When children enter the REACH Library in The Children’s Museum, they are met by whimsical cutouts of storybook characters on a baby blue background, a child-sized sitting area and an almost ceiling-high bookshelf filled with donated books.

By Ida Kay Jordan The ghosts of Halloween barely had time to get out of sight when the city’s handsome Christmas tree appeared at the foot of High Street the first week of November.

Damia Pritchard, 10, chewed the edge of her pencil eraser while completing division and adding and subtracting fractions. Kendra Robinson, a tutor, sat beside her, encouraging Damia to take her time.

“Which one are you on?” Robinson asked.

Damia lifted her head, puzzled. She had skipped around.

“It’s hard,” she whined.

Planetariums have entered another sphere.

Gone are the 27 slide and specialty projectors at the Children’s Museum of Virginia’s planetarium.

“That’s what it took to make a show work, said Daniel Borick, planetarium director. “And every moving part was a potential place where it could crash. And it did,” he said.

By Heather McGinley Correspondent

Yellow sunflowers, homemade salsa, organic painted ladies, and various jams and jellies neatly labeled and stacked are just a few of the items bringing life to the farmer’s market every Saturday.

Another fall, another special election for the City Council.

Last year it was a contest to replace Portsmouth’s recalled mayor, James Holley. This November, it’s a race for the last year of Elizabeth Psimas’ term.

She gave up her seat to run for mayor and lost.

Sonya Young knows the importance of early breast cancer detection. Last year she had surgery to remove a lump in her breast, a week after finding it during a self breast exam. That’s helped save her life.

Established in 1762, the graveyard of Trinity Episcopal Church has endured through the entire history of this nation’s founding. The church this year is celebrating its 250th anniversary.

The Olde Towne church, the oldest in the city, and its adjacent graveyard both are listed on the state and national historic registers.

By Heather McGinley

Correspondent

Volunteers from across Portsmouth and Western Chesapeake will take over the streets of Olde Towne to raise awareness of homelessness and hunger during the annual Portsmouth Area Resources Coalition’s Walk for HOPE on Sunday.

By Heather McGinley,  Correspondent

Former Virginian-Pilot paperboy Rich Babbitt will return to Hampton Roads on Oct. 1 to host a “Paper Boy Reunion” and to release his latest book, “From Paperboy to Boomer: How Lessons Learned from Paper Routes and Lawn Mowing Have Shaped 10 Skill Sets of Today’s Leaders.”