Teeny Tiny Picture Books

Who doesn't love tiny things? At most of the 27 branch libraries I work at, there's a separate shelf for diminutive picture books, and it's adorable.

Small things are cute. Kittens, puppies, dollhouse accessories, postage stamp-sized letters and papers, the tiny Le Creusets my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. They’re just so much more precious than their boring full-sized versions.

Picture books are no exception.

Conveniently, at many libraries, the small picture books are grouped together on a single shelf so that they won’t get lost in the regular-sized picture book stacks. The shelf is so fun to flip through.

It doesn’t take long. The collection is mostly Beatrix Potter, with a handful of Brambly Hedge, Flower Fairies, and Maurice Sendak, and a smattering of more contemporary additions to the micro-genre.

So much in the library is uniform and by-the-book that I love when quirky work-arounds like this pop up. I like seeing the thought process behind the hand-written signs, the nod to experience and trial-and-error (“If I have to fish that Peter Rabbit out from behind the P section one more time…”).

Does your library have a teeny tiny picture book section? Let me know!

Bulletin Board - Industry news
Friends, two of my critique partners have books available for pre-order right now! Claire Bobrow’s debut, When Bumblebees Go To Sleep (a board book) comes out in August, and Katey Howes’s Where the Deer Slip Through is a June release. (This is a posthumous book from Katey, my dear, dear critique partner and friend who passed away suddenly last May, leaving a huge hole in the hearts of all who knew her.)

Audio-Visual - What we’re watching
Alex and I blew through A Man on the Inside (filmed in San Francisco, a block away from Alex’s aunt’s apartment!) and are starting season two of 1923, the Yellowstone prequel. And I admit I’ve dipped my toe into With Love, Meghan, the lifestyle show from Meghan Sussex, nee Markle. (Say what you will, I like her. Shrug emoji.)

From the 641s - What I’ve been cooking lately
My brother roasted up some carnitas from a wild pig a friend gifted him, and I made a stack of homemade tortillas to eat it with, for Friday night dinner at my parents’ house. (On the right, I caught Cate reading the Claude board book to Piper.)

New Arrivals
My haul from a thrift store visit in Sonoma! (The whole shop was 50% off that day!) Includes a vintage Pyrex and a Williams-Sonoma tablecloth.

Starred Review
Cate made these amazing cookies for Pi Day! She probably stood at the counter last night piping for three hours straight. Sugar cookies are a work of art… She’s going to sell them at school for the Baking Club today. I wonder what she’ll price them at?

Local Interest
Shout-out to our wonderful CSA box from Terra Firma Farm. One thing I appreciate about this particular CSA is that there’s no option to customize. Choosing your own produce sounds like a good idea, but to me it always became one more chore to hang over me all week. Now, we just take what they have that week and plan our meals around it.

Neighborhood News
My neighbor Mandy and I made a succulent roof for the Little Free Library! The succulents all came from Mandy’s beautiful, overflowing garden, four houses up from us. (On the right, that’s us in my garage, making the frame. I was brave and used our circular saw by myself for the first time.)

Problem Shelf (This is where library staff puts returned books that come in damaged; then they put a note in the patron’s record. Yikes, right?)
In an ongoing effort to cut back on drinking, I’ve been experimenting with non-alcoholic wines. Spoiler alert, guys, they are not great! The better ones taste like, well, bad wine, or a bottle that’s been sitting out for a day. But sometimes, when I just want something wine-ish to hold in my glass while I’m cooking dinner, that does the trick. This one is from Trader Joe’s and actually isn’t terrible. Anyone have other suggestions?

Checked out - What I’m reading
For my working dog book research, I’m reading Doctor Dogs, by Maria Goodavage. The research (both anecdotal and scientific) about how dogs can change lives, especially children’s lives, just slays me. If you’re on the fence about getting a dog, read this book. (I always say getting Piper was the best thing we ever did for our family.)

I’ll leave you with this quote from the introduction, on the question of whether dogs can love: “I think the secret to dogs’ success with people is their extravagant capacity for forming strong emotional connections with members of other species. In my scientific writing I call this ‘hypersociability’ or ‘exaggerated gregariousness,’ but it is the same thing that laypeople simply call love. Love is the essence of what makes dogs who they are.”