Chapter 2: The Library of Leaves
The Old Scroll
"We look at what other smart people discovered before us."
Professor Hoot unrolling a very long, ancient paper scroll.
About this page
Professor Hoot unrolls a scroll so long it spills right across the scene, and with it comes one of the loveliest ideas in the whole book. Knowledge is old. People have been discovering things for a very long time, and we get to peek at what they left behind. For a young child, this reframes reading as time travel, a way to hear from clever people who lived long ago. It is the same wonder that comes through in what librarians are saying about the book. That endless curling paper is also a treat to color.
Talk about it while you color
- How long do you think that scroll really is? Longer than your bed? Longer than a bus?
- What do you imagine is written on the very oldest part of the scroll?
- If you wrote a message for kids far in the future, what would it say?