December library news and book club festivities

In this week's From the Library newsletter, learn about the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club's winter party and book swap, see a snow-themed book display and read about Red Stars, the new Middle School Book Club book by Davide Morosinotto. 

Young Adult Book Books Book Club

On December 9, members of the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club gathered for a festive winter celebration during ARE time. The cozy event combined delicious treats, literary discoveries, and the joy of sharing favorite reads with fellow book lovers.

Schuyler Hagge brought a homemade hot cocoa cake, while Maya Sluka contributed tasty toffee for everyone to enjoy. As students sampled the sweet treats, they dove into discussions about this year's National Book Award finalists and winner in Young Adult Literature, exploring what makes these books stand out in contemporary teen fiction.

The group also looked ahead to Teen Lit Mob in April, an event that celebrates young adult literature and brings readers together around powerful stories. Students shared enthusiastic book recommendations with each other, highlighting diverse voices and perspectives in YA literature, before participating in a book swap where everyone could take home a new-to-them title.

The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club continues to create a welcoming space for students to discover stories that reflect a wide range of experiences and identities while building community around their shared love of reading.

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Middle School Book Club

The Middle School Book Club is just finishing up The Lost Year by Katerine Marsh and looking forward to their next book Red Stars: The Case of Viktor and Nadya's Notebooks by Davide Morosinotto. During the first quarter students have been reading The Lost Year, discussing Russian and Ukranian history during the 1930s and journaling in their notebooks about the characters' experiences and their own. With this background knowledge, students will be learning about Russian history during World War II in the 1940s through the notebooks of Viktor and Nadya. Red Stars is translated from the Italian into English and is told through journal entries, photos, maps and documents. The publisher's note states, "... this fictionalized account of the Nazi siege of Leningrad during the Second World War, this heart-stopping story of danger, courage and bravery emphasizes the power of truth and what it means to be a hero."

Yoh Theatre performs "Alice by Heart"

Photo by Nancy Nutile-McMenemy

The Yoh Theatre players recently brought the musical "Alice by Heart" to life with performances from December 12-14, 2025. This acclaimed show by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater reimagines Alice in Wonderland against the backdrop of the London Blitz, weaving together themes of love, loss, and the power of imagination.

The story follows young Alice and her ailing friend Alfred as they escape into the fantastical world of Wonderland to cope with the trauma and uncertainty of war. Through Sheik and Sater's evocative music and lyrics—from the creative team behind "Spring Awakening"—the production explores how storytelling and friendship can offer solace in the darkest times.

Over 50 students from grades 7-12 participated in this ambitious production, taking on roles both onstage and behind the scenes as tech crew members. Their dedication and talent brought this complex, emotionally rich musical to our community.

Congratulations to all of our Yoh Theatre players and theatre director Marcia Bender on a remarkable show!

The student group’s next show is Treasure Island. More photos from Alice by Heart are available on the Yoh Theatre website.

Art students observe and take landscape photographs at the Hall Art Foundation

Students with Back of a Snowman, 2001 by Gary Hume

On December 1, art students took a field trip to the Hall Art Foundation in Reading, Vermont to see exhibits of Joel Sternfeld's photography and Gladys Nilsson's paintings. This trip was inspired by a lesson on the Hudson River School that Ms. Piccoli taught to Ms. Jimerson's painting classes, which led us to the exhibit of American photographer Joel Sternfeld's photos from his American Prospects and Highline series.

Sternfeld was influenced by Hudson River School painters like Thomas Cole. As Molly Fielder ‘29 pointed out, his photograph The Abandoned Uranium Refinery, 1982 on Navajo lands is very similar to Cole's painting The Oxbow, 1836 in how he captures dark storm clouds moving in on one side and the sun breaking through on the other, creating a contrast between dark and light in the sky. Adelle Danilchick ‘27 described the paintings of the Hudson River School and this photograph by Sternfeld as "sublime."

Addison Blanchard ‘28 is doing an independent study in art and she works as a gallery attendant at the Hall Art Foundation on the weekends. After Ms. Piccoli engaged the students in a Visual Thinking Strategies exercise with Sternfeld’s photo titled McLean Virginia, 1978, Addison did the debrief with the students explaining the “artist is like an author” and the photographer “frames the image you are seeing.”

While students were going through the exhibits, the AP Photography class was also working on a photography assignment. Max van der Schoot ‘26 stated about her landscape photograph taken on the grounds of the Hall Art Foundation that, “These footsteps show that winter (the season) makes the natural world change. I remember that Sternfeld wanted to show the seasons and that he felt he was sometimes “chasing” them. I wanted to capture the season, winter, in one of mine and show how the footsteps are chasing after it.”

Thank you very much to the Hall Art Foundation for making this trip possible through their free educational programming and their generous bus transportation reimbursement program.

Molly Fielder ‘29 holds Thomas Cole's The Oxbow (1836) in front of Joel Sternfeld's photograph Abandoned Uranium Refinery, 1982

Addison Blanchard ‘28 doing the debrief of McLean, Virginia, December 1978 by Joel Sternfeld.

Following in Someone’s Footsteps, December 2025 by Max van der Schoot ‘26

CRAFT students sell apple cider waffles with student-made maple syrup at Wassail

CRAFT students Sophia Rosenbach, Aleks Cirovic, Brody Allen, Hannah Lantigne, Ashton Perkins and Lindsey St. Cyr spent several hours in the cold on Saturday selling waffles to the many people at the annual Wassail celebration in Woodstock. People loved the waffles and were pleased to donate to the CRAFT program. Students raised money to help support the different field experiences and speakers we learn from in CRAFT.

Local legislators visit 8th grade American Studies classes

Before Thanksgiving break, 8th Grade American Studies classes invited some of our local legislators—both Democrat and Republican—to visit. Students developed many of their questions ahead of time and shared them with the legislators before their visits. The focus was "taxes in, public services out," the economics and government model we'll continue to build on as we study both capitalism and communism.

Students are shown here with Killington Representative Jim Harrison. Other classes welcomed Senator Alison Clarkson and Representative Charlie Kimbell, both of Woodstock. Student questions touched on a wide variety of topics but especially focused on the Governor's school redistricting plans and the possibility of a new building for WUHSMS.

We also learned last week that Jim Harrison is moving out of state in January and resigning his office. Killington and the other towns he represents will soon have a new governor-appointed State Representative until the next election.