Bookworm Gardens

While on vacation this month, we visited Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  We'd never been there before, and I found it utterly enchanting.  So I'm going to share a few photos of it with you.  As well as this map, so you get an idea of what it's like:

(Click on image to make it bigger.)

Basically, they have different areas dedicated to different kinds of children's books, with structures and flowers and hands-on activities that relate to them.  I didn't take photos of nearly all of them, but here are some I captured.

This is "Jack and the Beanstalk," and in the background is the "Hansel and Gretel Learning Cottage" where you could buy souvenirs and lots of books.

Houses for each of the "Three Little Pigs" (and Cowboy inside one to demonstrate scale).

Winnie-the-Pooh's house, where he lives under the name of Sanders, as per A. A. Milne.

You can go in a lot of the structures, and some of them have stuff to do inside.  Pooh's house has stuffed animals and a bit of furniture.

The Little House in the Big Woods display has stools, kitchen sundries, and other things you can load into the wagon.

This is for a book I've never read, A Playhouse for Monster by Virginia Mueller, but it's so cute, I had to include a photo.  (That's my friend ED in the foreground, wearing the cape.  Because she's cool like that.)

The Magic School Bus!!!  You could go inside, raise and lower windows, open and close doors, and pretend to drive.

Pagoda from Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr:

Display for The Tin Forest by Helen Ward:

Some books just had a little statue or small display, like this tiny duck for one of my favorite books, The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Weise:

Scattered throughout are these pillars with a little metal door marked "books."  When you opened them, you would find laminated copies of books brought to life nearby, or of selections from the books if they were too long to include all of.  That way, if you weren't familiar with some of the books and wanted to read them, you could!

There are a LOT more displays at Bookworm Gardens, but this at least gives you a taste of what it's like.  If you're ever in eastern Wisconsin, and you love children's books (or have some kids along), definitely check this place out!  It's free (with a request for a free-will donation), and you can spend a couple of hours there without getting bored.

Also, they have a Little Free Library :-)  We saw three of these on our vacation, and I find them enchanting!  I donated books to two of them, and Cowboy took one book.  I kind of want one of these in my neighborhood, don't you?