New Literacy Exhibit Coming to Betty Brinn Children’s Museum This Summer

MILWAUKEE, WI (April 8, 2025) – Beloved children’s books will come alive at the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum when Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites™ opens on Saturday, May 24. The exhibit transforms seven admired and award-winning children’s books into immersive life-sized scenes designed to support the development of early literacy skills in children and model early literacy experiences for parents and adult caregivers. The exhibit will be at the Museum for a limited time, May 24-September 7. Learn more at bbcmkids.org/storyland.

“At Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, we believe literacy is an essential component of early childhood learning. Storyland is designed to ignite a passion for reading and storytelling among children and families, so we are excited to bring the exhibit to the Milwaukee community,” says Tina Quealy, CEO of Betty Brinn Children’s Museum. “By offering an engaging, hands-on literacy experience, we are ensuring that every child has the opportunity to explore, learn and thrive, and we can’t wait to see this exhibit help instill a love of reading and books for all who visit.”

Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites™ allows families to step into story pages for interactive play experiences highlighting six pre-reading skills that children can start learning from birth: disposition to read, print awareness, letter knowledge, sound awareness, vocabulary and narrative skills, and comprehension. These skills are defined by the Public Library Association and Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.

Museum guests can explore these concepts by:

• Discovering vocabulary and narrative skills in The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter while searching for Peter’s lost belongings and harvesting vegetables.
• Experiencing a mouse-eye view of super-sized elements from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff while creating new and rhyming words with letter magnets.
• Building print and sound awareness in The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats through activities featuring wintery words and sounds.
• Cultivating literacy experiences for the Museum’s littlest learners through sounds, imagery and wall interactives based on Where’s Spot by Eric Hill.
• Navigating the tropical island featured in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault to practice the alphabet and create rhythms on steel drums.
• Sharpening narrative skills by delivering a TV news segment on the mysterious flying frogs in Tuesday by David Wiesner.
• Stepping inside Lady Liberty and listening to the sounds of city dwellers to inspire the creation of story scenes based on the adventures in Abuela by Arthur Dorros.

The Betty Brinn Children’s Museum is partnering with the Milwaukee Public Library throughout the run of the exhibit to provide additional literacy-based programming for families visiting the Museum.

• Milwaukee Public Library will host Library Days at the Museum on May 28, July 17 and August 21. Families visiting the Museum on those days will be able to check-out a book to read together in the Museum’s Party Room and learn about upcoming Library programs. Milwaukee County families will also be able to sign up for a library card.
• On June 22, July 20 and August 10, a Milwaukee Public Library children’s librarian will visit the Museum to lead story time at 9:30 a.m.

The Betty Brinn Children’s Museum is open Wednesday-Monday from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. The Museum is closed on Tuesdays and select holidays. Learn more and purchase admissions online at bbcmkids.org.

© 2025 Minnesota Children’s Museum. All rights reserved. Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites™ was created by Minnesota Children’s Museum. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The Betty Brinn Children’s Museum’s presentation of Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites™ is sponsored in part by Rockwell Automation with promotional support provided by Fox6 Milwaukee.

About Betty Brinn Children’s Museum
The mission of the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum (BBCM) is to inspire all children to wonder and explore their world through play and innovative, hands-on learning experiences. The Museum opened in 1995 and serves almost 200,000 visitors each year at its downtown Milwaukee location. BBCM is dedicated to ensuring that all children have access to its interactive educational exhibits and programs designed to promote the social, emotional and intellectual growth of children from birth through age 10.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.