Why Library’s are awesome…

This morning Molly and I went to the library. We’re rubbish library members really, we don’t visit enough and we’re always late back with our books but we’re usually forgiven after being given a few stern words and the librarians best “this is just not good enough” face and then we remember why we love going back so much, because we always have the BEST time.

Today we spent all morning choosing books. On the walk there Molly filled me in on her intentions to find a book about a dragon and a book about a Monkey. We found both and then some. In fact we came away with 11 books in total including also one about cats, one about a steam train, one about a woolly mammoth, one about a crab and one where spot the dog goes shopping.

There is such a wealth of information and adventure awaiting anyone who chooses to be a library goer, you can spend as much time as you like choosing which adventure to take home, you can read as many adventures as you want along the way and you can do all of this whilst relaxing on bean bags…and the best part? It’s all free! In a day and age where the average day out for a family can cost anything from £10-£100 why would you not want to take advantage of an entirely free mornings worth of entertainment that will last well after you get home and really, for as long as you want it to (just as long as you’re not late taking your books back, they don’t like that!)

I read somewhere that around 3 in 10 children living in the UK don’t own a book. This statistic is shockingly worrying and with more and more libraries set to close due to government cut backs, how are our children going to experience the magic that books have to offer? The husband always laughs at me every time I buy Molly a new book because really, she does have a ridiculously large book collection, but I am a firm believer that a child can never have too many books and Libraries offer the perfect solution to those who want their children to read but perhaps don’t have the money or the space to have lots of books in their house.

Libraries no longer live up to the stereotype with bespectacled ladies in tweed suits “shhhh-ing” everyone. In fact the male librarian who helped us this morning came and chatted loudly to Molly about her book selections and then when we took our hoard to the desk he let her scan the books and stamp the return dates in the inside covers. There were toys for her to play with and coloring in sheets with crayons for her to create her own mythical creatures  should she wish to (which she did!)  and, along with the beanbags, the children’s seating is laid out in the shape of a train – can you imagine the excitement? Molly cried actual tears when I told her it was time to go home, she’d had so much fun.

Molly had her own library card at just a few weeks old and I hope she’ll have it until she’s old and gray and has to use a zimmer frame to get to the library because we should be supporting libraries and we should be taking advantage of what they have to offer, we should be curling up in their bean bags with our favorite people and reading stories about dragons and monkeys because really, it doesn’t get much better than that.