The Independence Public Library Board and Staff believe that children are our future and have a strong desire to instill a love of reading and learning in children. We would love for children to identify the library as a place to find great reading materials, find answers to questions, meet with others their age, and to go to programs of all kinds.

Story times are offered twice a week at the library.  Monday evenings at 6:30 pm are especially geared towards 3-8 year olds.  Wednesday mornings at 9:30 are geared towards 3-5 year olds. The story times are fun, theme-oriented segments lasting approximately 30 minutes.  Stories, rhymes, and songs fill the first 15 minutes and typically a simple craft activity takes the rest of the half-hour time.  Our story time lady is Vonnie Hoskins, and her love for kids is obvious as she works with them.  We hope you will bring your young friends and join us during these times!

Rhyme Time for Baby and Me is a time when parents, grandparents, or caregivers can bring their baby for a fun time of rhyme, reading and rhythm.  It is held weekly on Thursday mornings from 9:30-10:00 in the library’s Flutterby Cove.  Come with your little one, from birth to two years of age.  Be ready for developmentally appropriate activities that will help lay the groundwork for reading readiness.  It will be a chance for your child to begin to develop large and small motor coordination, language, listening, and socialization skills.

The library offers children's materials in several formats and age groupings.  Board books, picture books, beginning readers, chapter books, non-fiction, and easy non-fiction are all available for checkout.  There are also magazines, audio books, and DVDs available for checkout.

While in the library, children age 5 who have a library card and parental permission can use the library computers, with the exception of the early literacy computers.  The library has two early literacy computers that any child may use...just ask at the desk.  They are for children 2-8, have a touch-screen and special keyboard, and more than 50 educational programs for early learning!

There are also puzzles that can be checked out to put together in the library.  Just ask for the puzzle book, and you can browse through the pictures (there is one of each puzzle) to choose the one/s you would like to check out!

Children have a special area in the library called Flutterby Cove.  It is a fun, bright area where kids can choose to walk in the big door or the little door.  This area is used for browsing materials, story times, using you imagination, and reading with parents/guardians.

An annual event for children is the Summer Reading Program for children.  The Independence Public Library encourages children to read or be read to each day for 15 minutes or more.  This will help children keep their reading skills up over the summer! When they enter school in the fall they will be ready to learn.  Each year the Summer Reading Program has a theme.  This year the theme is Dream Big - Read!

Other programs are author talks, artist showcases, movies in the park (Riverside Cinema), make and take craft days, etc.  See upcoming events on the right side of this website so you can get specifics about programs and mark your calendar!