Wellfleet Public Library

Search CLAMS for Books, Films & Music:

Welcome

The Wellfleet Public Library Children's and Teen Rooms serve children, teens, parents, caregivers, educators and others working with children and children's and young adult literature.
Children may have a library card of their very own as soon as they can sign their name or they turn five years old - whichever comes first. A parent's signature and verification of address are required.
Books, audio books, graphic novels, movies, and magazines may be checked out.
All are welcome to read and play.

“The mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions. ‘What a day I’m having!’ he said. ‘Let’s start at once.’”
– Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
____________________

New Books!

Two Books of the Week-
Tried and True
&
The Best of What's New
To reserve item, click on the cover.

Tried and True

Keats, Ezra Jack. Dreams. NY: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1974.
Ah, Keats, we love you so, and always will. Acrylic paintings of browns and oranges and reds with touches of collage give Roberto’s days and dreams the warmth of the sun and the earth and the stones that make a building home. Roberto can’t sleep, and so sits at his windowsill, watching. And then! A paper mouse grows as big as a shadow and saves a cat from a dog, and Roberto sees it all. Morning comes, and everyone wakes, except Roberto, who finally asleep, is dreaming. Keats, winner of the 1963 Caldecott Award Winner The Snowy Day, a story of small boy Peter enjoying winter, created in Dreams another most amazing boy having a most amazing evening.

The Best of What's New

Stead, Philip C. Sebastian and the Balloon. NY: A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2014.
“Sebastian sat high on his roof – something he was never supposed to do. ‘There is nothing to see on my street,’ he thought. ‘Nothing at all.’” Stead places his amazing boy on a roof rather than a windowsill, adds some blue and greens to the browns and oranges and reds of dreams, makes a balloon of Grandma’s afghans and patchwork quilts, and sets his dreamer flying free. His illustrations work together to journey through emotions – the pressed charcoal lends a gentle grittiness, the oils a depth of belief, and the pastels the wispiness of flight. Sebastian and his bear look “each other right in the eyes” and share a pickle sandwich. And Stead here again brilliantly demonstrates his artistry and sense of timing and storytelling – he isn’t, for example, afraid of a wordless page spread - and lets his boy and the bear and the pickle sandwich sit against a background of yellow as warm as the sun, in silence. Sometimes pictures don’t need words. A very tall bird and three sisters join the balloon crew, and all have everything they need. A kind and clever cross between Ellen Raskin’s Nothing Ever Happens on My Block (1966) and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach (1961), Sebastian, like Keats’ Roberto before him, joins the ranks of dreaming, traveling boys. Well come, Sebastian. Well come.

Recently Archived
Tried and True

Chaud, Benjamin. The Bear’s Song. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2011.
French import. Just before hibernation, Little Bear sees a bee and chases it, “caught up in honey thoughts.” Papa Bear “dashes” after him through forest and city and even an opera house, “looking rather dapper indeed.” Good vocabulary words, grand adventure, and fantastic fun to follow each page in search of sightings of Little Bear. Add some honey of your own, and it’s a perfect book to pore over and share.

The Best of What's New

Chaud, Benjamin. The Bear’s Sea Escape. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2014.
Little Bear and Papa Bear are back! Hurrah! This time, a little human boy at the opera house decides he must have Little Bear as his very own. Can you imagine? The chase is on. Papa Bear borrows a scooter, catches a train, and boards a big ocean liner. Playful text – impeccably translated to catch rhyme and meter - and marvelously detailed illustrations. Can you find Little Bear? Where can he be? Enjoy the search.

Tried and True

Cole, Babette. Prince Cinders. NY: Putnam, 1987.
We can always count on Cole to fracture a fairytale with style and zip. In this classic, Cinderella is Prince Cinders, a skinny and spotty and scruffy little bugger with three big and hairy bully brothers. His fairy has a wee bit of trouble with spells and turns him into a big and hairy monkey. He can’t go to the disco like that, now can he? So off to the bus stop he goes, where the rich and beautiful Princess Lovelypenny is waiting – of course! The illustrations provide perplexed personality and pop.

The Best of What's New

Campbell, KG. The Mermaid and the Shoe. Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press Ltd., 2014.
King Neptune has fifty daughters, each one more remarkable and useful than the last, except for the last daughter – Minnow. All she does is ask questions. And more questions. And still more questions. Which might be the most remarkable and useful talent of all. And which doesn’t, incidentally, mean she wants to be anything other than herself. She’ll keep her voice and her tail, thank you very much, and stay a little mermaid. The watercolor and pencil color illustrations add delicate depth and a light-filled approach to what otherwise could be deemed a didactic fracture. Instead, the wonder of questioning and learning and exploring and knowing is all there, in the blue of the water and the browns of the wide-open eyes, and even the red of that something called a shoe.