2025 End-of-Year Greetings!

It’s hard to believe, but 2025 will be The Rabbit hOle’s first full calendar year in operation.

And what an incredible year it has been! In 2025…

• We welcomed nearly 3,000 students for literature-based field trips.

• We brought together thousands of children and adults to enjoy a steady stream of visiting authors and illustrators throughout the year, including Dav Pilkey, Linda Sue Park, Jon Agee, Kevin Henkes, Daniel Miyares, K-Fai Steele, Peter Reynolds, Christian Robinson, Grant Snider, Betsy Bird, Charlie Mylie, and Jordan Morris.

• We launched several new exhibits, including Last Stop on Market Street, My Garden and Kitten’s First Full Moon – PLUS our first-ever, cover-to-cover, 2,500 square foot guided experience based on The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer.

• We hosted the United States Postal Service’s NATIONAL unveiling of the Goodnight Moon commemorative stamps!

• We opened our first Discovery Gallery exhibit featuring original book art from the chapter book classic, My Father’s Dragon.

• We held our first-ever literary symposium celebrating the life and legacy of artist Tomi Ungerer, featuring speakers from across the country and around the world.

• We delivered a trove of weekly story hours, adult programs, and 21+ nights.

We’re so proud to have reached so many milestones in such a short time, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more already in the works for completion in 2026…

• A new and fully appointed Story Lab on our second floor which together with our print shop will become a vital program area dedicated to the writing lives of children and adults – a place where stories are crafted, books are made, and future authors begin their journey.

• A 1,500 square-foot Resource Library featuring more than 10,000 books that will provide important literature-based instruction and inspiration for educators and parents.

• MORE new exhibits based on Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan, Zen Shorts by Jon Muth, and a 150-foot history panorama showcasing a century of children’s literature.

• And MORE new programming, including a citywide literature festival featuring authors and illustrators from around the country, and the launch of our first annual Exhibit Design Challenge in January – a semester-long Design Thinking project in which 12 classrooms will work with Rabbit hOle fabrication staff to design and create their own book-based exhibit models, culminating with an Exhibit Design Fair.
  

And yet, what we’re most proud of – what’s most important – are the transformations happening naturally inside the museum everyday. Small moments that feel BIG, that can’t be measured or tracked in a grant application: the simple act of reading together and the deep connection this fosters between children and parents and grandparents. The joyful discovery of a new book and how it feels to be inside it. The tearful reunion with an old book, like an old friend. The shared memory of a familiar book across generations and the natural desire to take that book home, and others with it.

This is the magic happening every day at The Rabbit hOle.

In building a culture around reading, The Rabbit hOle is helping to create a future where more people of all ages have the tools to work together with compassion, curiosity, and creativity.

The world needs more readers and we hope you will join us in this critical mission.