Celebrate Children's Book Week 2024

Each year, schools, libraries, and bookstores unite to celebrate Children’s Book Week, this time is dedicated to children's literature. This year, from November 4 to 10, we invite everyone to join in the festivities. This week-long celebration emphasizes the importance of books for young readers while creating a love for reading in children. The Arlington Public Library will host a series of engaging activities and programs throughout the week to honor this special occasion.

 All Week Long

Your Favorite Book Character Scavenger Hunt - Lake Arlington Branch during open hours

 Create your own Story – All branches during open hours 

Monday

Family Storytime – November 4, 10:30 a.m., Lake Arlington Branch 

Join our fabulous library staff as we explore stories, rhymes, songs, and more. This program is developmentally appropriate for ages 2-4. 

D&D Free Play: Illustrated Campaigns – November 4, 4:30 p.m., Southwest Branch

 In celebration of Children's Book Week, we will be creating illustrated graphic novels of our campaigns during this free play session. Don't have a campaign yet? No problem! Make your own adventure with us and practice the art of storytelling! This program is designed for ages 9-17, but this event is free and open to the public. 

NaNoWriMo (teens) – November 4, 5:30 p.m., Southeast Branch

 Join us for a NaNoWriMo program in which we will hone our writing skills, get to know each other and our writing styles, provide encouragement, and tackle our own word count challenges throughout the month of November. This is a five-session program intended for teens, in high school, ages 13-18. Registration is required and is limited to the first fifteen participants. Please register siblings separately. 

Tuesday

Rhymes & Play – November 5, 10 a.m., Downtown Library 

Play, read, and meet new friends! This gentle, come-and-go program provides a rotation of themed based activities for ages 2-5. 

Baby Time – November 5, 10:30 a.m., East Library 

Baby Time is an opportunity for baby and caregiver to learn together in a calm, gentle environment through reading short books, singing, movement, sign language, and rhymes. This program is 30-45 minutes long and is intended for pre-walking babies.

 NaNoWriMo: Young Writers (tweens) – November 5, 5:30 p.m., Southeast Branch 

Join us for a NaNoWriMo - Young Writers (National Novel Writing Month) program in which we will hone our writing skills, get to know each other and our writing styles, provide encouragement, and tackle our own word count challenges throughout the month of November. This is a five-session program intended for tweens ages 9-12. Registration is required and is limited to the first fifteen participants. Please register siblings separately. 

Wednesday 

Baby Time – November 6, 10 a.m., Downtown Library 

Baby Time is an opportunity for baby and caregiver to learn together in a calm, gentle environment through reading short books, singing, movement, sign language, and rhymes. The program is 30-45 minutes long and is intended for pre-walking babies.

 Family Storytime – November 6, 10:30 a.m., Woodland West 

Join our fabulous library staff as we explore stories, rhymes, songs, and more. This program is developmentally appropriate for ages 2-4. 

Create Something: Create Your Own Bookmark – 3:30 p.m., Downtown Library

 In celebration of Children's Book Week, we will be creating our very own bookmarks to hold our place when we're done reading for the day! 

Lego Free Play: Book Characters – November 6, 4 p.m., Lake Arlington Branch

 Build something tall, wide or anything you can dream of using Lego blocks! Join us for an afternoon of fun, imagination, and creativity. In celebration of Children's Book Week, we will be creating our favorite book characters. This is a come and go program for ages 5-12 and space is limited. 

Teen Game Day – November 6, 4:30 p.m., Downtown Library 

Join the library for a day of book-themed games! In honor of Children's Book Week, this session will be featuring Ex Libris, a fantasy library building game. This program is intended for teens age 13-17.

 Innovation Station: Build like Boxitects – November 6, 4:30 p.m., Southeast Branch 

Join us at the Southeast Branch Library for fun STEAM activities for school aged children and tweens! We will work on teambuilding, critical thinking, and creative problem solving in a fun environment. In celebration of Children's Book Week, we will be focusing on the Boxitects and building things out of cardboard! 

Thursday 

Cuentos Bilingue – November 7, 10:30 a.m., East Library 

¡Esta hora de cuentos involucra a niños con historias cortas, juegos con los dedos, y canciones en español e inglés! Se les presentará a los padres herramientas efectivas para entretener, interactuar, consolar, y ayudar a sus hijos a crecer. Este programa está recomendado para niños de 2 a 4 años. 

Music & Motion – November 7, 10:30 a.m., Southwest Branch 

Laugh, dance, listen and sing! Enjoy this energetic storytime with your little one where we will be exploring music, rhymes, storytelling, fine-motor fingerplays and gross-motor movement. For ages 1-4. Due to the nature of this program, we ask caregivers be actively engaged alongside their child and participate, dancing and trying out the motions. 

Toddler Time – November 7, 10:30 a.m., Lake Arlington Branch 

Toddler Time taps into the boundless energy of toddlers to get your child excited about books and reading! This storytime engages children with short stories, finger plays, action rhymes, and songs. If you don't think your child can stay still during a storytime, we don't expect them to! Come ready to dance, wiggle, and play as we learn together! This is a 30-minute program and is intended for toddlers who are walking through age 3. 

Draw with Me: How to Draw Dogman (tween) – November 7, 4:30 p.m., Woodland West Branch 

We will be learning how to draw like Dav Pilkey, author of the beloved "Dogman" series. This program is designed for Tweens ages 9-12 and is free and open to the public, no registration required. 

Friday 

Family Storytime – November 8, 10:30 a.m., Southeast Branch

Join our fabulous library staff to sing, read and wiggle during storytime at the Southeast Branch Library. This storytime is geared for ages 2-5 (physically and developmentally). We will read books, sing songs, and have an activity after the program each week. 

Creativity Corner: Stories and Characters – November 8, 3 p.m., Southeast Branch 

Swing by the Southeast Library and dive into your creativity with this school-age through teen process art program. Each week will have a theme and sensory element to offer us inspiration and guidance as we work to make an original piece of art using a wide array of supplies (including but not limited to: buttons, pipe cleaners, baking soda paint, water colors, yarn). In honor of Children’s Book Week we will be focusing our creativity towards characters and story creation. 

Saturday

Authors in Arlington: Kimberly Willis Holt – November 9, 11 a.m., Downtown Library The Arlington Public Library is proud to present Authors in Arlington, a new program focused on connecting the community with popular and influential authors. We are happy to host Kimberly Willis-Holt, she has written many award-winning novels, including The Water Seeker and My Louisiana Sky, as well as the picture books Waiting for Gregory and Skinny Brown Dog. 

Please join us for this special event to learn more about her life and becoming an author, her writing, and books. Afterwards we will have a moderated Q&A session as well a book signing for those who would like to have their books signed. This event is perfect for children 5 and up.