All News & StoriesAugust is Library Card Sign-Up month! At Child Care Answers, we have wonderful partnerships with our local libraries, but our love for the library started with our families. So, to celebrate, we asked our staff about their favorite library memories!
Grace Sededji, Child Care Resource & Referral Specialist
One of my favorite memories is from one of my ESL class in middle school. This particular class had a little library inside the classroom for us. Since we were all learning English, we spent a lot of time sitting in the little corner reading together and helping each other with our reading skills, especially with pronunciation.
Bilingual picture books help support language learning. Explore bilingual African books or Spanish bilingual books!
Jamie Le Sesne Spears, Family Engagement Specialist
My love for libraries started by watching Reading Rainbow at my school’s library! Now, with a toddler at home, we are always on the search for free, toddler-friendly activities. Our local branch is InfoZone located at the Children’s Museum! We love to visit the library, choose a book or two, and have a book picnic in the 7 Wonders Garden. The garden is to the right of the museum’s front door and is a free experience! It has plenty of space to run, explore, and read a book!
Explore events and programs for children at InfoZone.
Jessica Carman, Community Engagement Specialist
My favorite memories at the library started at my elementary school! Our school librarian, Mrs. Wallace, truly made the library a magical place. I remember “quickly walking” (not running!) to be the first in her reading chair to listen to a story. When she was done, I would climb into our “reading loft tree”, cozy up in a beanbag & read whatever book caught my attention that day.
Find inspiration for a cozy reading nook in your home!
Kristin Kahl, Knowledge Manager
I’m dating myself, but the organization nerd in me has fond memories of the rows and rows of card catalogs at my local library back in Ohio. I got almost as excited about the treasure hunt of finding the book as actually reading it! Once I had kids of my own, we loved the adventure of going downtown Indy to the Central Library. We would always start at the green screen room. Then, we’d load ourselves up with an arm full of books and head to the top floor. It was a great way to enjoy a peaceful moment with a great view of downtown while my kids started to dig into their new finds!
Learn more about the Central Library before your next visit!
Lane Heaney, HR Generalist
I remember personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut because I read my quota of books! My BFF and I would have contests to see who could read more biographies.
Westfield Washington Public Library and others in central Indiana encourage families to try the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge!
Lauren George, Family Support Specialist
As a kid I would always get picture books so I could read as many as I could for the prizes. We loved riding our bikes to the Nora Library. Now, my kids are excited to read over the summer because of the summer reading program. My oldest loves the “Who Was” series and read nearly 50 this summer!
Looking for books for your school-agers? Check out the Who Was series!
Lucy Intriago, Bilingual Program Engagement Specialist
When I was a child in Ecuador, going to the library with my family was not something we did in our culture. The libraries were for adults. In school, they told us typical and traditional stories from my country and from other countries. I really enjoyed them. Anecdotes of going to the library with my family were not something of our culture. I discovered here in the USA all or most of the schools have libraries in their programs. That’s when I discovered and learned that there were libraries everywhere for children and adults. Some are very large, colorful, and have a lot of diversity in books for children. My children really liked going to the library when they were little, and I took them very frequently.
Libraries look different around the world. Explore 10 Incredible Libraries with Good Arts & Culture.
Megan Day, Multicultural Community Engagement Specialist
When I was a kid, my mom would take us to the Lawrence Library, even more often for the summer reading program. I was a voracious reader always seeking the next level up, the more challenging book, and the more interesting read. The library has always been a place of opportunity with so many stories to discover. I don’t know how many personal pan pizzas, sticky hands, and snap bracelets I earned over the years, and I loved every one of them.
Discover Indianapolis Public Library’s reading programs for children!
Michelle Terry, Program Engagement Specialist
My favorite memories of the library involve my mom and my sister. We would walk to the neighborhood library and spend a couple of hours picking out our books for the next two weeks. We never had a limit! Our trips to the library truly instilled a love for reading. To this day, I still get giddy when I see a Scholastic Book Fair, and it all started with trips to the library!
Did you know that Scholastic has booklists? Check out books for your child’s age and grade.
Mollie Smith, Executive Director
In elementary school, there was the Principal’s Century Book Club. You had the entire year to read 100 books, and then you were invited to a sleepover AT THE SCHOOL with the principal! As an elementary student, our minds were blown, and it was a great motivator for all students. I did it every year and went through most of the books in our small school library, moving on to the local public library for more.
Live in Hendricks County and ready to expand your experiences with books? Try Animal Tales Library Programs with Hendricks County Park Naturalists.
Patti Bowes, Data/Assessment Specialist
When I was young, we had a library right across the street from where my mom grocery shopped. She would let my older brother and I go there instead of being bored walking the aisles at the store. I loved looking at the picture books, especially the illustrations and animal characters in Richard Scarry’s books. We also had a book mobile that would come to our street. I always thought it was so cool and looked forward to getting new books from the library on wheels. Once I had kids of my own, we visited the Pike Library and enjoyed the summer reading program. The library always came up with fun themes each year and my daughters were excited to choose and read lots of books so they could earn prizes.
Love animals? You can read with dogs at your local library! Paws to Read is a program that visits central Indiana libraries in Hendricks, Marion, and Hamilton Counties.
Rosy Sandoval-Hyre, Multicultural Family Engagement Specialist
Back in the day, my mom would take my brother and me to the Fountain Square Library every other week after she was done with work. We would spend hours there, exploring different sections of the library. My mom was working on her GED, so it was good for her to have some quiet time away from us. During the summer, they always had summer reading programs that we would participate in so we could earn all kinds of goodies ranging from toys/tchotchkes to certificates from different local restaurants offering a free ice cream or small sample from their menu.
Indianapolis Public Library also has programs that support adults! Check out their events.
Tom Taylor, Family and Community Engagement Manager
Our local library was fairly close, so we would weekly ride our bikes or walk to the library to return and check out new books. My favorite thing about the library was quietly exploring the Himalayan stacks and learning new, exciting facts (pre-Google, it’s all we had!). The coolest memory I have was seeing my mom’s name in a book at the library for the first time. She worked on the Life Application bible series and has her name in many bibles to this day. At my Christian college it was a tough claim to fame to beat!
Want to explore facts with books? Ask your librarian about their recommendation for nonfiction books for kids.
