Photograph by Mary Bohlen
“Madeline” involves life in The Rabbit hOle kids’s literature museum in North Kansas Metropolis, Missouri. The museum has cozy spots for studying all through it.
If you happen to’ve ever imagined taking place a rabbit gap and rising right into a magical world, then make it come true with a go to to a brand new museum long-established as an ode to kids’s literature. The doorway to The Rabbit hOle in North Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, winds guests via a grotto-like maze to land amidst dozens of ebook displays.
When you step into the museum, you’ll be able to discover cubbyholes and shows for such books as Madeline, Runaway Bunny and Strega Nona. You’ll be able to climb into the world of Curious George, faux to make a pie with Blueberries for Sal and take pleasure in a quiet time within the nice, inexperienced room of Goodnight Moon. In all, the museum options some 70 titles spanning 100 years of kids’s literature.
Some displays characteristic voices studying the books, and all stations have books to learn to your self in cozy spots. The museum occupies the basement and first flooring of a 100-year-old warehouse with plans to develop to the higher flooring and rooftop.
Opened in March, the Rabbit hOle is the brainchild of co-directors Deb Pettid and Pete Cowdin, who ran a well-liked kids’s bookstore in Kansas Metropolis for practically 30 years. They grew to become recognized for authors’ occasions and envisioned an interactive area to share their love of kids’s literature.
Photograph by Mary Bohlen
The Rabbit hOle museum in North Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, options the quiet “nice inexperienced room” from the kids’s ebook, “Goodnight Moon” among the many many displays.
“Kids’s literature has all the time been part of my life,” Pettid says. “Rising up, I favored to faux I lived within the books I learn, so I’d play Harvey’s Hideout or Stuart Little. As an grownup, I opened a kids’s bookstore, the place that love of bringing books to life and creating environments continued to develop.”
Photograph by Mary Bohlen
The kids’s ebook, “I Am a Bunny,” is one in every of some 70 books highlighted in The Rabbit hOle museum in North Kansas Metropolis, Missouri.
Apparently, the co-founders hit on a good suggestion because the museum noticed greater than 90,000 guests from all 50 states and such nations as Sweden, Italy and Singapore within the first six months. The museum attracts guests of all ages and, in contrast to some kids’s museums that flip away adults with out kids alongside, the Rabbit hOle permits them in. A particular wristband permits employees to ensure these adults aren’t leaving with kids. As a employees member stated, “All ages can get pleasure from it.”
Guests can take part in story hour twice every week in probably the most beloved areas, the spot replicating scenes from Goodnight Moon. The quiet room is full with a rocking chair, mock fire, pink balloon, clock and mittens, which can deliver again reminiscences from the ebook.
Billed as the one experiential museum within the U.S. dedicated to kids’s literature, the museum showcases greater than 20 artists, who fabricate the shows on website. As well as, the museum has a print store, a narrative lab for writing one’s personal tales, a bookstore well-stocked with kids’s books and a café.
Photograph by Mary Bohlen
Guests to The Rabbit hOle museum in North Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, can befriend Robert, the principle character within the “Robert, the Rose Horse” books.
“Our mission is to create a dwelling tradition round kids’s literature,” Cowdin says. “We would like The Rabbit hOle to assist foster a lifelong love of studying.”
Admission is $16 per individual with these underneath 2 free. The museum is ADA pleasant with ramps and elevators. Close by parking is free additionally. Hours are 10 a.m. to five p.m. Tuesday via Friday, 10 a.m. to six p.m. on Saturday and midday to five p.m. on Sunday.
And, in case you might be as curious as George concerning the uncommon capitalization within the museum’s identify, the uppercase “O” within the third phrase symbolizes that enormous, spherical, winding area guests use to enter The Rabbit hOle.
For extra data, go to www.rabbitholekc.org.
Mary Bohlen of Springfield writes about Midwestern journey for Illinois Occasions and different publications and fondly remembers books that her kids cherished.
