Library Profile: Palo Alto

Wizards Wireless is proud to feature its first guest post! Thanks to Nancy Arruda of Bees Knees Books for a wonderful profile of the Children's Library in Palo Alto, California. You can find Nancy's blog (that she co-writes with Kim Baise) at Bees Knees Reads.

If you'd be willing to write a post about a library with a great children's department or a terrific independent bookstore that specializes in children's books, I'd love to feature it on my blog. See this post for more details about my search for guest bloggers.


Without further ado, here's Nancy's post:

Today the girls and I met up with my friend, Lisa, and her two children at the Children's Library in Palo Alto, CA. The library was built in the 1940's and has recently undergone extensive retrofitting. They reopened their doors in September 2007 and today we finally drove over for a visit.

Although the kids were hungry and restless, we sat down by a fireplace, with a real fire (one of those easy burn logs) in little kid's size craftsmen chairs- so cozy because it's stormy out today. Alas, it was only for a minute because they were off to a side wing where all the fiction picture books are shelved. There we read M is for Music by Kathleen Krull and illustrated Stacy Innerst and Seven for a Secret by Laurence Anholt and Jim Coplestone. The latter is a new personal favorite. And that's exactly what is best about going to the library, DISCOVERY!

I've been told that the new library in Mountain View, a neighboring city, has an extensive collection of foreign language kid's books and it's supposed to be pretty awesome. But I'll bet it can't match the charm of the Children's Library in Palo Alto. Of course I forgot my camera but included are a few photos from my friend Maria Calais Pedro.