That’s thanks to a visit from children’s author Mac Barnett.

On Thursday, Barnett — who is coming to the end of a two-year term as the Library of Congress’ National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature — visited New Bridge Elementary School and the Treehouse Children’s Museum as part of his initiative “Behold, The Picture Book! Let’s Celebrate Stories We Can Feel, Hear, and See.” Barnett is the author behind books such as Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and the First Cat in Space series.

Barnett started off Thursday with two morning sessions speaking with New Bridge Elementary students where he talked about his craft and even took time to read some of his work.

Picture books

Between sessions, Barnett told local media that picture books are a main focus of his work and advocacy.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“My platform, my focus, my term has been the picture book as a great art form,” he said. “And young kids — especially the kids who read picture books, I think we read picture books too — are some of the greatest readers that we have.”

He said that picture books have many unique qualities over other forms of print media.

“I think that the form is totally distinct,” he said. “There’s this collaboration between the text and the image, this dance that the words and the illustrations do that is really sophisticated. And so, the kid who’s being read to is getting some information from the pictures and some information from the words and combining that information in their head, doing that over and over again, often in ways that we aren’t able to as adults. We’re trying so hard not to mess up when we’re reading out loud, right? But that dynamic is so thrilling.”

Barnett added, in many ways, picture books incorporate several forms of art into one place.

“It borrows from so many other art forms,” he said. “From theater, because if you’ve read a picture book out loud, you know you were like an actor who’s been cast in every part. From dance, because the body is what moves the page forward. This angle here between hand and face, it’s so important — you can play around with it to compel attention and to create a mood. From music, authors and illustrators talk about music constantly when they make picture books because a picture book is about rhythm as much as anything else. And from the oldest form, telling stories out loud — especially telling stories out loud to kids. This is something that we’ve been doing since we first were humans. It combines all of these different art forms into this little 32-page book.”

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

Barnett noted that he’s written over 70 books, graphic novels and novels over his career, primarily geared towards children with a single book about children’s books aimed at adults.

“It started from working with kids,” he said. “I’ve always worked with kids. And in college, telling stories and reading books to my campers — I was a camp counselor — and reading stories to four-year-olds, I loved it so much, and I found it really surprising, too, because I think that it contradicted everything I had been taught to expect about four-year-olds. I think we think of them as sort of, like, silly and, often unserious. Just kids who could never understand real art. And I found it just the opposite — they were such inquisitive, curious, sophisticated, deeply feeling readers who noticed things in the world around them, but also in a book. Kids, I think, are the best audience an author could hope for.”

He said that children are no less deserving of great stories than adults.

“Kids deserve great stories,” he said. “They deserve stories that entertain them, that make them laugh, that make them feel.

“And I think we have this amazing, often overlooked, often underestimated, huge group of humans around us who are having big days, who are asking big questions, who are feeling big feelings and they deserve books, stories, art that reflects their lives.”

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

During the second session at New Bridge, Barnett was also honored by Ogden City.

Ogden City Mayor Ben Nadolski issued a proclamation proclaiming Nov. 12, 2026 and each Nov. 12 beyond “Behold the Picture Book Day” in Ogden City.

“I call upon all residents — families, educators, students and librarians — to join in this celebration by reading a picture book on this day honoring the timeless magic of words and illustration,” Nadolski said.

Each student received a copy of one of Barnett’s books following his visit.

‘We’re not even beginning to know what we have to work with.’

By Thursday evening, Barnett was at the Treehouse Children’s Museum where he spoke before two audiences of children and their parents about his work and the magic of picture books.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

Ahead of this appearance, Barnett told the Standard-Examiner that getting to interact with kids and families has been the most rewarding part of his tenure as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

“We’ve done a lot of events for adults, whether that’s like families coming together, educators, librarians, about the value of the picture book,” he said. “It’s just been such a great opportunity. I think that I always love seeing kids. They’re the reason I’m a kids’ book writer. I spend a lot of my year visiting schools and talking to kids. This has been a really cool opportunity to talk to adults, who are a big part of children’s literature, especially picture books, about the value of what they do.”

As part of his duties as the Library of Congress’ National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Barnett would travel to five cities each of his two years for literary engagement events. Ogden was the final tour stop of his final year.

In a time that is seeing a greater emphasis on the use of AI, especially among young readers, Barnett said he hopes that kids will still find their own voices.

“I used to run a center that taught writing to kids, and the whole idea was helping them hone their perspective, find their voice,” he said. “I think what’s scary about AI as a writing tool with young children is that this stuff is an amalgam of other people’s voices, other people’s ideas. The promise of childhood is the newness of ideas and the singularity of every kid’s perspective. In some ways, you want young writers to be certainly inspired by the history of literature, but also unburdened from the ideas that have come before them. I think that learning to express themselves in their own voice is the heart of it.”

However, Barnett said he sees hope for the future of storytelling, even in the face of headwinds such as AI.

“It’s something humans have been doing from the start, telling each other stories,” he said. “Honestly — and this is naive — I don’t see it changing that much. This is what people do. It’s what we do when we sit down together. It’s what we do when we write a book. We swap stories. We exchange ideas. I think that people want to do that. People are going to want to make up stories, and other people are going to want to hear stories from other people. That just feels so fundamental, and I don’t see it changing.”

He said the future is also bright for picture books.

“The picture book is so new as an art form,” he said. “The modern picture book is less than 100 years old. To me, the first picture book is Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág, published in 1928. We’re not even 100 years of figuring out what this thing can do. I am excited by longer picture books. Both picture books that have more pages in them, but also a return to picture books that have more words in them. I’m excited about what I don’t know. Every year, I see some picture book that does something that I didn’t even know was possible. There is a crop of young picture book makers who are just coming to this. It’s kind of like finding new areas on the map. I think that as with any 100-year-old literary form, we’re not even beginning to know what we have to work with.”