Give kids a reason to keep coming back.
A character lives in your library and changes between visits. Kids color it, read with it, or take on its challenge — then come back to see what it did next. One of the most fun, research-backed programs a library can run, toddlers through elementary. Story time that lasts all season.
The come-back loop
It's one simple cycle, and in a library it's the whole draw. A kid or a group makes a character their own — coloring it, reading with it, or taking on a challenge. They head off, and between visits it changes. They come back to see what it did — with the next activity already waiting.
Make it their own
One kid or a whole group colors it, reads with it, or takes on a challenge.
Off they go
Home for the day, or on with their visit.
It changes
Between visits, staff bring it to life — it moves, leaves a note, starts a new adventure.
They come back to see
And the next activity is already set out, which pulls them right back in.
Two ways to run it
Send it home, keep it in the library, or do both.
It goes home
Send a Doodle home with a family along with a set of Doodle Dares. They run the loop at home all week, then bring it back to share what it got up to.
It lives in the library
Doodles stay on display. A kid comes in, finds their Doodle, and the next Doodle Dare is already set out. Next visit, it's changed again — and there's a new one waiting.
Many Doodles. Many activities. All at once.
Run several characters at the same time, each on a different activity — so every kid who walks in finds something new in progress, and there's always a reason to check on more than one.
Simple for staff. Tend the Doodles between visits and set out the next Doodle Dare — that's the whole job. No points to track, no quizzes to grade. The characters do the rest.
Library activities
The activities that fit a library — in the children's area or sent home with a family. Browse by what you need, or search for an idea.
Meet Doodle Dares — simple activity cards
Every activity here can come as a ready-made card: a prompt, a clue, a dare, a little mission. Print a few and set them out by your Doodles, or send them home with a family. No prep, nothing to plan — just fun for kids the moment they walk in. They follow your theme, too, so the cards match whatever your Doodles are.
Built for what libraries are measured on
The Parade lines up with the frameworks libraries answer to — early literacy, school-library practice, and the mandates that fund and guide your programming. Here's where it fits, and which activities do the work.
Honest about it. The Parade is built on evidence-based methods — it's not a lab-proven curriculum. This shows where its activities align to each framework; alignment is the connection, not a claim that every standard is fully taught. Library and early-literacy claims draw on ALA, ALSC, and ECRR sources.
Give kids a reason to keep coming back.
One character, a few Doodle Dares, and a few weeks of wonder in your children's area. Start with a single Doodle and grow from there — we'll help you set it up.
Start a Parade at your libraryFor public & school libraries, toddlers through elementary. Alignment shown for ECRR, AASL, and ALA · ALSC · PLA; library and early-literacy claims draw on those sources. Built on evidence-based methods — not a lab-proven curriculum.