By AMY MANN
Children’s Services Technical Assistant, Warsaw Community Public Library

WARSAW — It has been deceptively warm lately, but the leaves have begun their yearly metamorphosis. We can see trees from our windows in Children’s Services, and the truth is inescapable. Verdant crowns have turned to a crinkly gold, and branches are beginning to be visible through fluffs of crimson.

Why would anyone want to purposely stay inside a building when the environment outside is so welcoming? I can answer that in one word; books.

Every year, our library is given a budget with which to buy books to replace the ones too worn out or antiquated to keep. Imagine the excitement we feel in choosing books to share with our patrons. Visions of shiny, new volumes with bright pictures, and tantalizing story lines printed on their backs or on inside covers fill our days here at the Warsaw Community Public Library. We also take time to answer questions and to help parents and children locate books and other media. We offer story times, Lego Club, and Lego hunts.

Let’s turn from the employees to you, our community members. Imagine the delight of children you know coming into our area and finding the sparkling new books, and knowing that they can borrow them and take them home to read. We carry funny books, informational books, and Holiday-themed books (Halloween, for instance). We have Easy Readers and books with chapters. Our patrons are constantly bringing books up to the reference desk and remarking that they have never noticed these particular books here before. Sometimes they are a surprise to us, too.

Come in and pick up a few books, new or not-so-new, and plan to read them. In a hammock, in a chair, in a tree, or anywhere, read a story with a kid; you’ll be happy that you did.