In my research of fun toddler-friendly activities for my little one, I discovered that my local Barnes and Noble has a Story Time event every Wednesday at 11am. Now I normally am not able to attend due to work, but one Wednesday I had a surprise free morning and got my toddler ready to run over there.
It looks to me that most Barnes and Nobles offer this event. If you go to Barnesandnoble.com, in the top left corner you can click on "stores and events." From there, put in your zip code and filter events by distance to see all events close to you.
We showed up about 5 minutes early and there didn't seem to be anyone there yet. A quick 5 minutes (and a book selection!) later there were about 5 other families in the children's section also waiting for story time. We gathered by a small platform that looks like a little stage in the children's area. There were small benches around and some families sat there, while others sat on the floor nearby.
A young employee came over with two children's books in hand to read to the kids. It was a motley crew of toddlers and naturally attention spans were all over the place. One little girl laid on the stage during the reading which cracked me up. My little guy was pretty good but was a bit preoccupied with the book we found that came with 4 mini toy trucks that he just couldn't wait to open.
The employee read the two stories and I engaged my son as much as I could by asking him about colors and animals he was seeing in the books. The employee kept to the script of the book and I added some fun toddler friendly embellishments to encourage his attention and reactions.
As we all know, children's books are quick and story time was over before we knew it. The whole thing maybe took about 10 minutes. After the story, we purchased our book set and walked over to the cafe to get a cookie and a tea to lengthen our adventure a bit.
I don't know how anyone can walk into Barnes and Noble and NOT walk out with a book. I LOVE that store. I always joke with my husband that some girls like to collect shoes but this girl likes to collect BOOKS. Story time here is not as big of an event as it could be (and it may be bigger in other stores) but it's a simple way to get out of the house with a wacky toddler in an environment where toddler antics are welcome. I was happy that we had an opportunity to check it out, and we may explore another story time in the future if our schedule allows it. I would advise that you stick with your local store when possible, because story time goes quick and it wouldn't be worth a long ride unless you had other nearby activities planned.
That all being said-- this mama never needs an excuse to go to Barnes and Noble! I'm a regular at the one by me, and I love building our family library here at home!