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 an Everbright light wall, DUPLO wall, pretend play center, Velcro block wall, play house, 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 or MAGNA-TILE masterpiece.
Tech Playground
Jump on a Playaway Launchpad and play learning games in our Tech Playground. Launchpads are pre-loaded with interactive, engaging apps designed for kids in Pre-K to 5th grade.
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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Kindred Dragons
Alice has been unhappy ever since her parents sent her to Prince Edward Island to live with her strict grandmother. Alice is fanciful, prone to telling tall tales, and absolutely OBSESSED with dragons! Fairies deliver dragon eggs to a select few, known as Kindreds, but no egg has ever arrived for Alice.
While wandering the woods alone, she finds and secretly befriends a mysterious old dragon named Brim. Alice is excited to finally have a dragon friend of her own, but when Brim suddenly falls ill, Alice must set out on a desperate quest to save him.
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Agent Cupcake
Go undercover and crack the case in Agent Cupcake, perfect for fans of Mac B. Kid Spy and Spy School! Twelve-year-old Miguel Mangayayam has always loved one thing: mystical beasts. So he’s thrilled when he’s hired by the Mystical Beasts Bureau (MBB) to be their first ever human spy where he’ll use his encyclopedic knowledge of hippogriffs, mermaids, dragons, and more to solve the latest cases. Even better? He’s partnered with the supercool unicorn superspy, Agent Cupcake! Together, they’ll go undercover, gather intel, crack codes, and collect clues to solve the MBB’s toughest mysteries. But when they receive reports that unicorns are losing their magical powers, Miguel and Agent Cupcake will have to put their spy skills to the test to figure out why, even if it means going up against a mega corporation like HOARD. Could someone be trying to steal magic to put unicorns out of business?
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Disney Baby: Try Again, Stitch: Toothbrushes Are for Teeth!
Time to get your toothbrush out—not your hairbrush! Try again, Stitch!
Stitch tries and tries again to brush his teeth in this silly, sweet board book perfect for read aloud fun with little ones!
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Dog Man: Big Jim Believes
The celebration comes to a halt for our heroes in Dog Man: Big Jim Believes when the mischievous Space Cuties From Space return. Our caped crusaders -- Dog Man (aka Scarlet Shedder), Commander Cupcake, and Sprinkles -- along with Mecha Molly discover that the city has changed, and nothing is how it should be. Can Big Jim's positivity and innocence help our heroes? Will Dog Man, Big Jim, Grampa, and Molly have the courage to trust each other and save the day? How does the past help shape the future? And who is the chosen one?
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Coach
Before Coach was the man who gave caring yet firm-handed guidance to Ghost, Lu, Patina, and Sunny on the Defenders track team, he was little Otie Brody, who was obsessed with Mr. 9.99 (a.k.a. Carl Lewis) and Marty McFly from Back to the Future. Like Mr. 9.99—and his own dad—Otie is a sprinter. Sprint free or die is practically his motto.
Then his dad, who is always away on business trips, comes home with a pair of Jordans. JORDANS. Fine as fine can be. Otie puts them on and feels like he can leap to the moon…maybe even leap like Mr. 9.99 when he won the Olympic gold medal in the long jump. But one morning he wakes up to find his brand-new secret weapon kicks are missing—right off his feet! And Otie just might have a fuzzy memory of his dad easing them off as Otie was sleeping, but that can’t be right, can it?
Unless all the reasons for his dad’s “gone’s” are very different from what he’s been told… Because now, not only are the Jordans missing, but so is his father. -
Caitlin Clark: Shooting Star, A Biography
A slam-dunk picture book biography featuring the WNBA Rookie of the Year and one of the biggest names in basketball—Caitlin Clark!
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The Big, Fun Book of Fake-Out Cakes
Ready to fool your friends? Make a cake that’s disguised as lasagna, a flowerpot, a giant pencil, a pineapple and more!
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Night Chef
The Night Chef has never had a family—only a dream.
She's spent years living inside the walls of a human restaurant, honing her cooking skills. She knows she can fry an omelette with the best of them-- but she also knows that humans will never accept her. And so she keeps to herself, hidden and alone.
Then, one evening, when Night Chef cracks an egg open for her dinner, a baby crow named Ichi falls out! Despite being reluctant to leave her home, Night Chef steps into the wilds in order to reunite Ichi with his family. And along the journey, she might just find a family to call her own, too. -
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi
All of Nic’s dreams have come true. After years of living in hiding as a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world, she now has everything she’d ever wanted: certified hero status, a big family and a real home in the hidden city of Uhuru, and a chance to develop her Gift at a school for young Manifestors like her.
So life is perfect, right?
Not quite. Her-favorite-author-turned-vengeful-outcast wants to destroy her. Then there’s the terrifying secret prophecy that still threatens Nic’s future, and the dangerous new power she seems to have—one she cannot control. And that’s all before she encounters a cult of mysterious Manifestors who threaten to reveal the truth about her power and prophecy unless Nic delivers to them a legendary artifact, the Book of Anansi. There’s just one small complication: No one knows if it still exists, or where it could be hidden.
Nic now has only her twin brother, Alex, and her best friend, JP, to rely on as she makes a desperate attempt to uncover one of the Remarkable world’s oldest mysteries—and hold on to the home and family she has been searching for her entire life.
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Free Piano (Not Haunted)
The piano is free, but fame has a price.
On the sleepy streets of Cascade Cove, lonely Margot knows that when she stumbles across a discarded synthesizer with a “not haunted” sign, she’s discovered the key to realizing her dreams. Determined to become a real songwriter and earn her absent father’s admiration, Margot dives headfirst into trying to gain followers and fans online. But her musical journey takes an unexpected turn when she realizes the (not haunted) piano is very much…haunted.
Enter Vision, teen pop sensation of 1979 whose untimely demise left her spirit intertwined with the keys of her synthesizer. Though Margot and Vision couldn’t be more different, the girls form an unlikely bond fueled by their shared passion for music.
But as Margot’s obsession with fame and recognition grows, she may come dangerously close to losing what she loves about music…and herself. -
Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant physicist who led the American effort to build the atomic bomb during World War II, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of the revolutionary weapon he helped create.
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My Abuela Is a Bruja
My abuela is a bruja.
There is magic in everything she does.
There is nothing more magical than a grandmother's love. But one lucky girl suspects her grandmother has actual magic. It's in the tun-tun-tun of the way she dances salsa, in the warmth of her hugs, and the delicious smell of her cooking. The granddaughter wonders: will I have magic of my own one day? -
Orris and Timble: Lost and Found
Orris the rat and Timble the owl are unlikely friends. Each night, Timble visits Orris in the barn and listens to his stories. But Timble is growing up, and one evening when the owl doesn’t appear as usual Orris wonders if Timble has forgotten him. Is their friendship over? Or could it be that Timble has a tale of his own to share?
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CeeCee
CeeCee is a young enslaved girl growing up alongside the two spoiled daughters she must work for on a plantation in Maryland. She takes care of them, catering to their every whim and suffering their casual cruelty. She learns to read by listening to their lessons and stories with the threat of punishment if caught.
CeeCee receives help from the caring cook, Binty, and hope comes in the form of a different kind of escape. CeeCee chances everything for the possibility of a new life.
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Schoolbot 9000
James Gordon is already annoyed by the robots in his life—the drones that look like bugs, the dogbots at the park, his HomeBot babysitter, and now? He’s just found out that Schoolbots are replacing all of his favorite middle school teachers.
James’s teachers have always cared about his feelings and supported his art, but with the news that artificial intelligence is replacing them, James’s life feels like it’s full spiraling into chaos. All the Schoolbots care about is improving students’ test scores and efficiency, and they’ve had some seriously unnerving glitches.
James is determined to fight back but is going to need some help from a very unlikely ally in order to keep these robot teachers from taking over his school.
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.