Celebrate International Children's Book Day

April 2 is International Children’s Book Day! Since 1967, Children’s Book Day has been celebrated as a day to inspire a passion of reading and to call attention to children’s books. Schools, libraries and community organizations across the globe participate by bringing families together to read, promoting reading at an early age and raising awareness about the importance of literacy in molding the young minds of the future.

For centuries, the importance of reading has been taught in schools. Reading provides kids with a therapeutic effect and a sense of escapism and allows them to discover stories on their own terms in language they understand. Reading encourages kids to use their imagination, enhances language development, builds their vocabulary and reasoning skills, and can foster bilingualism when families read stories in their heritage language.

Kids can take today as an opportunity to learn about and read books by Illinois-based children’s book authors such as:

Mistie Psaledas. “The Truth About the Tooth” is a story about diversity, creativity and imagination of different tooth fairy legends.

Shel Silverstein. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a collection of poems and illustrations that explores themes of imagination, humans’ relationship with nature, and the divide between adulthood and childhood.

Gwendolyn Brooks. “Bronzeville Boys and Girls” is a collection of 34 poems that celebrate the joy of childhood in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood and beyond.

Kim Moldofsky. In “Amelia Earhart: A Graphic Novel,” readers discover some of Earhart’s incredible achievements before she disappeared on her attempted flight around the world.

These are just a few of the many great children’s books to be celebrated today. Join the festivities by picking up a new book or revisiting an old favorite!

Celebrate Take a Walk in the Park Day

March 30 is Take a Walk in the Park Day! With spring weather greeting the state, it is a chance to get outside and enjoy what local parks have to share. To celebrate, here are some parks across the state with walking trails to take a stroll with family, friends or your dog!

Ferne Clyffe State Park: Goreville, IL
With many unique geological features to see at Ferne Clyffe Park, there are plenty of opportunities to walk one of their eighteen trails! Along these different walking trails – ranging from a quarter-mile to eight miles long – there are chances to see the lake, waterfalls and rock formations.

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Artist of the Month: Todd Snyder

• Arts & Culture
• Artist of the month

Todd Snyder is our March Artist of the Month. He is a nationally recognized fine artist from East Peoria and has worked as a professional oil painter since 1986. Snyder earned an associate degree in commercial art from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver, Colorado and has since lived in central Illinois.

The multitude of paintings Snyder produced throughout his career depict local urban landscapes and architecture in magical realist style reminiscent of the German New Objectivity painters of the early 20^th century. He combines elements of surrealism with his subject matter to fashion his own style of “industrial surrealism” in all of his work.

According to Snyder, his paintings are synthesized productions of his imagination, which include a combination of heavy industrial machinery, cityscapes and images of his immediate surroundings. He aims to create ambiguity and tension in his illustrations in order to reflect the surreal nature of our world and leave the viewer with a fragmented, unresolved story about what they are seeing.

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Magical butterfly sites in Illinois

Springtime in Illinois brings longer days and warmer temperatures, but most importantly, nature begins to bloom and the state transforms, bringing with it mesmerizing sights.

In honor of the first day of spring, here are a few butterfly and botanical gardens to welcome the new season:

Kim St. John Butterfly Habitat
Constructed in 2013 through a partnership between Wildlife Prairie Park and the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners, the butterfly enclosure is the largest native habitat in downstate Illinois. It contains pollinator and host plants for native Illinois butterflies to make the habitat their home. Some notable butterflies include Monarch, Viceroy, Pipevine, Swallowtail and more.

Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens
In Rockford, the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens is the third largest conservatory in Illinois, bringing the tropics to the Midwest year-round. Starting March 23, visit the conservatory to experience the Secret Life of Butterflies and get an up-close look at the butterfly lifecycle.

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Operated by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum is a natural history museum featuring various exhibits and play spaces for young children. Their Butterfly Haven is a 2,700 square-foot greenhouse where visitors can bask amongst flowers and tropical trees while witnessing 1,000 free-flying butterflies from over 40 different species.

Happy spring!