Huff

When they built the new library last year, I was so glad to see a separate children's wing. The old building was very open, so it was easy for Lauren to "escape," and the noise must have been disturbing to the other patrons.

Now, since the new library does have a children's wing, well apart from most of the rest of the building, complete with blocks to make a town and a puppet theater, wouldn't it make sense that kids can use it and be kids? I don't mean be hooligans, I mean talk in regular voices.

When we got there today, there was one other little boy about Lauren's age with an older man I'd guess was his grandpa. I didn't see any other adults at all while walking back to the kids' area, though I didn't look to the other half of the building.

While I was looking for books for Sarah to read to me this week, the three kids were talking and playing with the blocks. Not yelling, but not whispering either. The kid's desk librarian came over and told them they had to keep it down. She wasn't mean about it, but I thought it was a bit excessive. True, Lauren has a hard time with volume control, but I really thought she was doing ok. After that, I kept shushing her and reminding her that she had to be even more quiet.

When they're waiting to start story time, most of the kids get a little loud and sometimes rowdy, and nobody bats an eye. I'm sorry to see that preserving the perfect sanctity of silence in the library is more important than enjoying it.

/rant

On a good note, Sarah is very excited to start the summer reading program! Prizes for reading books? Wow!