Pioneerland libraries will be closed on Monday, February 16, for Presidents’ Day.

Pioneerland Library System has released the lists of the top checkouts of 2025:

Top adult fiction

• The quiet librarian / Allen Eskens.
• The women / Kristin Hannah.
• Battle mountain / C.J. Box.
• Lethal prey / John Sandford.
• Hidden nature / Nora Roberts.
• The tenant / Freida McFadden.
• My friends : a novel / Fredrik Backman ; translated by Neil Smith.
• The boyfriend / Freida McFadden.
• Apostle’s Cove : a novel / William Kent Krueger.
• Spirit crossing : a novel / William Kent Krueger.

Top adult nonfiction

• The let them theory : a life-changing tool that millions of people can’t stop talking about / Mel Robbins.
• The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness / Jonathan Haidt.
• Gunflint falling : blowdown in the Boundary Waters / Cary J. Griffith.
• The ultimate Minnesota cookie book : 100 best recipes from the star Tribune’s Holiday Cookie contest / Lee Svitak Dean.
• The small and the mighty : twelve unsung Americans who changed the course of history, from the founding to the civil rights movement / Sharon McMahon.
• Framed : astonishing true stories of wrongful convictions / John Grisham ; Jim McCloskey.
• House of Kahmanns : a memoir : a story about family love and shattered bonds, about finding each other in the aftermath
• The house of my mother : a daughter’s quest for freedom / Shari Franke.
• Melania / [Melania Trump].
• Everything is tuberculosis : the history and persistence of our deadliest infection / John Green.

Top young adult fiction

• Sunrise on the reaping / Suzanne Collins.
• Tokyo guru:re. English
• Bleach / [story and art by Tite Kubo ; English adaptation, Lance Caselman ; translation, Joe Yamazaki].
• One piece / story and art by Eiichiro Oda.
• Yu yu hakusho. English
• The ballad of songbirds and snakes / Suzanne Collins.
• The summer I turned pretty / Jenny Han.
• The seven deadly sins / Nakaba Suzuki ; [translator, Christine Dashiell ; lettering, James Dashiell].
• Tokyo guru:re. English
• A good girl’s guide to murder / Holly Jackson.
• Powerless / Lauren Roberts.
• Mockingjay / Suzanne Collins.
• Ouran High School host club / [story and art by] Bisco Hatori ; [English adaptation, Gary Leach ; translation, Kenichiro
• The inheritance games / Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
• One of us is lying / Karen M. McManus.
• Catching fire / Suzanne Collins.

Top picture books:

• Will the Pigeon graduate? / words and pictures by Mo Willems.
• The pigeon has to go to school! / words and pictures by Mo Willems.
• The wild robot on the island / words and pictures by Peter Brown.
• The duckling gets a cookie!? / words and picture by Mo Willems.
• Creepy crayon! / Aaron Reynolds ; illustrated by Peter Brown.
• Creepy carrots! / words, Aaron Reynolds ; pictures, Peter Brown.
• Creepy pair of underwear! / words, Aaron Reynolds ; pictures, Peter Brown.
• Pete the cat screams for ice cream! / Kimberly & James Dean.
• Little Excavator / by Anna Dewdney.
• Bluey : daddy putdown.

Top juvenile fiction:

• Dog Man. Big Jim begins / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. The scarlet shedder / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog man. Lord of the fleas / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. For whom the ball rolls / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Hot mess / by Jeff Kinney.
• Dog Man. Brawl of the wild / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. Twenty thousand fleas under the sea / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog Man. A tale of two kitties / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Dog man. Grime and punishment / written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey as George Beard and Harold Hutchins.
• Baby-sitters Club. Vol. 17, Mallory and the trouble with twins / a graphic novel by Arley Nopra.

Top DVDs

• Wicked / Universal Pictures.
• Moana 2 / directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller.
• Dog Man / Universal Pictures.
• The wild robot / DreamWorks Animation.
• Twisters / directed by Lee Isaac Chung.
• Despicable me 4 / Universal Pictures.
• Gladiator II / Paramount Pictures.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 / directed by Jeff Fowler.
• It ends with us / Columbia Pictures.
• A minecraft movie / director, screenwriter Jared Hess.

Pioneerland Library System protects your privacy according to state law and library system policy.

Per the library system’s Confidentiality of Patron Records policy:

The Library has the responsibility to protect each individual library user’s right to confidentiality and privacy relating to information sought or received and materials consulted, borrowed, or acquired.

All patron records are confidential. No library employee shall reveal the identity of a borrower to any requestor or make known in any manner any information contained in patron records.

The confidential information in these records includes, but is not limited to:

• Subjects researched
• Materials consulted
• Individual titles borrowed
• All information on the patron record
• The presence of a patron in library facilities or space

Check out a free state park pass at the Dassel Public Library! These seven-day passes cover the vehicle entrance fee to any state park or recreation area in Minnesota, making it easy to spend time outdoors and see nature at any time of year. To check out a pass, visit the Dassel Library and ask a staff member at the front desk. If one is available in the library system, you’ll be issued a 7-day vehicle pass, no library card needed. Passes cannot be reserved in advance. A limited number of passes are available each week in Pioneerland Library System.

Your state park pass should be clearly displayed on your vehicle’s dashboard. If you would like to camp, you will need to make and pay for reservations separately. When you are done exploring with your pass, just recycle it!

State park passes are provided through the Minnesota State Parks Library Program, a collaboration between our library and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Learn more about the state parks library program at mndnr.gov/librarypass

The Winter Reading Program begins January 2!

January means the start of Winter Reads, the adult winter reading program for Pioneerland Library System. The program starts at the Dassel Library on Friday, January 2, and ends Saturday, March 14.

You can sign up anytime until early March. When you sign up, you’ll get a book bag, while supplies last. You’ll also get a reading log to track and rate the books you read beginning the day you sign up. If you read 3 books by the time the program is done, you can choose a small prize. If you read 3 more, you can pick an additional prize. If you turn in a card with all 6 books read by the last day of the program, you’ll be entered in a drawing for local business gift certificates, sponsored by the Friends of the Dassel Library. The program can be completed only once per year.

In the past we’ve limited participation to adults, but this year teens age thirteen and up are welcome to participate if they wish.

The prize choices include mugs, candy bars, book lights, notebooks, and can coolers, while supplies last.

You can read any books you choose: library books or your own, fiction or nonfiction, print or audiobook or ebook.

The Dassel Friends of the Library meets 4 times per year at 6 p.m. on the 1st Tuesday of these months: October, January, April, and July. The meeting is held in the library while the library is closed.

The group is open to anyone wanting to fundraise for the future library space, advocate for the library’s needs, and help plan the next space. No formal membership is required.

Dates for 2026 are as follows:

January 13
April 7
July 7