Thursday, August 7-Thursday, August 14

THURSDAY, AUGUST 7

Family Fun Night, sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, 7 p.m. at the new Rubell Meadow in Temescal Gateway Park (follow the signs inside the park). The free program includes nature stories, songs and a campfire (weather permitting) with marshmallows. Open to all. ‘Dainty Mabel & the Spiteful Child from Saskatoon,’ a Theatre Palisades Youth production, continues at the’Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd., tonight, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.’Tickets ($12) are available by calling (310) 454-1970. Co-written and directed’by Palisadian Nancy Cassaro Fracchiolla, this original family-friendly’musical melodrama is’best described as ‘The Little Rascals’ meets ‘A Fractured Fairy Tale.’ Pacific Palisades resident Gene Harrison Starbuck discusses and signs ‘Cutler’s Gate,’ his Colorado-based novel about the 1918 flu epidemic that killed more Americans than all the wars of the 20th century combined, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9

Second week of Movies in the Park, an every-Saturday-in August event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce event, features ‘Ghostbusters,’ starting at dusk (about 8:15 p.m.) on the Field of Dreams at the Palisades Recreation Center. Admission is free.

MONDAY, AUGUST 11

Moonday, a monthly Westside poetry reading featuring poets Annie Reiner and Carolyn Howard-Johnson, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 12

Story-Craft Time, suggested for ages 4 and up, 4 p.m., Palisades Branch Library community room, 861 Alma Real.   Final summer outing by the Temescal Canyon Association hiking group will explore the now-upscale Venice canals, with the option of dinner at one of many nearby restaurants. Meet for carpooling at 6 p.m. in the Temescal Gateway parking lot just north of Sunset. No dogs. Expect to be back close to 9 p.m. Contacts: visit temcanyon.org or call (310) 459-5931.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13

Monthly meeting of the Palisades AARP chapter, 2 p.m. in the Woman’s Club, 901 Haverford. Public invited.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14

Meg Waite Clayton discusses and signs her novel, ‘Wednesday Sisters,’ 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore. Humorous and moving, this novel’set in California during the tumultuous 1960s’earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds among friends.