Youth attendees will code using the Library’s iPads and Blue Bots to conquer challenges.

Get Registered:   

Innovation Studio – Saturday, November 28: 11 am at Aalfs Downtown Library

STEM Playground (Ages 4 – 8)

Children will listen to stories and explore the basics of electrical currents, learning engineering concepts through creative play and independent thinking using Squishy Circuits.

Get Registered:   

• STEM Playground – Saturday, April 25: 11 am at Aalfs Downtown Library

Now through November 30, cast your vote to help select the next Sioux City Reads title at SiouxCityLibrary.org/siouxcityreads. Copies of each book are available for check out at any Sioux City Public Library location.

Vote for one of the following three exciting titles:

In Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear, Natalie is an elite “tradwife” influencer who curates a rustic paradise for her 8 million followers—hiding a team of nannies and high-end appliances behind the scenes. But her performative life shatters when she suddenly wakes up trapped in the brutal reality of 1855. Stripped of modern luxuries, Natalie is forced to trade her curated lifestyle for actual frontier survival, hauling firewood and handwashing clothes until her fingers bleed. Darkly funny, electrifying, and deeply provocative, Yesteryear is a gripping exploration of tradition, fame, and the grand performance of modern womanhood.

In Nina McConigley’s bold debut novel How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, tween Georgie Ayyar and her sister Agatha Krishna make a startling confession: they killed their newly arrived uncle, and they blame the British. Set in 1986 in rural Wyoming, the story unravels the violence hiding within their house, history, and the sisters’ once-unshakeable bond. Cheeky, unflinching, and deeply authentic to the teenage experience, Georgie’s story uses 1980s pop culture and magazine quizzes to navigate race, family, and survival as an Indian American in the heart of the American West.

Hungered by Amanda Rizkalla is a striking debut novel about twelve-year-old Sofia, who lives in a car with her mother and younger brother. As her mother searches for a safe spot to park each night among a blur of freeways and strip malls, Sofia struggles to carve out an identity while navigating her family’s painful disintegration. Haunting, lyrical, and emotionally charged, this nominee captures the stark reality of economic insecurity and displacement. Rizkalla delivers an indelible ode to survival, memory, and a young girl’s relentless search for home in all its forms.

The chosen book will be announced in December and will serve as inspiration for events, discussions, and Beanstack challenges throughout the upcoming 2027 Sioux City Reads initiative. Visit the Library’s website, Facebook page, or sign-up for the Library’s e-newsletter at SiouxCityLibrary.org/news to stay up-to-date on the exciting upcoming events.

The chosen book will serve as inspiration for events, discussions, and challenges throughout the upcoming 2027 Sioux City Reads initiative.  

2027 Sioux City Reads Nominee Hungered by Amanda Rizkalla is a striking debut brings to life an unforgettable young narrator and the complicated, loving, cruel, and generous figures that make up her universe.   

“A riveting new novel from first-time author Amanda Rizkalla compassionately tackles the difficult subject of families who live outside the margins, living unhoused, and makes us see not only their struggles, but their hopes, dreams, and the perseverance it takes to face another day.” —Oprah 

Sofia’s mother promises that soon she’ll have her own bedroom to decorate. Soon, too, she’ll be able to see her friends, go back to school, and eat the colorful, tempting cakes in the grocery store’s display case. For now, though, twelve-year-old Sofia lives with her mother and younger brother in their car. For now, Sofia’s days are a blur of freeways and strip malls as her mother searches for a safe place to park for the night. For now, Sofia tries to carve out a space and an identity for herself while grappling with her family’s disintegration. 

This haunting and lyrical novel captures the fault lines of an existence marked by economic insecurity, exploring what it means to come of age during a moment of displacement. Beautiful, evocative, and emotionally charged, Amanda Rizkalla’s Hungered is an indelible ode to survival, memory, and the search for home in its many forms.

“With spare, elegant prose, Rizkalla captures the world and its contradictions perfectly through Sofia’s eyes. . . .Thoughtful and wise, Hungered is a powerful and resonant read.” —Shelf Awareness 

The winner will be announced in December. Visit SiouxCityLibrary.org/siouxcityreads, the Library’s Facebook page, or sign-up for the Library’s e-newsletter at SiouxCityLibrary.org/news to get all the latest updates.  

The chosen book will serve as inspiration for events, discussions, and challenges throughout the upcoming 2027 Sioux City Reads initiative.  

2027 Sioux City Reads Nominee Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke is the story of a traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, who suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. 

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it. 

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. 

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood. 

“Funny and sharp enough to draw blood from both sexes. This book is going to be around for a long time.” —Stephen King 

“A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear…will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page.” —Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series 

The winner will be announced in December. Visit SiouxCityLibrary.org/siouxcityreads, the Library’s Facebook page, or sign-up for the Library’s e-newsletter at SiouxCityLibrary.org/news to get all the latest updates.  

The chosen book will serve as inspiration for events, discussions, and challenges throughout the upcoming 2027 Sioux City Reads initiative.  

2027 Sioux City Reads Nominee How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley is a bold, inventive, and fiercely original debut novel that begins with an uncle dead and his tween niece’s private confession to the reader—she and her sister killed him, and they blame the British. 

Summer, 1986. The Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and young cousin—newly arrived from India—into their house in rural Wyoming where they’ll all live together. Because this is what families do. That is, until the sisters decide that it’s time for their uncle to die. 

 According to Georgie, the British are to blame. And to understand why, you need to hear her story. She details the violence hiding in their house and history, her once-unshakeable bond with Agatha Krishna, and her understanding of herself as an Indian-American in the heart of the West. Her account is, at every turn, cheeky, unflinching, and infectiously inflected with the trappings of teendom, including the magazine quizzes that help her make sense of her life. 

“I have been waiting for Nina McConigley’s debut novel for years and it’s even better than I could have imagined.” — Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts 

“A vivid portrait of an extended family, a moving story of sisterhood, and a playful ode to the 80s—all packaged as a murder mystery (of sorts).” —People 

 “A love letter to the 1980s as a tragic reminder of the vulnerability of young girls.” —Elle 

The winner will be announced in December. Visit SiouxCityLibrary.org/siouxcityreads, the Library’s Facebook page, or sign-up for the Library’s e-newsletter at SiouxCityLibrary.org/news to get all the latest updates.  

Where: Morningside Branch Library
When: Saturday, November 7 at 11 am

*This is the same talk that was given at the Aalfs Downtown Library on Tuesday, October 20.

Parking is free at the Aalfs Downtown Library on weekends.

Where: Aalfs Downtown Library (529 Pierce Street)
When: Saturday, November 7 at 11 am
Who: All Ages

Registration is limited to 50 children. If you register and then find you will not make it, please cancel your registration before the event so that others may attend. You can cancel your registration by following the link in the confirmation email you receive.

For questions, please contact the Youth Services desk at 712-255-2933 ext. 2231.

Build healthy habits while developing a love of reading in children. Led by students from Briar Cliff University’s Exercise and Health Sciences program, each session blends storytime with simple movement activities such as hopping, jumping, balancing, and playful games.  

Two In-Person Sessions:
10 – 11 am at Morningside Branch Library
5 to 6 pm at the Aalfs Downtown Library (free parking in the evening)

November’s title is Someone is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez.

In this rich book of essays—“excursions through death,” she calls them—Enriquez travels through North and South America, Europe and Australia, visiting Paris’s catacombs, Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery, New Orleans’s above ground mausoleums, Buenos Aires’s opulent Recoleta, and more. Enriquez investigates each cemetery’s history and architecture, its saints and ghosts, its caretakers and visitors, and, of course, its dead.

Can’t make it to the in-person meetings? Sign up to attend the Virtual Book Club via Zoom on November 4 from 12 noon to 1 pm – Get Registered Here!

Costumes welcome!

When: Saturday, October 31 from 2 to 3 pm
Where: Aalfs Downtown Library
Who: Grades K-5