Douglas County Libraries Hosts Storybook Holiday Event in Highlands Ranch This Spring

The Highlands Ranch branch of Douglas County Libraries filled its event hall at 9292 S. Ridgeline Blvd. Sunday morning with costumed families sharing brunch and Spanish-themed crafts as part of "A Storybook Holiday: Ferdinand's Frolic," a ticketed springtime event built around Munro Leaf's beloved picture book, The Story of Ferdinand.

The program ran from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on March 29 and was designed primarily for children ages 2 through 7, though families of all ages were welcome. Organizers required preregistration through the DCL events portal and Eventbrite to manage capacity for the brunch and activity stations, and encouraged attendees to show up in costume to extend the Ferdinand theme into the room.

Activities included Spanish-themed crafts, art projects, sensory moments tied directly to the story, including smelling flowers as Ferdinand himself does, and a live-performance, craft-driven interpretation of the book. A sit-down brunch was built into the program's morning structure, a component that drove the advance ticketing requirement and set the event apart from the branch's standard free drop-in offerings.

Douglas County Libraries positioned the Ferdinand event as both literary programming and a community gathering to welcome spring. The Spanish-themed crafts reflected the branch's outreach to bilingual families across Douglas County and its effort to embed cultural programming into signature events alongside its early-literacy mission.

The Highlands Ranch branch hosts a full spring calendar that includes a storytime series, science programming for children, and author visits scheduled later in the season. For information on upcoming events, call the branch at 303-791-7323 or visit the DCL events portal at go.dcl.org/event/15736910.