When the children are ready for a break from the snow, and you can't get to one of New York's more than 80 museums, you might want to consider a visit to the Library.

If your budding paleontologist loves spending time with the dinosaur fossils at the American Museum of Natural History, and you don't have all the answers to the inevitable - but how did...?  why was...? where is...?  -  a trip to your local library will do the trick.  Browse the shelves in the 560s (library speak for prehistoric) and take a look at Lita Judge's Born To Be Giants: How Baby Dinosaurs Grew to Rule the World. If you want to know how your own skeleton stacks up with that of a T. Rex, Steve Jenkin's Bones: Skeletons and How They Work will definitely help.  For a little what if...?, some readers might want to try Steve Cole's Z. Rex. Thirteen-year-old Adam attempts to sort the good guys from the bad guys as he tries to elude a dinosaur that has come to life through a virtual reality game.

Or, you might have some future Egyptologists who always want to take one more look at that Sphinx residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Just how did it get there anyway?  Fortunately, you can find the whole story in Jessie Hartland's How the Sphinx Got to the Museum located in the 923s (library speak for Ancient Egypt) at your library. While you are browsing. you might find Davis Weitzman's gorgeous Pharaoh's Boat, and plenty of King Tut titles.  If your children like to let their imaginations run wild, the exploits of Carter and Sadie Kane, in Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid, will be sure to keep them on the edge of their seats.

If you decide to take in the Wizard of Oz exhibit at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and there are questions about the wizard who created Oz, The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum by Kathleen Krull will be sure to please. Or, you just may want to take the family back to Oz yourself, by having everyone curl up while you read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  It is perfect for reading in installments.  There is nothing wrong with staying at home and reading the week away.  Be sure to top off with some hot chocolate and marshmallows that float.  Uh - float... that would be in the 532s.