This past weekend, I did something I hadn’t done in a long while – took off for a solo adventure (J had flown to Texas for a conference midweek). I’ve been enjoying a delightful email correspondence with Allison, a regular reader of this blog, so I invited myself to her little apartment in Queens, and we spent three lovely days exploring the city together.
Allison is the daughter of a children’s librarian (just one reason we’ve become such fast friends), so she was quick to direct me to various locations in NYC involving classic kids’ books. Needless to say, I relished every one.
On Friday afternoon, amid torrential rain, we made our way to Alice’s Tea Cup for soup, sandwiches, cups of Earl Grey and delectable scones:
(That’s Allison’s pumpkin scone in the foreground, and my chocolate-cranberry scone in the background.)
The next day, I made a pilgrimage to the New York Public Library’s main branch, to visit a few old friends:
Yes. Those are the ORIGINAL Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animals – Pooh, Piglet (center), Eeyore, Tigger and Kanga (and Lottie the Otter, a new addition, behind Kanga). And, of course, they are right in the middle of the Hundred Acre Wood:
The exhibit is right in the middle of the children’s room, which has wonderful, colorful New York wall art:
On Sunday morning, I found myself at the Met, to which Claudia and Jamie run away in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It’s enormous, imposing and grand outside:
And simply gorgeous inside:
I didn’t see nearly everything Claudia and Jamie did, but I wandered through the galleries, gazing at the exhibits and enjoying the general effect of so many beautiful and curious things so close together, for a couple of hours. I’d bought a copy of the book at the Strand the day before, and I read myself back to sixth grade on the bus ride home.
All weekend, as Allison and I walked around Manhattan, we tried to decide where the Melendys would have lived when they had their Saturday adventures in New York. We decided it must have been a lovely, comfortable old brownstone like this:
With flowers in the window boxes, of course. Cuffy, or maybe Mona, would definitely have made sure of that.
On Sunday afternoon, we walked through Central Park, and paused at the lake, where the Melendys went rowing and Randy fell in:
It was a perfect way to end my children’s lit tour. (We didn’t get to go rowing ourselves, but that’s on the list for next time.)
This looks like such a delightful weekend!
What a fun weekend! I’ve always wanted to see the original Winnie-the-Pooh and friends.
How fun! I’ll have to steal a couple of those ideas for my trip to NYC in a couple of weeks!
Looks like you had a fun time! loved the photo of the pooh characters.
I love the Winnie the Pooh plushies. My family has some from the 50s or 60s. I want to decorate my first child’s room in Winnie the Pooh and my mom’s agreed to let me have them, provided I’m extra careful. They aren’t originals, but they sure are old!
Ooh, this sounds fun. The story of A.A. Milne’s life is so sad and intriguing, and I have always been curious about the original animals. How great that you actually saw them!
Great article and great photos!
What a magical weekend in NYC! Love the children’s lit highlight tour – it’s great inspiration for me to when I visit again!
I am MORE than jealous at the moment – would have loved doing this!!!
-grace
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Thanks so much for the tour. Children’s literature has always been one of my favorite parts of my job.
Delightful and lovely are the words for this. So, so lovely. I wish I were there to read and play and eat (and canoe!) with you.
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What an intriguing way to see Manhattan, inspired by children’ lit. I love the Winnie the Pooh exhibit.
I hope you don’t mind if I print this out & put it on our “must do” list. (Pics are fabulous). Thank you !
What a great time! Someday, I hope to get to New York.
It looks like you had a lovely experience taking a trip into story books. I’d love to take an adventure like that. Great photos.
What a lovely idea. My mother was a children’s librarian and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franweiler is one of my all time favorite books. I will try this perspective next time I visit any city. Mahalo.
Oh my…that pumpkin scone looks SO good!!
Great post and congrats on being Freshly Pressed! 🙂
What a lovely post, especially for fellow bibliophiles! I’ll be in New York in a month or so and may have to visit some of these locations. Congrats on being FP too.
Great photos! The only thing I love more than bookstores, are the children’s sections of bookstores and libraries. So full of color and life.
Quite a fun idea for a tour! I believe there are a couple of tour guides who do something similar in my own city.
How fun! I’ll definitely have to take a leaf out of your book and do this some day. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed 🙂
Sounds like a productive trip….thanks for posting the photos. I’ve been getting into children’s books as of late and I’m finding some great reads:)
Glad I stopped by after seeing this on Freshly Pressed. Congrats and thanks for the vicarious tour of the museum!
This is a charming idea. I loved everything about this post. Thank you for sharing.
Saw you on FP and had to investigate–I’m an English major and former library associate. Kid lit was my concentration in college and is my favorite genre, by far. What a great idea, to do a kid lit tour of NYC!
Love the Original Winnie the Pooh animals, they are so warming! Thanks for sharing! Looks like you guys had a fun time!
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I love it!
Great post. My grandson lives in Queens. I’ll be sending your post to his mom so that she can take him to experience this. I love libraries and I want him to love them, as well. I also want him to be a storyteller like his Mema and it all starts by falling in love with the library. Congrats on being FP’d!
I agree with all of the above! So glad someone with your/our impeccable taste was Freshly Pressed. This trip is absolutely perfect!
What a magical idea for a weekend! Thank you for sharing, love love loed it. Now thinking about how I can do the same thing in Sydney…
Awesome post! Thank you!
cool!! i could remember my primary years when our class would have an educational tour here in our place!!! i really enjoyed it… 😀
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Mixed up Files is a great read. Maybe your next post should be from London. So many choices there 🙂
I love brownstones. It’s like my dreamhouse. Terrific post.
My children would love it! Next time we’re in NYC, we will have to check all this out. (last time we we were there was before children).
I love Alice’s Tea Cup. And the stuffed animals were so cute 🙂
What an awesome idea! I want to immediately read all of the mentioned books to my boys and drive up to NYC to do a similar tour. It would be a treat to re-visit all of those wonderful books from my childhood.
where is that Alice’s tea cup located? id like to go there, because I never know where to go, and I want someplace that has yummy cookies and tea
Nice photos and great post.
Okay, too funny. I just read this post via my Google Reader as I’ve been subscribing to you for a while. Then I clicked on WordPress Freshly Pressed and there you are! Congrats!
really cool idea, I love the part about Alice’s Tea Cup
goood work and nice sharing
like it soooo much!!!!
I love to go on a tour like this 🙂
Yes! Our family went to NYC this summer, and the two things the children insisted on doing (besides seeing a Broadway show) were visiting Pooh and company at the New York Public Library and going to the Met to see where Claudia and Jamie stayed. We’ll have to add tea at Alice’s to our itinerary next time. Thanks for the great ideas, and congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
(The show we saw was Mary Poppins, a fitting choice for our kid-driven visit to the Big Apple.)
[…] a trip, such as my lovely weekend in New York (complete with children’s lit tour), “normal” life can seem a bit staid, a bit dull, a bit – well – ordinary. […]
What a great trip around the city! I’ve been to Alice’s Tea Cup many times, and love its atmosphere. The library with Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends is huge and beautiful. I love the Met museum so much, and adore the book From the Mixed-Up Files…. Central Park was my playground when I was little, and I still love to roam around, though I have never been rowing. Congrats on being featured on Freshly Pressed!
What a great time you must have had. With book stores closing down in what seems like everyday it’s imperative that we hold onto our libraries don’t you think. I run a website from home called Shop4Books so I’m able to buy books online each and every day if I want to, I just wish more and more people would buy real books these days, especially for the children. Never been to New York myself but you have, at least, given me a little tour. Thank you.
What a whimsical weekend you had! Alice’s Tea Cup sounds like a perfect little find in such a big city.
My kids love visiting New York…so much to offer children! My kids loved the Museum of Natural History and the Met. We had a great visit, walked in Central Park, and of course, made a stop at Dylan’s Candy Bar! Your photos are beautiful.
We will be visiting again in November and will tour the Ground Zero Memorial site where we’ll pay tribute to a cousin who lost his life in the Trade Center.
Thanks for sharing!
How wonderful! This looks like so much fun. I’m a student of Library Science so this is something I would love to do one day.
Beautiful!!! THAT’S a library i want to go to. jealous…
What a clever post! I, too, am a librarian’s daughter, so I found your NY adventures delightful. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!
This just makes me so happy. Let me just add the Alice store to my bucketlist real quick. Thanks!
It looks wonderful. There is nothing better than exploring with someone from the area. They know more than you do. It’s even more fun discovering things together.
You have captured innocence, education, archetectural and culinary artistry, and the essesnce of shared friendship and adventures in this single blog. Nicely done! This is a fantastique find! (…now I’m off to find some pumpkin scones.)
I wish I had a friend to take me round New York. I think you see so much more of a place when someone who lives and works there acts as host. Some great photographs very interesting post . Thank you.
I recognize the pooh book-I had it as a child and still have it! great post!
Loved this post. You described my ideal trip to NYC. Very few people ever refer to the Melendy’s! I still re-read those books every so often.
[…] books and movies have been set there. I wouldn’t know where to begin. Today I came across a post by Katie Noah Gibson from Cakes, Tea and Dreams, about taking a children’s literature tour of […]
Lovely, thanks. Winnie the Pooh is the book I buy for all my friends’ babies as a sort of ‘welcome to the world’ gift. You have to go a long way to beat it
Freshly pressed and I missed it!?!? Oy… well, a great post indeed! And I am remembering this moment: NY Public Library, walking into a display room and seeing the Gutenberg Bible. Neat… strolled on. Then in the same room, the case you described above with the ORIGINAL inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. Gutenberg Bible didn’t really capture me, despite it’s importance. Pooh and friends… THAT had me picking my jaw up off the floor. 🙂 Glad you got to take the trip!
What a lovely trip! I especially like the picture of the scones. How delightful!
[…] E.L. Konigsburg A childhood favorite (read to me in sixth grade) and bought at the Strand during my weekend in New York with Allison. I read it on the bus ride home for the first time in 16 years, enjoying it even more […]
Ha, this has given me some ideas on what to do during my next wisit to New York. Thanks for sharing.
[…] the word to everyone to read a book. 37. You take literary trips that connect to your book. (Blog post about a children’s literature tour in New York, abroad a train for Agatha Christie’s Orient Express, visit Forks, Washington, for Twilight, […]
[…] This post was freshly pressed, so many may have read it. It features a trip taken to New York City exploring children’s literature. I thought it was appropriate for my blog, since it relates with children’s books. children’s literature tour of New York […]
[…] You take literary trips that connect to your book. (Blog post about a children’s literature tour in New York, abroad a train for Agatha Christie’s Orient Express, visit Forks, Washington, for Twilight, […]
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