Indy Trip - Day Two

Day two. Hmm. I would love to say that we slept late but ya know. Three year old.

We ate breakfast in our room. I brought groceries for that. Cause I'm cheap that way. Then we did a bit of a driving tour. Because it was fah-reeeezing. No walking tour for us this time.

We drove past the State House. It wasn't until Sunday that we realized there were tours on Saturday. Hmpf. Now we have a good reason to come back and our first free thing to add to the list for next trip.

And we drove past Lucas Oil Stadium. Evan is a huge Colts fan so he was glad to see this photo of his buddy Peyton Manning on the outside of the stadium.

Then we headed back north and ended up at the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library.

This is an amazing library. You can see the original portion of the building looking all stately, made of brick and mortar. And then there's the newer portion of the building, all modern looking and much taller than the original space. It's a-maz-ing.

From the outside the structure is very impressive. And then when you walk in, it's even more impressive. The original building is used to house all of the fiction titles and some really nice nooks and crannies for quiet reading time; at least that's what it looked like to me.

The newer portion houses all of the non-fiction collections as well as special collections and the children's area. The computer labs are also located in the modern section along with a small cafe area. And did I mention it's six stories tall? Yeah. You could get lost in this library.

The children's area is called the Learning Curve and Sarah loved it. There was a story time in progress so we stopped in to listen.

The librarian did a great job reading Snowbots, a really cute book about how robot kids entertain themselves in the winter time. After the reading, the kids in the room made a movie by answering questions about the book while being filmed. Then the librarian would play it back for them. Very simple and the kids loved seeing themselves telling about the book.

I wanted to catch the librarian's name but Sarah wouldn't let me stick around long enough. So thanks Miss Librarian! You did a great job!



Sarah also managed to find one of her personal favorite books to read, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Seriously, if you live in Indy and have never visited this library, you are missing out.


The library was definitely the highlight of day two for us. We spent quite a bit of time just checking it all out and dreaming about spending time there.

Kid Lit Spotlight - Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree

Just in case you need that really last, last minute gift here's a great Christmas book recommendation from my friend, Emily. Thanks, Em!

This year is the first year my son has really "gotten" Christmas -- and I can start sharing my mountain of children's Christmas books with him!

 I am happy to say that the one he likes best so far is Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree. I was introduced to this book by the children's librarian at MPHPL. It is a title with an older copyright that has been updated with a little more color in the illustrations. It is a repetitive story about Mr. Willowby, who has a huge house and a huge Christmas tree to go with it, but it's a little too tall, so the top is chopped off and then the top becomes a tree (which also happens to be a little too tall for its space) for someone else, and someone else, and another animal, etc etc, right down to the mouse family living in Mr. Willowby's house. It has some neat details in the illustrations if you look closely. Upon our many readings, I've also noticed that it's always the Mom who cuts off the top... want to write a paper about that? :)

Kid Lit Spotlight - Anne Rockwell

Hey Friends - what are you all up to this week? I'm guessing it involves pumpkins and costumes, just like at our house. Thankfully, Sarah agreed to paint hers instead of doing any cutting. While there were no injuries, it was a two bath kind of a day.

As part of our Monday series on children's books, my friend Emily has been nice enough to share a guest post with us! Without further ado - take it away Emily!

First of all I’d like to say that I feel a bit torn when thinking about suggesting picture books that I like. Should I write about books I like myself? Books my three year old son enjoys? Or books I knew about when I studied children’s literature and used them during storytimes while I worked as a children’s librarian? It doesn’t seem like there should be a difference between these categories, but there is!

I have found myself a mom with a son who has not wanted me to read any book that is new to him -- what a challenge when I feel like I know a lot of great children’s books that he might enjoy! We went through a stretch of at least a year where he wanted to read the same books over and over, and if I wanted to introduce a new one into the rotation, I could only sometimes manage it by sneakily picking it up while he was playing with toys and quickly show him the most interesting page in the book from across the room. Even then he was on to me! He’d usually run over and forcefully close the book. So after many weeks of taking home 20+ books from the public library, I finally learned to only take a couple because he just wasn’t looking at them! How frustrating for a mom who’s been a children’s librarian!

Now that he’s three and a half, he’s just starting to really explore books in a more open-minded way. It’s still hard to introduce a new one to him if he doesn’t show initial interest, but we’ve found if we leave the books in his room and let him look at them by himself during rest times, eventually he’ll ask us to read them to him. Hooray! I still have to control my impulses at the library to take home everything I can lay my hands on, but hopefully that will change as he gets older, and he’ll feel lucky to have a parent who lets him take home tons and tons of books!

The books I want to share with you today are kind of a mix of books I like, books my son likes, and books I used as a librarian -- picture books by Anne Rockwell. She has written a lot of simple books on all kinds of topics, seasons, and holidays. They are great for the very young (three and under) because they have a narrow focus and the illustrations are clear and usually not busy. 

Some favorites we've read here are In Our House (an older one, but really good - it was our son's favorite book for a month), At the Beach, Cars, and Bear Child's Book of Hours. There is also Fire Engines and At the Firehouse. We used the book Pots and Pans a lot at the library -- a personal favorite of mine!

Some good ones for this time of year are Apples and Pumpkins, Pumpkin Day Pumpkin Night, and Halloween Day.

{Many thanks to Emily for sharing her favorites with us today! Happy Halloween everyone! Oh, and BOO!}

Picture Books ARE Important

I was going to add these items to a Reader Roundup post later in the week but there's just too much to share to wait for that. Reading is important folks. All types of reading.

This New York Times article started the discussion rolling about how picture book sales are on the decline. There's really nothing for me to add to that part of the discussion except to say that I love picture books. The year that I worked in the Children's section at the local library and planned story times for pre-schoolers was unbelievably fun and fulfilling.

These two articles brought the discussion to my attention. GeekMom says. GeekDad says.

And now I would like to bring your attention to some of my favorite picture books and illustrators.

 Mo Willems has been one of my favorite picture book authors since I found his pigeon books. They are hilarious. Jason laughed riotously at them when he was younger. I think Leonardo, the Terrible Monster is probably my personal favorite.

 If you've seen the movie Jumanji with Robin Williams, or even if you haven't, you should really read the book by Chris Van Allsburg. Beautiful illustrations. His book Zathura also became a movie.

 Several years ago, all of the kids in my life got Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit for Christmas. It's the most fun reading you'll find. And who can forget The Giving Tree?

And since I'm on the subject, I'll plug the local library while I'm at it. I just called the library where I used to work for help remembering Chris Van Allsburg's name. (Thanks Lori!) Librarians are smart people. And helpful. Books are great fun to buy but coming home from the library with an entire pile of fantastic books for free? Priceless.

Here's a link to information on the Caldecott Medal awarded annually "to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." Caldecott Medal home page.

Here's a trick for you parents that I used frequently when I worked at the library. If you bring home some books and just place them in a prominent location, they will get read. I promise. You don't have to sell them to your children, or even tell them about them. Kids will notice the books and read them all on their own.

Here's an example from just this week. While I was shopping at Goodwill for Sarah's fall and winter wardrobe, I found a copy of Ruby Holler, which I had read for Battle of the Books while working at the library. I bought it thinking that even if my boys didn't want to read it I could give it to one of their teachers for her classroom library.

Well, Sarah was the first to see it and she claimed it for herself. Folks, she's three. It's a chapter book. But she took it into her room and it was HERS.

When she was distracted I took the book from Sarah's room and placed it on Jason's desk where it was too high for Sarah to see and reclaim as her own. Later Jason told me he didn't want to read it so I said fine then we'll just give it to Mrs. Buvia for her class to use.

Fast forward to less than 48 hours later. Jason had finished the book he was reading from the Gregor series, picked up Ruby Holler on his own, and the next day asked me if it was part of a series. Unfortunately, it's not.

Read a book with your kid today. We don't do this every day but when we do, the time is amazing. Your kids will surprise you with their insights and how special those few minutes will become to them. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have to go to the library today. I'll post some pictures of the great books I find.

Please share your favorite picture books in the comments. I need to find a great one to give all the kids this year for Christmas!

Disclosure: yes, those book links are affiliate links. If you purchase books or anything else after clicking those links I'll make a teeny, tiny amount of money. And I will most likely spend it on books. So thank you!