Explore our Collection

Ready for a family movie night? We’ve got you covered! From your favorite feature films to TV series to themed Big Screen Bundles to the perfect holiday movie, our Juvenile DVD collection will keep you entertained. We also have a collection of nonfiction DVDs for kids, if you want to practice sign language, learn more about a favorite animal, or can’t get enough big trucks!

We have a small selection of music in our Children’s Library, primarily featuring performers like Raffi, Laurie Berkner, or Jim Gill, as well as kid-friendly versions of popular music.

Whether you’re looking to keep the family entertained on a long road trip or supporting your child’s developing literacy skills, our Juvenile Audio collections are here for you. We’ve got books on CD, Playaways, and readalongs, which make it extra easy to listen and read at the same time.

One of our newest collections, the Juvenile Board Games are intended to promote social-emotional skills such as collaboration and cooperation, taking turns, and storytelling, while helping children develop their logical thinking and strategy skills. The collection provides families the opportunity to test games prior to making purchasing decisions, as well as increases the variety of leisure activities available to families at no cost. We even have games with no reading required, so the youngest family members can play along, too.

Designed with sturdy board pages to prevent damage, this collection offers developmentally appropriate books for babies and toddlers. Find books with high-contrast, lift-the-flap, introductory basic concepts (counting, colors, shapes, etc.), and a focus on daily life activities for young kiddos (bedtime, bath time, mealtime, etc.) here. It’s never too early to start reading to a baby and a regular reading practice will help them grow into book lovers!

• Our Concept collection features picture books, typically for adults to read aloud. The collection is organized into concepts – such as About Me, Animals, Basics, Things That Go, etc. – many of which are further divided into smaller sections, i.e. Basics includes Alphabet, Colors, Numbers, Opposites, etc. We’ve organized the collection this way to empower young readers in making their book choices – young children tend to think in terms of categories rather than authors or specific titles. This makes for easier browsing for kids, as well as for childcare providers and educators looking for books on a specific subject (seasons, friends, school, dinosaurs, etc.). Youth Services staff are always happy to help you navigate the collection and find the right book for your child!
• About Me: Behavior, General, Growing Up, Hygiene, Imagination, My Body, Self-Esteem 
• Activities/Sports: Activities, Sports 
• Animals: Bugs, Dinosaurs, Farm, Marine, Pets, Wild 
• Basics: ABC, Colors, Numbers, Opposites, Shapes 
• Celebrations 
• Characters 
• Family/Friends: Adoption/Foster, Divorce, Family, Friends, New Baby 
• Favorites: Authors, Bedtime, Community, Creatures, Food, Interactive, Pirates, Royalty, Sing & Rhyme, Stories World Cultures 
• Life Skills: First Experiences, Money, Moving, Potty Training 
• School
• Science: General, Nature, Outerspace, Seasons 
• Serious Topics: General, Grief, History 
• Tales & Lore: Folk & Fairytale, Locale 
• Things That Go: Construction, General, Trains, Trucks

Divided into Beginning Readers and Readers, this collection of leveled books is designed for the needs and skills of beginning to emergent readers, as well as caregivers supporting their children’s literacy development. Books are assessed to determine proper placement, a decision based upon criteria such as number of words per page, sentence structure, illustrative support, and vocabulary. We recommend taking publisher-assigned reading levels with a grain of salt, as no standard leveling system exists. Taking the time to look through a book for yourself is the best way to determine whether or not it’s a good fit for your child, regardless of what level it is assigned.

For transitional readers – those ready to take on chapter books but not quite ready for the longer materials of the juvenile fiction collection, we’ve established our First Chapter collection. These books feature larger print, episodic stories, shorter chapters, and illustrations throughout (though not as heavily as books for younger readers). Series are popular in this collection, and, though they generally share a common character, they typically may be read in whatever order a child chooses. 

• Books written for third through sixth grade readers, representing a wide range of reading levels and content, make up our Juvenile Fiction collection. We provide a collection that is diverse, inclusive, and well-rounded, and are always ready to match the right book to the right reader. Our Juvenile Fiction books are also labeled with genre stickers, making it easier for kids to browse and find the kinds of books they are seeking.
• Action/Adventure
• Animals
• Creatures
• Fairy Tales/Folklore
• Fantasy
• Historical
• Humor
• Mystery
• Mythology
• Realistic
• Science Fiction
• Sports

Meeting the needs of Fond du Lac’s diverse population is essential to the Library’s mission and providing materials in the home language of many of our English language learners helps welcome them to our community. The Juvenile Spanish collection includes both bilingual English-Spanish and Spanish-only materials for kids from birth to middle school.

Our Biography collection contains biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs of individuals’ life stories.If you want to know more about the President or your favorite athlete, this collection is a good place to start.

Featuring both fiction and nonfiction stories, Graphic Novels are heavily illustrated, tell their stories through the use of sequential art (as in comics panels), and utilize dialogue and thought bubbles to provide the text. These books are especially valuable in engaging a wide range of readers and have been shown to be a powerful motivator in getting kids excited about reading. Research shows that there are a wide number of benefits to reading graphic novels, including increased comprehension, greater critical thinking skills, and support of vocabulary development.

Highlighting true stories and real information, our Nonfiction collection is organized by the Dewey Decimal System. Youth Services staff are always ready to help you navigate to the right topic, so don’t worry if you’re out of practice! This is where you’ll find books like the Who Would Win? And Who Was? series, as well as books with facts about sciences, animals, and more.

The Calming Corner collection provides materials to assist with emotion management, sensory processing, and associated behaviors for both children and caregivers. If you need a break or are feeling overstimulated during your visit, the Calming Corner has materials for in-house use such as noise canceling headphones, a weighted vest, and a wobble cushion. If your family is just starting the journey of managing a sensory-processing disorder, we offer a wide variety of Calming Corner kits with items you can try before buying to ensure they work for your needs.

Focusing primarily on early childhood development, this collection includes adult books, videos, and activity kits. This collection focuses on basic parenting skills, current topics in parenting, and assisting children with developing self-care and socio-emotional skills.

Created in honor of local educator Cindy Casetta Barden, the Educator’s Resource Center houses several smaller collections for use in classroom or home learning environments, or to support the professional development of educators and homeschooling families. Items are chosen to foster developmental skills among children, encourage literacy skills, math skills, learning through experimentation, self-regulation and social-emotional learning, and emerging technology skills. For more information on these special collections, visit <<LINK>>.

• Storytime – books and related activities to recreate the storytime experience at home 
• Puppet
• Movement – scarves, bean bags, snow shoes, hiking poles, and other items that promote kinesthetic learning
• Music – classroom sets of shaky eggs, tambourines, and rhythm sticks, as well as individual instruments such as drums, accordion, and practice keyboards
• Reading – i.e. Tonie boxes, Me Readers, Yoto players, early literacy activities, and devices such as tactile dominoes and See and Spell
• STEAM – Science (anatomy models, specimen kits, microscopes, telescopes, etc.); Technology (robots, coding activities, Makey Makey, etc.); Engineering (architecture sets, building challenges, marble runs, etc.); Arts (stencils, stamps, pottery wheel, etc.); Math (tangrams, Colorku, Power Pens, etc.)
• Subject – sets of books on a single topic, such as WWII, seasons, and author studies 
• Book club 
• Multimedia learning equipment – Osmos, Launchpads (pre-loaded digital learning tablets covering a variety of subjects and age levels)
• Flannel boards
• Portable puppet stage