KIDS AREA

Changing Hands is committed to a helping young readers to grow at home and in school. We've made our Kids' area a fun and exciting place. A wall mural of elephants on the Serenghetti Plain creates a magical atmosphere as do totem poles with symbols from many cultures, giant leaves, original art from favorite picture book artists and stools and a rocking chair for kids to sit back for a cozy reading experience.

The books we have are hand-selected titles representing authors and illustrators who our experienced children's book buyer, Brandi Stewart, knows to be the cream of the crop. Her current recommendations for the younger reader are Saffy by Paola Opal, The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer and There's a Bird On Your Head by Mo Willems. For the middle reader she suggests The Grey Griffin series by Derek Benz and J.S. Lewis, The Softwire: Virus On Orbis 1 by PJ Haarsma and When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Brandi spends lots of time in the children's section and can help you with your selections.

Brandi's Picks for younger readers and middle readers

We also have some wonderful programs for children. Every Saturday we have different themed story events just for kids: Costume Story Time (including Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Winnie the Pooh and more), Cooking Story Time with Cynthia Giroux, Animal Tails with the Phoenix Zoo and Science Story Time with the Arizona Science Center. For tweens we have Club Read. A book club award program designed just for them. Kids will read great books, meet authors and earn chances to win fabulous prizes. In the summer we have great writing and art workshops taught by local authors, illustrators and other crafty pros. Last summer we registered over 800 kids and they had a blast.

Schools can take advantage of our Books For Schools Program which allows parents and teachers to purchase books throughout the year and credit 15% of the purchases to their school. Read more about this program in "About Us/Teachers and Schools" elsewhere on this site. We also offer a teacher discount because we know they buy books for their students out of pocket. Each year we have a Teacher Appreciation Tea in November. This is our opportunity to share new books, ideas and "freebies" from our publishers and send the teachers home with great ideas and full tummies.

If you wish to sign up for our newsletter, you'll receive Kid Pages, a monthly summary of fun events for kids.