Read to the dogs

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Kanawha County Public Library is again offering the Tales to Tails program, which helps children who have difficulty reading, especially reading aloud.

Often working with a therapy dog helps young readers relax while they practice a new skill in a fun way. The drop-in program is geared for new and hesitant readers from kindergarten through sixth grade. Here is the program schedule:

Main Library: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 15, Oct. 20, Nov. 17

Dunbar Branch Library: 3 to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 9

Cross Lanes Branch Library: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 16

Elk Valley Branch Library: 2 to 4 p.m. Nov. 6.

Sissonville Branch Library: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13

'Little House' portrayal

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Storyteller, actor and writer Karen Vuranch will portray Laura Ingalls Wilder, homesteader and author of the "Little House" books, at several county libraries in a living history performance that blends scholarly research and active dialogue.

This portrayal spans Wilder's life in the Dakota Territory and Missouri, where Wilder began to write for local newspapers and magazines. Missouri is also where Wilder began to write accounts of her family's life in what became the best-selling "Little House" books. The performance schedule:

Main Library: 2 p.m. Sept. 10

Riverside Public Library: 10 a.m. Sept. 13

St. Albans Branch Library: 1 p.m. Sept. 13

Elk Valley Branch Library: 10 a.m. Sept. 14

Cross Lanes Branch Library: 2 p.m. Sept. 14.

Wesleyan poet published

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. -- The University of Pittsburgh Press has published a collection of poems by Aaron Smith, an assistant professor of English at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

"'Appetite' explores the American mythologies of masculinity and film," says a news release from the press, "as the poet investigates our fascinations with the body, gender and entertainment."

Author David Trinidad is quoted: "Aaron Smith has inherited, from the openly gay poets of the New York school, a commitment to telling it like it is. Smith's lack of pretense is enhanced by his anger at the intolerance of heteronormalcy and religiosity. Like Frank O'Hara, Smith knows the true gods are at the movies. Shirtless male celebrities -- for this poet, there is no better paradise."