On Valentine’s Day, the Knoxville Public Library will host two events. Special guest Angela Hiatt from Iowa PBS will help with a Ramps & Pathways Stem Activity for Kindergarteners-6th graders. Author Beth Hoffman will then visit the library in the afternoon for a public reading of her book Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America. Hoffman, once a reporter from California, tells KNIA/KRLS News that her experience with farming inspired her to write the book.

“Every time I had one of those moments of like, wow I didn’t know that, or this is something new to me even after 25 years of reporting, those things started to kind of add up. And I started thinking, oh wait, this is a book, this isn’t an article about the thing I didn’t know, it’s a book about the 20 things I didn’t know.”

The Ramps & Pathways Stem Activity is Monday from 10:30-11:30 a.m., and Beth Hoffman will be at the library at 1:30 p.m. Hoffman’s visit can be attended in person at the library or via Zoom. Clink the link here to access the Zoom meeting.