Wellfleet Public Library

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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
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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

Kerr, Judith. The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2009 (1968).
“Once there was a little girl named Sophie, and she was having tea with her mummy in the kitchen…” So begins this sly and affectionate story of a tiger who rang the bell, came to tea, and ate everything. Absolutely everything. All of the tea, and everything in the fridge and the cupboard and even “all the water in the tap.” The entire time, Sophie and the tiger share affectionate hugs and matching, mischievous smiles. Somehow, Kerr’s illustrations keep their expressions sly without being ironic; there is kindness and pleasure without a trace of smugness in the pleased satisfaction of sated appetite. And fortunately, all’s well that ends well: daddy comes home and takes Sophie and her mummy to a café for sausages and chips and ice cream. And the next day they buy a “very big tin of Tiger Food, in case the tiger should come to tea again.”

The Best of What's New

Rosen, Michael; illus. Kevin Waldron. Tiny Little Fly. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2010, 2013.
Another tiger graces this one, this time a Great Big Tiger who “winks one eye” and “says to herself, ‘I’m going to catch that Fly!’” But Tiny Little Fly flies on by, and Great Big Hippo and Great Big Elephant wink their own eyes and can’t catch her either. “See you all soon,” says Fly, “Bye, everyone, bye!” The rhythmic and repetitive text catches young readers and the pencil and gouache illustrations (with some digital enhancements) give giant, messy pleasure to the animals who, clearly, aren’t actually that perturbed. Life is pretty good, with and without Tiny Little Fly.

Recently Archived Entries
Tried and True

Wiesner, David. Flotsam. NY: Clarion Books, 2006.
With his trademark surrealism and imagination, Wiesner here follows a camera that washes ashore and the film it carries, showing pictures of children on beaches all over the world, and the creatures in the ocean in-between, too – in marine living rooms, actually, complete with sofas – and even some tiny little aliens. A boy takes a picture and sends it with the camera across the sea, where it finds a girl who takes a picture and sends it with the camera across the sea, where it finds…

The Best of What's New

Fogliano, Julie; illus. Erin E. Stead. If You Want to See a Whale. NY: Roaring Brook Press, 2013.
The team that brought us And Then It’s Spring (2012) are at it again, this time bringing their meticulous embrace of wonder to what you need to do if you want to see a whale: “A window, an ocean, time for waiting and time for looking…” The drawings are classic Stead: careful detail with no trace of persnicketiness, just an understated and conscious and kind and patient point of view. The boy’s hound is the perfect patient companion. Read again and again.

Tried and True

Maruki, Toshi. Hiroshima No Pika. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1980.
There’s nothing sugar-coated or pleasant here: this is the effects of what happened to a people and a city on the morning of August 6, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped. The paintings aren’t shy; Maruki used blood-red for blood and grey-green for decay. The narrative isn’t shy, either; the author states the facts clearly of death and damage from the immediate and forever effects of radiation. A groundbreaking picture book for older children.

The Best of What's New

Collins, Suzanne; illus. James Proimos. Year of the Jungle: Memories from the Home Front. NY: Scholastic Press, 2013.
Collins, of The Hunger Games fame, tried her hand here at picture books. She tells a semi-autobiographical story of a young girl and the year her father was deployed in Vietnam. At first it seems like he’ll be away on holiday in the jungle, like her favorite cartoon character. But then grown-ups start treating her differently, the postcards stop coming, and she catches a glimpse of the news on TV. Eventually her Dad comes home, but he looks and feels different, but he is home, and he loves her and her Mom and her cat Rascal. “Some things have changed but some things will always be the same.” An important picture book for older children.

Recently Archived Entries

Tried and True

Wick, Walter. A Drop of Water. NY: Scholastic, 1997.
Photographs of water in motion, from the smallest molecules on a pin to when water meets air and even flows up. The scientific information is accessible and interesting, from water vapor to condensation versus evaporation and ice. Winner of multiple awards for best of the best. Fascinating.

The Best of What's New

Berry, Lynne; illus. Matthew Cordell. What Floats in a Moat? NY: Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Archimedes (Archie) the Goat and Skinny the Hen must cross the moat? But how? What the heck floats? And really, who knew physics could be so goofy and fun? Cordell’s pen and ink with watercolor illustrations add a sense of exaggerated panic as each progressive experiment goes ever so slightly but absolutely, well, wrong! Until of course, they get it absolutely, successfully, undoubtedly right!