Cultivating whimsical thoughts in our family is as easy as taking a trip to the library. We spend a lot of time at the library, especially in the summer when we all sign up for the summer reading program. The program gets our kids excited about reading and stirs up their lively imaginations – they just love to borrow big stacks of books and log the time they spend reading them. They feel a great sense of accomplishment when they hand in their book log to the librarian at the end of the summer.

Children mimic what they see (as I’m sure you know) so it’s a great thing for them to see their parents reading a lot too. This summer we read over 50 children’s books together. We read my childhood favorites such as Charlotte’s Web, The Velveteen Rabbit, Where the Wild Things Are and some other books we hadn’t heard of like Red, Green, Blue by Alison Jay, Little Mouse and Friends by Caroline Anstey, and Jibberwillies at Night by Rachel Vail. The library is a wonderful place to take children, especially if you’re on a budget. Books can take children anywhere in the universe – for free – without ever leaving ‘home’.

After all of the years we’ve participated in the summer reading program, we unexpectedly won a prize this year. Many thanks to Menlo Park Library for the IPad 2.0! We’re putting it to good use here at Whimsical Kids Canvas – it’s helping us keep in prompt and close contact with all of our Whimsical Kids Canvas customers!

What books spark your child’s imagination? Feel free to leave us a comment below.