Picture Book

Have your kids picked up their Potomac Nationals coupon yet?  Have they whispered the secret word to the librarian and received a treat?  How about keeping up their reading skills by reading whatever they want all summer long, and earning prizes along the way?

If not, don’t despair!  They can do all this and more when they sign up for the free Summer Reading Club at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.  Now through the end of the month, stop by any branch or online at Kids.LibraryPoint.org, and your kids can join the thousands of others in our area who are having fun reading this summer.

Even pre-readers are welcome to join.  Start them out with some beachy books just right for the dog days of summer.

    Children’s books are never too far from the minds of children’s librarians.  On a recent hiking trip to the North Carolina mountains, a phrase from a children’s verse got stuck in my head:  “We’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going to catch a big one, it’s a beautiful day, we’re not scared!”  Maybe our bear bells scared them away, but the black bears that populate the coves and ridges of the Nantahala National Forest never showed themselves to our group (thank goodness).

          If you find yourself in New York City this weekend, stop by the 42nd Street Library at 2:00 on Sunday, May 23rd.  The New York Public Library is hosting a Margaret Wise Brown Birthday Sing-in on the steps in honor of the late author’s 100th birthday.  Cupcakes are promised, and all are welcome.

          Most parents who’ve raised children in the last fifty years are familiar with Brown’s most enduring work, “Goodnight, Moon.”  Written in hypnotic rhyme and illustrated in warm reds and greens by Clement Hurd, the book did not make a splash on first publication in 1947, selling a respectable but modest 6,000 copies that fall.  But the book gradually found an audience, and by now total sales reportedly top 11 million copies.

    If your children watched the “Baby Einstein” videos, but failed to turn into geniuses, you can get your money back.  A recently settled suit against Disney, the owner of the popular series, asserts that the claim that the videos are educational is unfair and deceptive.  Parents can get a refund of $15.99 for up to four of the videos.  

    Fortunately, at least one way to help your child to grow intellectually is free and widely available.  You guessed it – reading to your child from books you can borrow from your local public library.  Not only is it free, but numerous studies show the benefits of early read-aloud sessions.  Just pick up one of our “Every Child Ready to Read” brochures, and plunge in!

 The next time you’re in the library, take a look at some of the newest books to grace library shelves.  Readers of all ages will be entranced with Jerry Pinkney’s wordless edition of Aesop’s “The Lion and the Mouse.”  The story of kindness rewarded has a simple plot filled with action, just right for a wordless treatment.