We visited the 72nd branch of LAPL! You guys, it is 72/72 on our public library branch journey through Los Angeles! The Silverlake Branch Library is in the neighborhood of Silverlake and it was a great branch to end our numerical sequence adventures through all of our great city’s libraries. (Someone once told me that I am a completionist for having taken on this mission of 73 locations — 00 Central Library all the way- in branch number order- to 72 Silverlake Branch.)
At the Silverlake Branch, we were lucky to meet Lisa, the Senior Librarian who even read Riley some books! We also got to meet LAPL PR Specialist Monica (who took some great pictures of us at our final library on our tour of all of the 73 LAPL locations! Thank you for coming out just to get our picture at our last branch!). . .
We got to meet the Children’s librarian Alana, too! We had a reading party. . .
Riley enjoyed the mini play slide (she got a bit noisy. . .), all of the stuffed animals (including her own kitty which she’d had at our first visit to Central Library), and looking up at all of the books out on display. It’s so nice when there are so many books out on view for the kids to see up on the shelves! I even got to read some books to a few kids. . . which I always love to do.
We took home a bunch of books, as always. Riley even checked out her own books for the second time. . .
We got:
The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle;
The Nature Girls by Aki;
Wiggle by Doreen Cronin and art by Scott Menchin;
The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco;
Hello by Fiona Woodcock;
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle;
One Family by George Shannon and pictures by Blanca Gómez;
I Walk With Vanessa by Kerascoët;
The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle;
Henri’s Scissors by Jeanette Winter;
Goggles! Ezra Jack Keats;
Wallpaper by Thao Lam;
Little Night by Yuyi Morales;
What If. . . ? Then We. . . Very Short Shorter Than Ever Possibilities by Rebecca Kai Dotlich and illustrated by Fred Koehler;
Blue Rider by Geraldo Valério;
My Pet Wants A Pet by Elise Broach and illustrated by Eric Barclay;
Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine, Illustrated by René King Moreno.
Even after all of the books we’ve read, there are so many out there to discover! It’s so exciting that we’ve only scratched the surface.
Our journey to all of the 73 locations of LAPL might be completed but our adventures in the public library have just begun. We get to visit our local branches more and drive less, hooray! I get to start giving back to my library by volunteering – maybe as a STAR reader? The possibilities are endless. (One of the volunteers at Silverlake gave Riley a Selena book to keep, thank you!)
I get to take crochet classes and learn ukulele and learn a new language (all at various branches close to my home in Van Nuys). . . while Riley gets to visit Storytimes (when she gets a free moment from preschool!) and listen to more books in the car as we drive to preschool every day. – her preschool starts next week (good timing!).
I’m still amazed to see how much Riley has changed since April of 2017 at 12 months old when we started documenting this journey on this blog. She was in a baby carrier, not quite walking or talking. And here she is two and a half years later at 3.5 years old, and she’s running, telling stories and checking out her own books. I’m in awe of her wonder. It’s infectious.
And hey, we all get to visit our public libraries! We get to continue to experience that wonder. People ask me which branch I liked the best, and seriously it’s the branch closest to where you live. Period. Use your library, volunteer at your library. Be part of your community. Get to know your neighbors. ALL of your neighbors. Public libraries are some of the last public spaces where you get to interact face to face with all of the members of your neighborhood. Help make your library an even better place. And thank your librarians!!! And library staff!!! They are the life blood in the library veins keeping our city alive.
Thank you, LAPL! See you soon. Thank you for giving us so much.
P.S. I can’t wait to go back to the Octavia Lab at Central Library! And I can’t wait to look at more maps (like the old branch map in this post) with Glen Creason! It truly never ends.
