20 Cahuenga Branch Library

In East Hollywood sits the beautiful Cahuenga Branch Library, the third oldest branch library in the LAPL system.

We were welcomed by such a friendly and helpful staff – that we felt right at home in a library we had passed so many times while driving, yet had never gone in. If only we could go back in time and ride a Pacific Electric Red Car which used to pass by the front doors. . .

We really enjoyed talking with everyone . . . including librarians and library patrons.

Riley, who is now a year and a half — continues on her quest to hug all of the stuffed animals in every library.

Plush animals are great to read to.

It still warms my heart when she looks at books with them, kisses them and hugs them. Can you tell by how many pictures I take?

We found a great selection of children’s books, and ended up taking eleven books home. I’ll only write about a few of them (I only have so much free time, people). . . We got Little Kunoichi The Ninja Girl by Sanae Ishida.

We reread it when we got home as well. It was a sweet story that inspired some ninja rolling around the house.

We picked a lot of books that didn’t make it home either. . . there is only so much room in our bag. But, we enjoy books at the library as much as we enjoy the books that make it home with us from the library!

We got David Wiesner’s Mr. Wuffles! Riley is a fan of cats.

She really responded to Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, which is a Caldecott Honor Book.

Since autumn just started, I guess we can start thinking about wearing sweaters again. . .

A book that really meant a lot this week, was Grandma’s Gift by Eric Velasquez, a Pura Belpré Award book. It’s a very American story about a family whose origins are in Puerto Rico, but live in New York. Among other things, it involves food (pastales) and art (Diego Velázquez’s portrait of Juan de Pareja).

We were fortunate to pick up this book with Puerto Rico as part of the story – as Puerto Ricans are still desperately needing help after hurricane Maria.

The Cahuenga Branch Library has a lot going on! There is a Bilingual Book Club, a Teen Book Club, StoryTime and many other fun events and activities. It’s worth your while to stop in and say hi. The murals are wonderful too. . .