Recently we visited the Children’s Book Museum (Kinderboekenmuseum) in The Hague. I’ve wanted to go there for a long time, but I was waiting for our little world traveler to grow enough so that he could appreciate it. At 3,5 I think he was the right age for a first visit and I’m sure we’ll go there again as he gets older and learns how to read!
We both love reading and all his favourite book characters were present. Frog, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Little Donkey, Miffy, Dikkie Dik, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant and many many more…
Location of the Children’s Book Museum
The Children’s Book Museum is located in the National Library. The library can be found right next to The Hague Central Station, so it’s very easy to get there by public transport. It took us about 35 minutes by train from Haarlem. Of course the train ride was an adventure in itself. From the train station it’s only a few minutes walk to the Library. There are signs pointing the way. Once inside the building, again there are signs pointing towards the Children’s Book Museum (follow the signs ‘kinderboekenmuseum’).
Exhibits for kids ages 0 to 6
Once you’ve paid for your tickets, I found it a bit unclear where to go. You enter a floor with lots of paintings, who all turned out to be authors (make’s sense…). For the youngsters, you need to go to up one flight of stairs. There, you will find two permanent exhibits: ‘Ik ben Kikker’ (I am Frog) and ‘ABC met de dieren mee’ (ABC with the animals). Every book has it’s own little space. There are a lot of little crawl-throughs and places to discover. I have to say, on a busy Saturday, it was a bit stressful having to chase after our 3-year old while he was crawling around.
Exhibit: I am Frog
The ‘I am Frog’ exhibit is the first exhibit the museum also offers in English. The new Frog exhibit was opened on Dec 10, 2016 so it was all still very new when we visited. There’s a 150m2 separate area completely dedicated to Frog. It’s very interactive and like in the books it helps kids learn about intense emotions, such as love, fear and happiness. Go bake a cake in Pig’s house, enjoy ice skating on the lake with Duck or go fishing or treasure hunting. The Frog exhibit is meant for kids ages 0 and up.
Exhibit: Animal ABC
In the animal ABC exhibit lots of Holland’s favourite children’s books come to life. Crawl through the Very Hungry Caterpillar’s foods and become the beautiful butterfly, get lost in Dikkie Dik’s corn maze or try to give Elmer the Patchwork Elephant back his colours. Target group for this area is ages 2-6. It’s very well done, in attractive colours and basic designs. Although some of the areas could use a little touch up, our little one really enjoyed it.
Exhibits for older kids
For older kids (from age 7) there’s an exhibit called ‘Papiria’ at the bottom floor. To be honest, the whole experience of the top floor was exciting enough for our little one. Next time we go we’ll make sure to properly explore the place. I’m sure there’s a lot we haven’t seen yet.
Children’s Book Museum address
Prins Willem-Alexanderhof 5
2595 BE Den Haag
phone: 070 – 333 96 66
email: info@kinderboekenmuseum.nl
www.kinderboekenmuseum.nl
Children’s Book Museum opening hours
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 14:00-17:00
Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays: 12:00 – 17:00
The museum is closed on Mondays.
Children’s Book Museum entrance fee
Kids up until 1 years old: free
Kids 2-6 years old:€6
Kids 7-18 years old: €7
Adults: €8,50
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This blog post is linked up with #TuesdayTreasures, #MondayEscapes and #CulturedKids
What a lovely museum. Up in newcastle we have the centre for life which is dedicated to childrens book and really popular! #culturedkids
Thank you for sharing! This place looks so cute, I really want to go (oh and I might bring my kids too ;)).
This place looks fantastic. I love the combination of books with play. We were pleasantly surprised when we visited the Hague – such a beautiful city, and the Mauritshuis was great for kids. We missed out on this place though, which is a shame. I’ve come to this post via #MondayEscapes, but it would be perfect for my own #CulturedKids linky, live on the Pigeon Pair and Me the first Friday of each month. I’d love it if you wanted to link up this or any similar posts!
Thanks for linking up!
Wow, what a lovely museum, does anything like this exist elsewhere in Europe?
This looks like a lot of fun. There’s so many characters here that my eldest would recognise too. Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes
This looks like a great museum, thanks for sharing #MondayEscapes
Very interesting! We’re quite often in the Netherlands (and I have been to the Hague countless times for work) but I had no idea that this museum existed. Definitely one for our next trip, particularly if there are some exhibits in English (Dutch isn’t quite close enough to Luxembourgish for my kids to understand it properly). Visiting from #MondayEscapes
Looks a great place to visit. Our boys would love it. Will have to add it to our list for when we head back to Holland. #MondayEscapes
It’s a pretty cool place! Definitely one for the list 🙂 Let us know if you’re ever near Haarlem, we’ll give you a tour of our hometown!
My kids are a little old for that but I’m not! That looks so lovely! If we get out to The hague I’m going to make them all go!
Hi Lydia, not sure what age your kids are, but they do have an exhibition for older kids too (ages 7 and up). We didn’t see it ourselves, but the description on the museum’s website sounds great.
A children’s book museum is such a wonderful idea, thanks so much for sharing with #mondayescapes. Your son looks like he is having the best time ever!
Yes, he was having a blast! He keeps asking when we’re going to visit Frog again 🙂
What an excellent museum! Looks like there’s so much to explore and enjoy there. My son would love it there! #MondayEscapes
Thanks Cindy, it’s a fantastic place. If you ever find yourself in The Hague you should definitely go. It’s well worth your time!
Het is fantastisch! Ik was er toen mijn dochter 2 was en ze vond het geweldig. We waren op een middag door de week en toen was het heel rustig.
Wat ook ideaal was: ik gaf nog borstvoeding en moest kolven. Daar werd een speciale kamer voor geregeld.
Next time we’ll definitely go on a weekday, Karlien! I’m sure it’ll be a lot less busy than during the weekend. It’s wonderful to hear they’re so child-friendly that they even arranged a place for you to nurse your little girl! Wow!
How wonderful I would have been just as amazed and excited as the children ! I love the video you made it’s so lovely to be able to see it in the flesh so to speak. Thanks for linking up with #TuesdayTreasures
Thanks, Angela! We’re not very experienced in making videos yet, so I was quite proud of the result 🙂
Omg! I didn’t even know something like this existed, I just saw it on your twitter and had to read. Wow! Love your photos! I need to go.
Thanks for commenting, Naomi. The Children’s Book Museum is definitely worth visiting. Awesome suggestions on your blog too! Hope we’ll make it to the UK one day…