The kids and I had a great vacation week. We spent 3 days visiting friends in our old Connecticut hometown, and then we spent four packed days visiting all our old haunts (and finding some new ones) in New York City (see my related post on my blog to get the whole scoop about Four Perfectly Packed Days in NYC).
A NY friend had posted about the exhibit going on at the New York Public Library, The ABCs of It: Why Children’s Books Matter, and so I immediately added it to my list. I had actually never visited the iconic building, even though we strolled past it every time we went into Grand Central station and strolled down 42nd towards Times Square.
In addition to the very fun exhibit (pictured below), the architecture inside is beautiful and is worth seeing for itself.

Interactive vowels

Harold! and some cool text, too.

Goodnight Moon — a whole life-sized wall. VERY cool

A comb, and a brush, and a bowl full of mush

Of course there were some picture books out to enjoy, so Kyle sat down with some Knuffle Bunny

The other side of this wall is all “Wild” and furry

A writer who I think surely has had unprecedented success

I’ve always loved Eric Carle’s art
Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.
Oh, I am SO SO jealous! I’ve been wanting to see this exhibit ever since I first heard about it. I especially was happy to see the pic you took of the text next to the HAROLD display. John Dewey is my educational theory hero, and I tried my best to implement a constructivist learning environment in my preschool classroom at a school that greatly valued Dewey, Montessori, and Bank Street College in curriculum development. I’m willing to bet that particular display is informative to folks who do not have an educational background to help understand the significant shift in children’s literature that resulted from those theorists and practices.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
It was very cool. There was lots of neat text throughout, but yes, I particularly liked that piece.