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The Children’s Library

Kids play space showing a round table with orange chairs and books on a display wall

Children’s Area

The Mulvane Public Library Children’s Area has welcoming spaces for kids and families.  It contains three tables of varying heights for families to utilize, multiple seating areas with couches for reading, a fish tank, seating for tweens (ages 9-11), two AWE Learning Stations (no Internet), two patron computers, a catalog computer station, and a play space with interactive toys, pretend play items, puzzles, and games.  Additionally, the youth collection of picture books, juvenile nonfiction (JNF), juvenile fiction (JF), juvenile graphic novels, juvenile DVDs, juvenile audio, juvenile magazines, Reading Ready Packs, and parenting books are located in this space.

Mother's Room image showing a chair and sink

Mother’s Room

The Mother’s Room is located right outside of the multipurpose room.  It is kept locked for patron privacy, but a key is available at the staff desk.  This room is for mothers who are nursing or pumping, and may act as a space for overstimulated children needing to calm down.  There is a sink, table, diaper changing pad, and chair.  Additional supplies, including diapers and breast pads, are available as long as supplies last. 

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Toddler Restroom

The Children’s Area has one available restroom for kids under the age of 6 years old.  This bathroom has a sink and a small toilet meant for toddlers and young children.  All other patrons are directed to use the main restrooms located in the Library Foyer.

Featured Resources for Kids

Bookflix

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Focus on PreK to third grade readers. Animated classic storybooks introduce early learners to the delights of reading while sparking curiosity, creating a natural springboard into the paired nonfiction text for deeper discovery. Titles are always available with no limits.
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Comics Plus Kids

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Collection geared to children, aged 3 to 14, of comics, graphic novels and manga. Titles are always available, checkouts are for 7 days.
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VOOKS

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VOOKS is an exciting, ad-free reading experience for children to enjoy storybooks with unique animation, sound and narration. The VOOKS library contains classic and award-winning titles.
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Summer Reading 2025: Color Our World

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What Is Color?

In this zany and vibrantly illustrated nonfiction guide to all things color, the origins of today's pigments come alive across continents and history, with oodles of art, tons of science--and extensive interactive backmatter!

"An absolute masterpiece." - Jon Scieszka, First National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature

"Steven Weinberg's zany, thorough, and accessible guide to the wonderful world of color is simply joyous.” - Emma Straub, bestselling author and co-owner of Books Are Magic

"This is color like you’ve never seen it before! . . . Just loads of fun!" - Betsy Bird

So what is color? A red apple? A yellow banana? The purple goo from a squished sea snail?

Once you start digging, color turns out to be a lot of things--it’s messy, stinky, and even a little bit dangerous. You may already know that it’s art, but it’s science, too! What Is Color? will take readers all over the world, introducing them to talented, brilliant, creative people from scientists to famous artists and everyone in between as we take the color wheel for a spin.

Perfect for curious and creative minds who love paintbrushes as much as microscopes, this clever and eye-catching full-color nonfiction book dives deep into the strange, wacky, silly, and occasionally perilous history behind the colors that paint our everyday lives.

Readers will get:
• A laugh-out-loud funny adventure full of gross-out facts (like how cow pee can be used to make the color yellow!). 
• Hilarious illustrations that encourage creativity and fun while learning!
• A kid-friendly primer on global art history, from Yayoi Kusama to Van Gogh, Basquiat, and many more.
• A dazzling full-color book, with rainbow edges and vibrant info-filled endpapers.
• Extensive backmatter with a glossary plus art and science activities perfect for the classroom and home!

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Art Lab for Kids

Art Lab for Kids is a refreshing source of wonderful ideas for creating fine art with children. This step-by-step book offers 52 fun and creative art projects set into weekly lessons, beginning with drawing, moving through painting and printmaking, and then building to paper collage and mixed media. 

Each lesson features and relates to the work and style of a contemporary artist and their unique style. The labs can be used as singular projects or to build up to a year of hands-on fine art experiences. Grouped by medium, the labs are set up loosely to build skills upon the previous ones; however, you can begin anywhere.

Have fun exploring:

  • drawing by creating a whimsical scene on a handmade crayon scratchboard.
  • painting by using watercolors and salt to create a textured landscape.
  • printmaking by using lemons, celery, mushrooms, and other produce to make colorful prints.
  • paper by creating an expressive self-portrait using pieces of colored tissue paper.
  • mixed media by making insects from patterned contact paper and watercolor pencils.

Color photos illustrate how different people using the same lesson will yield different results, exemplifying the way the lesson brings out each artist’s personal style. Art Lab for Kids is the perfect book for creative families, friends, and community groups and works as lesson plans for both experienced and new art teachers.

The popular Lab for Kids series features a growing list of books that share hands-on activities and projects on a wide host of topics, including art, astronomy, clay, geology, math, and even how to create your own circus—all authored by established experts in their fields. Each lab contains a complete materials list, clear step-by-step photographs of the process, as well as finished samples. The labs can be used as singular projects or as part of a yearlong curriculum of experiential learning. The activities are open-ended, designed to be explored over and over, often with different results. Geared toward being taught or guided by adults, they are enriching for a range of ages and skill levels. Gain firsthand knowledge on your favorite topic with Lab for Kids.

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The Day the Crayons Quit

The hilarious, colorful #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon that every kid wants! Gift a copy to someone you love today.

Poor Duncan just wants to color. But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing: His crayons have had enough! They quit! Blue crayon needs a break from coloring all those bodies of water. Black crayon wants to be used for more than just outlining.  And Orange and Yellow are no longer speaking—each believes he is the true color of the sun. What can Duncan possibly do to appease all of the crayons and get them back to doing what they do best?

With giggle-inducing text from Drew Daywalt and bold and bright illustrations from Oliver Jeffers, The Day the Crayons Quit is the perfect gift for new parents, baby showers, back-to-school, or any time of year! Perfect for fans of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Sciezka and Lane Smith. 

Praise for The Day the Crayons Quit:

Goodreads’ 2013 Best Picture Book of the Year 
Winner of the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award

* “Hilarious . . . Move over, Click, Clack, Moo; we’ve got a new contender for the most successful picture-book strike.” –BCCB, starred review 

“Jeffers . . . elevates crayon drawing to remarkable heights.” –Booklist

“Fresh and funny.” –The Wall Street Journal

"This book will have children asking to have it read again and again.” –Library Media Connection

* “This colorful title should make for an uproarious storytime.” –School Library Journal, starred review 

* “These memorable personalities will leave readers glancing apprehensively at their own crayon boxes.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review 

“Utterly original.” –San Francisco Chronicle

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The World Needs the Wonder You See

New York Times bestselling author Joanna Gaines welcomes you on an imaginative adventure through nature's small surprises and invites you and your children to be curious, slow down, and take in everyday wonders. With vibrant art by Julianna Swaney that is full of dreamy details, this whimsical picture book will inspire your family to pause busy schedules and explore together.

Inspired by Joanna's young son's insistence to "look up!" and the shift to a slower perspective she enjoyed after having her last child, this book shares the delight of taking a friend by the hand, getting your boots muddy, and discovering the secrets just waiting to be uncovered.

In The World Needs the Wonder You See, you and your kids will

  • slow your pace, look closely, and find joy as you make discoveries together;
  • join a diverse cast of children on a journey below leaves, amidst treetops, under ocean waves, through rabbits' tunnels, and into the clouds;
  • imagine hidden worlds in which ladybugs live in tiny cabins, snails journey through mushroom fields, and stars paint stories across the sky; and
  • learn to notice the amazing beauty that children naturally see.

This companion book to The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be is perfect for

  • children ages 4-8;
  • grandparents, parents, teachers, and librarians;
  • classroom story times and discussions about valuing others' ideas and perspectives;
  • households that enjoy watching Chip and Joanna on Magnolia Network and HGTV's Fixer Upper; and
  • holiday or Christmas gift-giving, birthdays, graduations, or other celebrations.

Celebrate the wonder of the world through a child's eyes in this imaginative book about all the beauty, hope, and surprise hiding in plain sight. Look up. Lean in. Bend low. Reach for new heights. Every day, from every place, there's more to see in this great big world of possibility.

Youth Award Winners

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Small Spaces

After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn't think—she just acts, stealing the book and running away. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with "the smiling man," a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price. 

Ollie is captivated by the tale until her school trip the next day to Smoke Hollow, a local farm with a haunting history all its own. There she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she's been reading about. Could it be the story about the smiling man is true? Ollie doesn't have too long to think about the answer to that. On the way home, the school bus breaks down, sending their teacher back to the farm for help. But the strange bus driver has some advice for the kids left behind in his care: "Best get moving. At nightfall they'll come for the rest of you." Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie's previously broken digital wristwatch, a keepsake reminder of better times, begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN. 

Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed the bus driver's warning. As the trio head out into the woods—bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them—the bus driver has just one final piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: "Avoid large places. Keep to small." 

And with that, a deliciously creepy and hair-raising adventure begins.