book bike Archives

I have always loved books and loved reading. One of the first gifts I gave my son was a book, and I read to him often even though he was only a newborn and far to young to understand what was happening. It didn’t matter that he didn’t understand it because it was more about sharing something beneficial with him that was important to me.

To this day my son loves reading and we do not take a nap or go to bed at night without him insisting we read at least two books to him, more if he can get away with it.

Anyway all that is a precursor to the amazing Cambridge Book Bike Program I stumbled onto by accident during the summer of 2015. Honestly this program made me fall in love with Cambridge and though I’ve never considered myself a city girl I can’t deny that Cambridge does amazing things for kids all summer long and its a fantastic place to have young children during the summer – with Book Bike probably being my favorite thing of all.

Things to Note:

1) What is the Cambridge Book Bike?
It’s a bike, loaded with books, that travels around to different parks during the summer to give out free books to children. They have teamed up with a bunch of great businesses to provide these books and make it possible. (Agenda for Children, Center for Families, Cambridge Public Library, & Liz Phipps Soeiro)

2) What Kind of Books to they give out and to who?
They give out books for every level, from popular board books (Llama Llama, Sandra Boyton, Goodnight Gorilla,) to soft cover picture books (Eric Carl) to young easy reader chapter books, to popular YA chapter books (Book Thief, Twilight etc.) They are for children 18 and under and your child gets to pick out a new book every single week! If you have multiple children they each/all get to pick out a book.

3) Why do they do this?
I had to opportunity to talk to one of the women from the Agenda for Children and she was telling me that research has show children are so much more likely to read and be interested in both books and education if they have a library of their own and easy access to books. She said that a library of their own is considered to be about 8 books, so their program ran for eight weeks, giving every child the opportunity to have a “library” by the end of it.

4) Where is this happening?
The book bike visits a different Cambridge park every day of the week during the summer. They have teamed up with Summer Food Programs and you can find out where they will be on any given day here: http://www.cambridgebookbike.org/schedule.html

Summary and Rating ★★★★★

Five Stars. Cambridge Book Bike has been my favorite part of summer! It’s a great reason to get out of the house, head over to a park, and get moving. We got free lunch, a chance to play at the park and a free book along with great crafts provided by book bike and the entrainment of having a librarian read a story aloud to the captivated audience of children showing how awesome books really are. Bottom line is this is pretty much the best program ever and I can’t wait to join in it again.

Have you been here before? If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below.

Cambridge Book Bike Website

Heritage Rose Park is such a fun place to visit during the summer. They’ve got a great splash pad dotted with raised piping that sprays outwards, perfect for toddlers. There is a great gated playground with slides, swings, and a climbing gym and best of all there are so many activities that go on at the park all summer long!

Fantastic, Little Known, Cambridge Parks - 5 Things to Know About Heritage Rose Park

This past summer every day from 11:30-12:30 there was a free lunch (like something you would get in a elementary school cafeteria) available for any child under the age of 18. On different days of the week there were different activities going on all summer long such as “Arts in the Park” and “Book Bike”. (You can read more about Book Bike here, but know that it’s an awesome summer program that goes park to park during the summer providing both activities and free books for kids).

Things to Note:

1) Parking
There is street parking and metered parking in the area, but I think you have to have a Cambridge Resident sticker to use it.

2) Stroller Friendliness
Totally stroller friendly.

3) Water Feature
Great water area with raised, chest high sprayers that sprit in all directions. Also the spray park is in a different area from the playground so you can bring you kids and still play at the playground without worrying about them getting wet if you don’t want them to.

4) Green Space
This park has a really nice grassy field, perfect for field games. In fact during the summer there is a “Get up and Move” crew that often has field games going and is there to encourage anyone who is interested to join in.

5) Benches and Chairs
There are a bunch of benches surrounding the splash pad and a few tables located in the playground area. There isn’t great shade in any of the places with tables/chairs so you’ll have to choose if you’d rather be in a real seat or sitting on the ground in the shade to enjoy you activities.

Summary and Rating: ★★★★☆

Four Stars. I think this is great park, I love the splash area and the summer programs probably make it a five star park, the only pit fall is that all summer long this place is also swamped with day care kids, so there are tons of little ones running around which can be a overwhelming. The day care kids all seem to clear out at about 11:30 but for us there was always a cross over and little bit of chaos which was both good (more kids to play with) and bad (more kids everywhere).

Have you been here before? If so I’d love to know more about your experience and any tips or tricks you have in the comments section below.