cho (Author), Meg Mateo Ilasco (Editor), Grace Bonney (Foreword by)

With roughly 95,000 blogs launched worldwide every 24 hours (BlogPulse), making a fledgling site stand out isn't easy. This authoritative handbook gives creative hopefuls a leg up. Joy Cho, of the award-winning Oh Joy!, offers expert advice on starting and growing a blog, from design and finance to overcoming blogger's block, attracting readers, and more. With a foreword from Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge plus expert interviews, this book will fine-tune what the next generation of bloggers shares with the world.

Learn how to:
- Design your site
- Choose the right platform
- Attract a fan base
- Finance your blog
- Maintain work/life balance
- Manage comments
- Find content inspiration
- Overcome blogger's block
- Choose the right ads
- Develop a voice
- Protect your work
- Create a media kit
- Leverage your social network
- Take better photographs
- Set up an affiliate program
- Partner with sponsors
- Build community
- Go full-time with your blog
- And more!

New Book About Lynches River!

A History of Lynches Forks and Extended Areas on Big and Little Lynches Rivers, South Carolina

 

     A new book on the history of the Kershaw, Chesterfield, Lancaster, Lee and Darlington County areas of Lynches River has been published by Lon D. Outen.  This book should be of interest to historians, Native American enthusiasts, American Revolutionary enthusiasts, War Between the States enthusiasts, genealogists, gold mining interest, railroad enthusiasts, ghost’s buffs, and local history buffs.  This area was affected by two wars, Revolutionary and the War Between the States.     

   

     South Carolina is a state with an enormous amount of history and every year research reveals new information about its past. The Lynches Forks and surrounding areas had a rich history in the Ancient and Native American period, Colonial period, the American Revolution period, the War Between the States era, as well as commerce.  The “Forks” area is the land between the confluence of Big Lynches Creek/River and Little Lynches Creek/River in Kershaw County.   

 

     The area included in the book is Lynches Fork and surrounding areas in Kershaw, Chesterfield, Lancaster, Lee, and Darlington Counties.  The book includes historical places such as Kelly’s Bridge, Tillers Ferry, McBee (McKay), Bethune (Lynchwood), Kershaw (Welsh’s Station), Jefferson (Millersville), the Haile Gold Mine and the Brewer Gold Mine.  It describes the history of the gold mines in Lancaster, Chesterfield, and Kershaw Counties from discovery to there demise. 

 

     Navigation on Big Lynches is discussed as it impacted Darlington, Chesterfield, and Kershaw Counties from transportation of barges, rafts, boats, and steamboat hulls. 

 

     The book begins with unusual land and rock formations, bays, and caves.  It includes the period of Ancient Americans to the Natives Americans and early explorers.  In the Colonial period religion, taverns, mills, Meeting Houses and churches are discussed.  The Revolutionary War discusses the area known for Patriot support and Tory accounts terrorizing local families on Big Lynches, along with skirmishes and the Battle of Hanging Rock. 

 

      Settlers brought with them their religions and established Meeting Houses.  Churches began to appear in the late 18^th Century.  Some of the earlier churches include Gum Branch Church and Flat Creek Church. 

 

     The Antebellum Period includes plantations in and near the Forks area and identification of families living in the area.  Lynches Fork rice planations were found on both Big and Little Lynches.  Sherman’s Army came through the Forks area, affecting the Tillers Ferry area, Kelly’s Bridge area and Young’s Bridge area.  Union Troops caused devastation in these areas and some accounts from families are included. 

 

     A brief description of the Reconstruction period and a section on nearby communities are included.   The formation of the railroads including the Three C’s, C. M. &C., and SAL including mining and logging railroads in the area are listed.  Discussed are the timber, turpentine, logging, and lumber businesses from Colonial times to the early 1900’s.  Large sawmill operations, rock quarries, cotton gins, grist, flour, and corn mills are also listed. 

 

     Sharecropping and tenant farming was large in and near the Forks area until the building of the cotton mills. 

 

     A listing of bridges, branches, creeks, road, fords, ferries, muster grounds,  churches (pre-1900), post offices, houses (pre-1900), schools, doctors and dentists, leaders and officials, faith healers, treasure and ghost stories, and some cemeteries are in the book.     

     

      There is a section is devoted to the Sistare Family, a family of ship captains, whalers, merchants, and their role in the import and export business, and their migration to South Carolina from Connecticut and Spain.

 

     The cost of the book is $35.00.

Day the Johnboat Went Up the Mountain

The Day the Johnboat Went Up the Mountain:  Stories From My Twenty Years in South Carolina Maritime Archaelogy by Carl Naylor

Combining his skills as a veteran journalist and well-practiced storyteller with his two decades of underwater adventures in maritime archaeology, Carl Naylor offers a candid account of remarkable discoveries in the Palmetto State's history and prehistory. Through a mix of personal anecdotes and archaeological data, Naylor's memoir documents his experiences in the service of the Maritime Research Division of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. 

This insightful survey of Naylor's distinguished career is highlighted by his firsthand account of serving as diving officer for the raising of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley in 1996 and the subsequent investigation of its victim, the USS Housatonic. He also recounts tales of dredging the bottom of an Allendale County creek for evidence of the earliest Paleoindians, exploring the waters of Port Royal Sound for a French corsair wrecked in 1577, searching for evidence of Hernando de Soto's travels through South Carolina in 1540, and other explorations. Naylor's narrative serves as an authoritative personal account of South Carolina's ongoing efforts to discover and preserve evidence of its own remarkable maritime history.

Just Say Boo!

We've got a cute display of Halloween books that have started getting some attention in the last couple of days!

Here is Just Say Boo! by Susan Hood

If three dinosaurs roar when you open your door, what do you say?
 
"Boo!" of course! In this charmingly spooky story by Susan Hood, little trick-or-treaters learn just what to say in every Halloween situation. From rattling bones to ghostly footsteps, Susan captures all the best scares of the season--and teaches just the right way to dispel fears in favor of fun. Jed Henry's lustrous watercolors add the perfect crisp chill to this fall-weather story.   For if a skeleton groans as she rattles her bones, what do you say?

Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company - yum!

 

Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts

 

Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company has been in the Sterling family for generations, ever since Great-Grandma Rose literally dreamed up her first fabulous recipe. But now it looks as if they're about to lose Sweet Dreams to the bank--and that would be a disaster, not only for the family but for the town of Icicle Falls, Washington. Can Samantha, the oldest daughter and new head of the company, come up with a way to save it?

 

After Samantha does some brainstorming with her mother and sisters, inspiration strikes. They'll have a chocolate festival! Time's running out, but the Sterling women are determined and the town's behind them, so everything's bound to go smoothly....

 

Or not. Events seem to be conspiring against Samantha, and her mother's attempts to help aren't helping. To make matters worse, the fate of her company is in the hands of her archenemy, Blake Preston, the bank manager with the football-hero good looks. It's enough to drive her to chocolate. But Blake's also enough to convince her that (believe it or not) there's something even better than chocolate.

Halloween bags and tissue - half price!