Normal Public Library provides many enriching events and resources for kids of all ages, parents, and families.
Activities
The Children’s Department offers lots of activities to educate and entertain kids. There are story hours for various ages, crafts, guest authors, robotics and other science and tech activities, and of course, Summer Reading
A Place to Discover
Whether we have an official activity going on or not, you can always find fun things to do in Children's Services.
The Discovery Room
The Discovery Room is a popular area for imaginative play, with tons of puppets and a wonderful puppet theater, a dress-up center, Velcro wall, gear table, and more. We even have a Tot Spot area reserved for our youngest patrons.
The Book Nook
The Book Nook is a welcoming area to find a comfy seat and enjoy a book, put some puzzles together, or build a DUPLO masterpiece.
Tech Playground
Jump on an iPad and play learning games in our Tech Playground. The Tech Playground can be a busy place! If all of the iPads are in use, or you want to sit somewhere else in the library, check out an iPad for in-house use.
Outreach
The library has lots of services and resources that can help teachers and homeschoolers.
We are happy to offer storytelling or information programs to nursing homes, churches, community centers, and schools. For more information, please contact us at 309-454-4668.
New Books for Kids
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Sonic the Hedgehog: 5-Minute Stories
Follow the adventures of Sonic and his best friends as they fight Dr. Eggman and save the day! Filled with exciting stories and awesome illustrations, this book is the perfect read for bedtime, when you're on the go, or anytime in between!
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Pokémon Timelines
This is the ultimate visual guide to the Pokémon animated series' history, shown through detailed timelines. Packed with fascinating facts, images, and essential details, fans can chart Ash's journey, revisit exciting storylines, and explore familiar regions in fantastic detail.
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Look and Cook Breakfast
Designed for children who can’t yet read, Look and Cook Breakfast: A First Book of Recipes in Pictures is a must-have introduction to cooking for kids. Following the same easy-to-read visual layout of Look and Cook Snacks, this cookbook features delicious sweet and savory breakfast recipes for the whole family to enjoy—homemade granola, zucchini muffins, and more!
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This Is How We Play
A jubilant, inclusive, luminously illustrated picture book that features families at play, each with a family member who has a disability.
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Ms. Rachel and the Special Surprise: Encouraging Speech and Learning Through Play and Music
Ms. Rachel is looking for something very special, and she needs your help finding it!
While Ms. Rachel invites readers to open a series of imaginary boxes to see what’s inside, she guides them through exercises like pointing, waving, and call-and-response. -
Teeny Tiendas: The Flower Shop/La Florería
Welcome to Mrs. Rosario's flower shop.
Bienvenido a la florería de la Señora Rosario.In Mrs. Rosario's flower shop, there are so many beautiful flowers for sale--from roses and rosemary to lilacs and lilies! Learn their names in both English and Spanish, then pick your favorite for a special gathering at the senior center. Will you choose a pretty daisy/margarita? Or a fragrant hydrangea/hortensia? They are all so lovely!
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Almost Underwear
With NASA photos and playful illustrations throughout, here is an incredible slice of hidden history and an immersive introduction to the science of air and space for all ages. One day in 1903 the Wright brothers entered a department store in Ohio to buy a bolt of fabric. The plain muslin cloth was most often used to make underwear. As it happens, the Wright brothers were about to wrap the simple cloth around the ribs of a mechanical 'wing' and dramatically change the world. Sixty-six years later, in 1969, Neil Armstrong took a big leap onto the moon. With him was a swatch of the exact fabric the bicycle mechanics had purchased in 1903. Fifty-two years after that, in 2021, a remote-controlled car-sized explorer landed on Mars. Attached to the underside of a cable was a tiny piece of very old cloth-cloth that had almost become underwear. Almost Underwear is the story of that incredible piece of fabric, and the historic 'firsts' it stitches together.
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The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues
Now that the family reunion is over and the murderer has been caught, Shenanigan Swift can return to important projects, like searching for the long-lost family treasure. But trouble always finds Shenanigan, and when a valuable painting is stolen from Swift House by a group of eccentric art thieves known as Ouvolpo, she is determined to get it back—even if it means chasing them all the way to Paris. A new adventure is about to begin, and Shenanigan’s sleuthing skills will soon be tested like never before.
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The Bakery Dragon
Ember has always been different from the other dragons. His fearsome roar sounds more like a polite sneeze, and when he breathes fire, the villagers just pat his head and say awwww.
Ember fears he’ll never collect a respectable hoard of gold until a chance encounter with a baker causes his fortunes to turn (and his stomach to grumble). As the little dragon soon discovers, the gold you make is way better than the gold you steal—and gold that is shared? That’s best of all.
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Gifts from the Garbage Truck
What if everywhere you looked, you saw something to make? Instead of seeing something broken, you saw something to fix? Instead of seeing something to throw out, you saw something to give away? This is how Nelson Molina sees the world. A former employee for the New York City sanitation department, Nelson saved over 45,000 objects from the garbage to fix and show his community through his museum, Treasures in the Trash.
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Rolling On
It’s the very end of eighth grade and all everyone can talk about is high school—everyone except Ellie Cowan. Ellie wants to freeze time. Middle school was epic. She moved to Oklahoma, made her best friends, won a baking championship, quit a beauty pageant, and dominated Putt-Putt golf in her wheelchair.
But now her feelings for her best friend Bert are starting to change. When did Bert get so cute? And why are all the other girls suddenly noticing, too? As if that isn’t enough to deal with, Grandpa’s health takes a turn for the worse. So what do you do when you don’t know how to hold on and when to let go? -
Beetle & the Hollowbones
In the eerie town of ‘Allows, some people get to be magical sorceresses, while other people have their spirits trapped in the mall for all ghastly eternity.
Then there’s twelve-year-old goblin-witch Beetle, who’s caught in between. She’d rather skip being homeschooled completely and spend time with her best friend, Blob Glost. But the mall is getting boring, and B.G. is cursed to haunt it, tethered there by some unseen force. And now Beetle’s old best friend, Kat, is back in town for a sorcery apprenticeship with her Aunt Hollowbone. Kat is everything Beetle wants to be: beautiful, cool, great at magic, and kind of famous online. Beetle’s quickly being left in the dust.
But Kat’s mentor has set her own vile scheme in motion. If Blob Ghost doesn’t escape the mall soon, their afterlife might be coming to a very sticky end. Now, Beetle has less than a week to rescue her best ghost, encourage Kat to stand up for herself, and confront the magic she’s been avoiding for far too long. And hopefully ride a broom without crashing. -
Little Ghost Makes a Friend
Little Ghost and his mom have been happily haunting their creaky old house for years, just the two of them. When a new girl moves in next door, Little Ghost wants to introduce himself. But making friends can be scary…until he comes up with the perfect plan: he’s going to invite her over for a Halloween party! But what costume will make her want to be friends with him?
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Half-Minute Horrors
Dare to find out with Half-Minute Horrors, a collection of deliciously terrifying tales and creepy illustrations by an exceptional selection of writers and illustrators. Each one takes only thirty seconds to read ... but the chills will take much longer to fade.
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The Carrefour Curse
Twelve-year-old Garnet regrets that she doesn’t know her family. Her mother has done her best to keep it that way, living far from the rest of the magical Carrefour clan and their dark, dangerous mansion known as Crossroad House.
But when Garnet finally gets summoned to the estate, it isn’t quite what she hoped for. Her relatives are strange and quarrelsome, each room in Crossroad House is more dilapidated than the last, and she can’t keep straight which dusty hallways and cobwebbed corners are forbidden.
Then Garnet learns the family secret: their dying patriarch fights to retain his life by stealing power from others. Every accident that isn’t an accident, every unexpected illness and unexplained disappearance grants Jasper Carrefour a little more time. While the Carrefours squabbles over who will inherit his role when (if) he dies, Garnet encounters evidence of an even deeper curse. Was she brought to Crossroad House as part of the curse . . . or is she meant to break it?
Upcoming Kids' Events
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is an education initiative with three main goals: to promote early childhood literacy, to prepare young children for kindergarten and to facilitate family bonding through reading. Find more information about 1,000 Books and register here.