The Thin Red Line

The children’s area of the library can be at times both the most frustrating and most rewarding area to work.   There is nothing like setting off to make closing pick up rounds and finding that every toy and nearly every book has been strewn hither tither and yon and know you are Really going to have to hustle to set things to right in the short time available until closing to remind you of the real challenge of serving patrons who are still learning their ABC’s and can thus be forgiven for putting books back in the wrong order, though I sometimes wonder if the parents who quite fail to teach their toddlers to put things away when they are finished live in surroundings like this all of the time.  

And then there are the wonderfully charming and responsible youngsters one sometimes meet.   One evening I noticed that the children’s area was in Really bad shape.   Just one little girl was still playing in the area, which looked like a cyclone had hit.   I decided to start at the other end of my assigned sections and leave the biggest task for last.   And by the time I got back this very helpful young lady had put everything away in its proper place.   I was very impressed and made a point of finding her when she was with her father to thank her for helping me.    That young lady might be just a little bit too old to be held and look at todays selection of Easy books but toddlers and parents alike are sure to enjoy these three excellent books.

City Babies from NorthWord Publishing is a Very cute easy board book featuring pictures of ten baby animals one might (theoretically at least) encounter in a city park and a short sentence about each.    The pictures are all excellent photographs, shot just perfectly to make you smile and say ‘aaawwww’.

Baby Grizzly by Aubrey Lang and Wayne Lynch is a relatively small easy non fiction title telling the story of a birth in a family of Alaskan bears.   The text is quite informative, though it may need to be read by the parent or teacher to the child and the photography is truly stunning.

And finally, Good Night San Francisco is a very cute and beautifully illustrated easy board book in which two young children say good night to various iconic locations in that famous city by the Bay.     All three of these are Highly Recommended.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Book Reviews, Books, Children, Easy Non-Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.