The House for Kid Lit

Harry Potter may be the hot read this summer, but it's just a thin chapter in the annals of great British kid lit. Now all those good reads have a home: Seven Stories, the Centre for the Children's Book, officially opens Aug. 19 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. "There's never been anything like it before," says Philip Pullman, author of the award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy. "For the first time, this country will have a properly organized and dedicated collection relating to children's literature." Even better, it's a groovy place for authors and their young fans to interact.

The idea was hatched in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1996 by Mary Briggs, Newcastle's assistant director of education, and Elizabeth Hammill, the kids' department manager at the local Waterstones bookshop. They solicited extensive donations and pledges of original artwork and manuscripts from heavyweights such as Pullman, Joan Aiken, illustrator Quentin Blake and ex-Monty Pythoner Terry Jones, who has been writing popular children's books since 1981. The collection, with a concentration of postwar literature, includes a 1940-99 set of the low-cost, high-quality Ladybird books, which made reading widely accessible. A recent addition is an original illustration by Faith Jaques from the first edition of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The center's new $11.3 million home is located in Newcastle's once-derelict Ouseburn Valley, a warehouse neighborhood of artists' studios and galleries. Built in a seven-story Victorian mill, the rejuvenated building's top floor features a gigantic, child-friendly loft, intended for performances, storytelling and book signings. The Engine Room, a light, airy room on the ground floor, offers space for everything from finger painting to exhibit-related games. Messages written by children in 1978 are contained in the Puffin Time Capsule, which has been buried in the hallway; the letters will be opened by children in 2078.

The center contains two floors of exhibition space: "Incredible Journeys," which runs until Easter next year, will explore the reading experience with seven rooms of styles and genres, such as topsy-turvy world, wilderness world and a world of quests and challenges. There's also a story lab, in which the public can access digitized collection material, a sunny reading nook, a café and a bookstore. Flossie Hunt, 11, of Rothbury, Northumberland, predicts that "people will want to spend the whole day here." Memo to Hogwarts admin: get those school trips organized pronto.