An illustration I got to do for the extremely cute and well designed magazine LMNOP. It was a great assignment, the focus being on libraries and books. Since I frequent the library almost as much as a 13 year old frequents You Tube, I've come up with some observations. Namely being the noise level. Libraries are just so cool now-with crafty interactive a-la Melissa and Doug puzzle/castles/installations. There are toys. EVERYWHERE. Puppets, blocks, swirly things that I thought existed only in dentist offices. And the trains. Kids go into mini-seizures when there is new Fergus, Benedict, Rutger (whatever) train on the train table. Sprinkled and tucked amidst the playtime chaos are the books. Books just laying around, asking to be read. "That kid take your puppet? Forget-about-it...Read me instead", "Hey! Hey! Little girl with the tiara! I'm the new Tangled book!" I think that the librarians love the noise (to a certain decibel) because kids are developing an association between libraries and fun. It's probably in some Library Manifesto to put up "quiet" signs, merely just for show.