Kwesi doesn’t know how to swim. Neither does his grandmother.

But they strike a deal.

“I will learn to swim, if you do,” Nana Ruby tells her grandson.

If you want to know the rest of their adventure, you’ll have to read “Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim,” written by Kobina Commeh and illustrated by Bárbara Quintino. The book is one of the titles featured in this year’s Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival.

The Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine (CMTM) is now accepting proposals from playwrights to adapt Oge Mora’s acclaimed picture book Thank You, Omu! into a theatrical production for young audiences. This new commission will be a centerpiece of CMTM’s 2026–2027 season and aims to celebrate Black and Brown voices in children's literature and theatre.

All of these kids have been to local theater programs at one time or another. But the people who run those camps and classes are quick to tell you that they aren’t trying to develop the next child stars. Reba Askari, the theater artistic director at the Children’s Museum and Theatre, said the organization actually doesn’t circulate casting calls even though she hears all the time from people who are looking for young actors.

While there are several children’s museums that have climbing gyms, tot-scaled supermarkets, and STEAM-inspired tinkering labs, what makes an institution really stand out from the pack is its creative play spaces.

What follows are eight of the country’s best children’s museums—dynamic, sensory-rich spaces that engage and entertain as much as they educate.

A favorite pastime for some children is writing plays, often gathering their parents in the living room for theatrical performances or directing their friends in the newest skit at recess. On Saturday and Sunday, the stage got a little bigger for eight Maine children as they saw their plays performed at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine.

The Youth Playwriting Festival showcased eight stories — four each day — written by children under 17, whose play topics ranged from normalizing the experience of occupational therapy to imagining a unicorn sleepover party.

Having covered nonprofit fundraisers weekly for the past 13 years, I have seen hundreds of auctions where ordinary people raise their hands — and their bid numbers — to protect the organizations and initiatives that matter to them. Never is that impulse stronger than when they feel that something they love, like the Children’s Museum & Theater of Maine, is threatened.