How to Haunt Your Local Library: A guide for grown-up ghouls

Who says Halloween fun is just for kids? The coolest ghouls know that WPL is the place to be for free, fun programming all October long! From spooky talks to creepy crafts, the Main Library is brewing up Halloween fun for adults! Best of all? It’s all free! Just show up and be ready to have fun!

Want to stay home and read a book, watch a movie, or try your hand at ghost hunting? We can help with that too! Yes, we really have a ghost hunting kit - more on that later. 

Please note: Some programs require registration. Check the program description for more details. 

Events for Adults: Free and open to the public, ages 18 & older. 

DIY Crafts

Join us every Wednesday from 3 - 4:30 in the Innovation Center! Crafts include paint scrape ghosts, spider web decor, spooky miniature art and haunted houses. No registration is required but supplies are limited. Please note all crafts are subject to change.

Ghosts! Strange Tales from 13 Years of Paranormal Investigating

Join us on Tuesday, October 27 from 6:30-7:30 pm to explore unexplained evidence and lessons learned from a seasoned paranormal investigator. Dr. Joanna MacGugan shares stories from her paranormal adventures and demonstrates how you, too, can investigate haunted locations. Click here to register.

Snacks and Suspects: True Crime Book Club - Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 7 pm

October's selection is Captain's Dinner: A Shipwreck, an Act of Cannibalism, and a Murder Trial That Changed Legal History by New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed journalist Adam Cohen. This thought-provoking true story follows four shipwrecked men stranded in a lifeboat, forced to confront an impossible question: How far would you go to survive? Click here to register. 

Virtual Science Fiction Book Club - Tuesday, October 20 at 1 pm

Spooky sci-fi more your vibe? Join our science fiction book club online to discuss The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson. This sequel to Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, follows a mutated alien microbe that resurfaced in the Amazon jungle and the threat it poses to global extinction. Click here to get the meeting link. 

Medicine Making 101: Harnessing Your Inner Kitchen Witch, Presented by Nora Toomey, Clinical Herbalist  - Saturday, October 24 at 2 pm

This is a beginner's guide to making plant medicine using the "folk method." The folk method is a traditional way of making herbal medicine that does not involve fancy equipment, just basic kitchen measuring tools. In this one-hour class, we will go over how to make an herbal syrup, an herbal infused oil, a salve, and a tincture, as well as the plants that would best be extracted using each preparation, and applications for these remedies. Click here to register.

Plants as Muse: Mugwort, Artemis, and the Moon, Presented by Nora Toomey, Clinical Herbalist - Saturday, November 7 at 2 pm

Explore the imagery, deities, planetary rulings, and magical properties associated with Mugwort in this creative art making program. Participants will also receive a pouch of Mugwort, so you can continue your creative (and medicinal!) dance with this marvelous plant. Click here to register.

Watch with One Eye Open!

Patrons with a WPL card can access Kanopy, a streaming service with films, television shows, and documentaries for all ages. You can download the app on your smart TV, mobile device or tablet. Kanopy has a vast selection of films, so it's a great place to look for spooky season!

Good Boy, an emotional drama featuring a dog named Indy who battles supernatural forces with his human, Todd, is great for those looking for light scares and overall creepy vibes. And don't worry, the dog doesn't get hurt. 

If you love new tales based on classic monsters, try A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The first Iranian vampire western, Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature follows a lonely vampire who is stalking the towns most unsavory inhabitants. But when boy meets girl, an unusual love story begins to blossom. If you're looking for comedy, look no further than comedic royalty Marlon Wayans and Cedric the Entertainer in A Haunted House. In the mood for larger than life creature features? Try Sam Raimi's Crawl or Guillermo Del Toro's Mimic.

Read with the Lights On

Whether you read books or listen to them, a scary story can have you looking over your shoulder at night. Click on the link in the title to place a hold on a copy.

Frightful Frontiers: Western Horror

Fans of Yellowstone and Marshalls will enjoy the newly released horror- western The Unheld by Luke Larkin. This story follows twelve-year old Charlie as she journeys across the Montana wilderness to find her father who's been dragged away in the night by a mysterious creature.

For a western that blends the supernatural with American history, add Stephen Graham Jones' The Buffalo Hunter Hunter to your list. Selected as one of The New York Times' 100 Notable Books of the Year, this chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation looking for justice.

Enter if You Dare: Haunted Places 

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, The Reformatory is a gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice for the living and the dead. 

Written by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium follows a student suffering from tuberculosis at a health resort in western Poland. Every day, its residents gather in the dining room to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur, to obsess over money and status, and to discuss the great issues of the day: Will there be war? Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women inherently inferior? Meanwhile, disturbing things are beginning to happen in the guesthouse and its surroundings. As stories of shocking events in the surrounding highlands reach the men, a sense of dread builds.

Hanging with my Boo: Paranormal Romance 

In Emma R. Alban's Happily Ever Afterlife,

struggling writer Frannie encounters the ghost of a young girl while living and working in Manhattan's famously haunted Dakota Building. She soon meets the girl's ghostly family, including Elsa, their attractive and aloof mother. As Frannie secretly begins writing about Elsa, friendship develops into romance, forcing her to choose between her ambitions as a novelist and finding a way to free the ghostly family from the building that has held them for generations.

A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna follows Sera Swan, who used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Now running an enchanted inn with her great-aunt, she encounters Luke, a magical historian, who may be able to help her with the spell to get her magic back. Oh, and there's a talking, slightly villainous fox too. 

Maximum Occupancy: Possession

The Possession of Alba Diaz takes place in 1765 as a plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, violent convulsions, and senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. 

Tradwife takes us inside the life of influencer Camille Deming. When she isn’t cooking, cleaning, or homesteading in her picture-perfect country farmhouse, she’s posting about her tradwife lifestyle for her online followers. With her marriage in limbo, Camille finds a mysterious, decrepit well in the wheatfield behind her house and makes a wish for a baby. Shortly after, she finds that she is pregnant with a rapidly developing fetus and a craving for raw meat. 

Library of Things 

Books are not the only items you can borrow from the library. Get ready for Halloween with our Library of Things collection! Whether you’re planning a party, trying your hand at a DIY costume, or looking to add a little extra magic to your Halloween festivities, we’ve got things you can borrow to make this October extra spooky! 

One Night Ultimate Werewolf
This is a fast-paced game for 3-10 players where everyone is dealt a secret role. Many of these roles have special abilities that will aid that player in gaining information.  In the course of only one night and the following morning, the players will determine who among them is a werewolf...hopefully. Click here to place a hold. 

Ghost Hunting Kit 

Whether you want to delve into the unknown, find the source of those odd noises in your house, or just want to pretend you're a ghost hunter, our ghost hunting kit is sure to entertain you. Click here to place a hold. 

Sewing Machine

If you take the DIY route, you can borrow our sewing machine to add the final touch to your costume. Click here to place a hold.

Tarot Cards

Curious about what the cards have to say? Tarot is a centuries-old tradition featuring a deck of richly illustrated cards, each filled with symbols, stories, and plenty of room for interpretation. Click here to place a hold. 

Ouija Board

Ready to spell out a little mystery? Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or just curious about things that go bump in the night, the Ouija board has a surprisingly interesting history. Click here to place a hold. 

Karaoke Machine and Party Lights

Whether you're hosting an elegant soiree with your vampire friends or a zombie rave, we've got you covered for supplies to put on a graveyard smash! Click here to view our catalog of entertainment items, which includes DJ lighting, a disco light, strobe lights, warming trays, and folding tables!

Want to hear your guests ruin beloved songs that will haunt you for eternity? Check out our karaoke machine! Click here to place a hold. 

Have questions? Call us at (508) 799-1655, ext. 3 or use our email service here. 

Happy Haunting!