2015 Library Project: June Month-in-Review

Hello!  Wow, I got such a great response to my last post about my son's summer library project.  Thank you.  I thought it would be fun to keep you updated on the project on a monthly basis.  We visited seven more libraries in June.  These are highlighted in blue on the map below.  (The libraries that we visited last summer are highlighted in yellow.)

Since I'm linking up with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's virtual tea party today, let's begin our tour in north Minneapolis, where you can have an imaginary teatime at the cafe in the North Regional Library's play area.  The mural in the background is an accurate depiction of Lowry Avenue, the street where this library is located.  In the background you can see a bit of the Lowry Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River, with the skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis beyond that.

In another part of north Minneapolis, we enjoyed the Sumner Library.  This gorgeous building celebrates its hundredth birthday this year!  I didn't get a photo, but Wikipedia has one for you to see.

The third library in Minneapolis that we visited in June was Central Library in the heart of downtown.  This enormous building has four levels!  I can't even begin to guess how many books are there.  Or how many stairs.  As you see from the photo above, the staircases there are reminiscent of M. C. Escher's famous drawing.  There are elevators and escalators, too, for which I was very grateful, since we visited all four floors.

Moving on to the suburban portions of our escapade, we visited libraries that varied greatly in size.  The largest of these was the Edina Library, where I checked out Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  (My take: good, but not as good as Eleanor & Park.  Have any of you read Rowell's books?)  The smallest library we visited was the Osseo Library, which is just one room in Osseo City Hall.

Other charming, small libraries that we visited include the St. Bonifacius Library (pictured above), whose building will celebrate its one hundredth birthday next year, and the Long Lake Library (pictured below), which is conveniently located in a small shopping center.  There really is great diversity among all the Hennepin County libraries.

Before I go, I need to thank fellow T is for Tuesday participant and Twin Citian Halle, who pointed out to me that the Excelsior Library has moved to a new building since last summer.  My son and I visited the new library building, where we were greeted by a delightful wood carving of a book-reading beaver.  If you include the Excelsior Library, my son and I actually visited eight new libraries in June.  Not bad, eh?  I hope that you have also enjoyed this virtual tour of those libraries.