whistling & talkative cutlery

finding the local library was the first mission we embarked upon after moving in to our new home a few weeks ago. it takes about thirty minutes to walk there (if you push a stroller - easily two hours if you let a toddler walk half the way!), through the most beautiful neighbourhood of old houses and tree-lined streets west of queen's park.

it's an older library, one that looks pretty much like the library i grew up with - before they renovated it in the early '90s. but that's not a bad thing, in my opinon. we were used to the fancy main vancouver library with all it's exciting architecture, lobby shops, art installations and billions of books. but that old library of my childhood was a magical place and it's shabby corners never stopped me from enjoying it. it lost a lot of personality, actually, when it was renovated.

what the new west library lacks in flash it makes up for in the children's book section. we've accidentally stumbled across storytime two out of the three times we've visited. the first time happened to be right before the easter weekend and the librarian gave each child a bunny candy at the end, so cole will forever be expecting that again, i'm sure! and the book selection seems to be better than it was at the big downtown vancouver branch. i can't figure this out - we would browse and browse downtown and come across mostly books that looked ready for the 'friends of the library' sale. i am very much a by-it's-cover (or at least illustration and graphic design) person, where books are concerned. but each time we reach into the shelf i find more books for our tote! this makes me happy, and it makes book-lover cole happy too. the only tricky part? our new-members library cards only allow us to take five books at a time for the first month!

cole's favourites this week:

whistle for willie, by ezra jack keats, the author of the snowy day. this is an oldie but a goodie. the story of a little boy who learns how to whistle.

spoon, by amy krouse rosenthal. much like in her little pea, little hoot, little oink series (which cole is crazy for), it's the story of a little person who just doesn't seem to quite fit in. in this case, a spoon who imagines that his other cutlery friends have so much more fun that he does.