Brook Park Branch - Cuyahoga County Public Library

The Brook Park Branch (Cuyahoga County Public Library) children’s play area features a built-in, life-sized wooden car, donated by Ford Motor Company.  Children love to "drive" around town and "assemble" the parts of the engine!  The play space is good-sized and surrounded with board books, nursery rhymes, parenting and concept books, first readers, and picture books in easy-access bins, as well as children’s DVDs shelved in a charming "little town" unit -- complete with a little school house to play in!  Loveseats beckon families to snuggle up and read.

     The play space includes lots of pretend-play: a play farm, puppet show theater, bright wooden kitchen set, and a grocery store check-out station.  Near the large wooden car is a cityscape rug with vehicles, wooden town buildings, and lots of wooden blocks. Learning play includes floor puzzles, literacy matching and alphabet puzzles, lacing bears, matching tiles, plastic animals, and jumbo waffle blocks. The baby and toddler play space includes soft blocks, shape sorters, stacking toys, bead and magnet mazes, manipulatives, musical toys, chunky puzzles, and a rocking boat plus a free-standing infant play-yard.

     We offer three storytimes a week and many special programs year-round for babies to preschoolers -- such as our Baby & Toddler Sensory Play and Baby Club series (our parent-child workshop), among other preschool-family specials. Storytimes include a Baby & Toddler Storytime on Wed mornings (for birth – 36 months); a Music & Movement Storytime on Tues mornings (for 2-5 years old); and an evening Pajama Time Family Storytime on Thursday nights (for all ages). High attendance shows that parents and little ones alike love coming to the library to play, learn and make friends! 

     We're proud of the impact our Family Place Library is having on the Brook Park community and beyond.  Over the years, word of mouth and friendships have increased attendance at our baby, toddler and preschool programs, with adults saying they really love the engaging programs that also offer skill development and early literacy growth.  So many families have formed deep bonds with each other, setting up play dates outside of the library programs and supporting one another as their children grow.