Kids & Families

  • The Secret Garden comes to The Seattle Public Library

    For generations, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett has charmed readers with its magical setting—a hidden garden on an old English estate. The moment when young orphan Mary Lennox stumbles upon her secret place ranks high—alongside the Pevensie children’s first trip through the wardrobe into Narnia—for the spark it ignites in the imagination of… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites for Children: Dogs!

    Don’t Lick the Dog: Making Friends with Dogs by Wendy Wahman In this delightful rhyming tale, children learn how to interact safely with dogs, such as how to approach a strange dog, give a dog a treat or tell if he is friendly. Yes, there’s a lesson here — but it’s a fun and friendly… Continue reading

  • Staff Favorites: Two children’s novels

    The Farwalker’s Quest by Joni Sensel When Ariel and Zeke find a telling dart, an ancient form of communication, it catapults them on a perilous quest to discover the origin of the dart and, as a result, their own destinies. Local author Joni Sensel paints a vivid post-apocalyptic world with strong characters and a difficult… Continue reading

  • Books About New Sibs

    If your family is expecting a new addition sometime soon, you may find yourself scrambling to help your first child cope with and understand the huge change coming their way. When I was looking for picture books for my toddler about new babies, I was surprised how hard it was to find books that weren’t… Continue reading

  • Place your holds now!

     Moon Over Manifest won the Newbery Medal this morning, Ship Breaker took home the Printz, and A Sick Day for Amos McGee received the Caldecott Medal. Check out the full list of winners from the ALA’s Youth Media Awards 2011. And here’s a neat trick: You can search award titles easily in our catalog. Here are… Continue reading

  • Gingerbread is in the air …

    It’s getting cold out there, and the month of December brings out the wonderful aroma of baked goods everywhere. As I am planning a gingerbread-themed birthday party for my daughter, I started to wonder about the origin of the gingerbread man. The gingerbread man may have made his first appearance at the court of Queen… Continue reading

  • Best Board Books: Boynton for Babies

    When I am choosing board books, whether for an individual baby or to bring to an infant classroom on the bookmobile, there is one author who clearly rises above the rest.  The carefully crafted goofy gems — from 1977’s Hippos Go Berserk! to 2010’s Perfect Piggies! —  by Sandra Boynton have elicited giggles, snorts and Chattanooga… Continue reading

  • Don’t flush this holiday away!

    Most holidays are for certain subsets of people, based on religion, the country you live in or your personal interests. There is, however, one holiday that is for everyone: World Toilet Day.  I first became aware of World Toilet Day through author Dave Barry, who shares my penchant for potty humor. I thought the concept was both… Continue reading

  • This isn’t your Grandma’s Story Hour! Part 2

    In Part I of this series, we explained that story times for children are based on the six early literacy skills, building blocks that kids need to make learning to read and write much easier. We also wrote about the social and physical developmental reasons to attend story time. Continue reading

  • This isn’t your Grandma’s story hour! Part I

    When was the last time you attended a story time at your local library? When your children were small? When you were a child? Never? We thought we might take this opportunity to fill everyone in on what story time is these days; how it is much more than just reading stories. Continue reading

  • Global Reading Challenge books announced for 2011!

    Here they are, the 10 awesome children’s novels selected to be part of our 2011 Global Reading Challenge: Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet by Graham Salisbury First Light by Rebecca Stead George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen and Lucy Hawking Heat… Continue reading

  • Lesser Known Children’s Classics

    Everyone has heard of classics like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Goodnight Moon. But what of those lesser-known picture book treasures, once enjoyed but now a distant memory? Luckily for you, we still have some of these wonderful stories at the library. The Man Who Lost His Head by Claire Huchet Bishop What a wonderful and odd… Continue reading

  • Stories without words

    Have you ever read a story without words? It sounds a little strange at first, but I highly recommend exploring wordless picture books with your pre-readers and beginning readers. So don’t hog all the fun, let them read you a story for a change! These books are great for one-on-one readings and small groups so… Continue reading

  • Come on, try this at home!

    Not every child comes with a compelling drive to sit with the latest 400-page blockbuster novel.  This, in no way, implies that such a child is not a reader. It just means that she might look beyond fiction books for her particular fun.  And this lucky child will find countless opportunities for exploration in the… Continue reading

  • New twists on old tales

    Since watching Fractured Fairy Tales on TV as a child, traditional stories with a twist have grabbed my attention and delighted my soul.  Young children today, who are just learning what to expect in a story, are tickled when a story takes an unusual turn.  Playing with expectations develops narrative skills — and a sense… Continue reading

  • Read-aloud tongue-twisters

    Some picture books are just meant to be read aloud. Your voice flows over the words as you unravel the story for little (or big) ears. Others are meant to be read aloud even though they are written to be hard to read aloud — with rhymes that trip you up and wordy mouthfuls that make them… Continue reading

  • Children’s Classics from the 1970s

    On a recent sunny summer day, I had the chance to work in the Children’s Center at the Central Library. Besides enjoying that wonderful space and seeing lots of cute kids, I got a chance to pick up some books for my two-year-old granddaughter, Cleo, who is coming to visit from Brooklyn. As I browsed the… Continue reading

  • Community Gardens

    It never really occurred to me that having fresh produce from our own garden was such a luxury until our family moved to the United States. Growing up in the central highland part of Vietnam, we were lucky to be surrounded by luscious green trees and vegetables. When harvest times came, children spent a lot… Continue reading