The National Museum of Lithuania (LNM) took part in the family literature festival Children’s Book Island (“Vaikų knygų sala”), held on November 22–23 at the Arts Printing House (Šiltadaržio St. 6, Vilnius). Festival guests could visit a themed museum stand offering educational games from the History Wags Its Tail exhibition previously on display at the House of Histories. Visitors also had the chance to join educational activities and creative workshops organized by LNM, as well as purchase museum-published children’s books and souvenirs. Two new books for young explorers will be released by the museum in the near future.

History Continues to Wag Its Tail

This year at Children’s Book Island, LNM presented a themed stand dedicated to the history of the dog. Visitors could purchase museum publications and souvenirs specially designed for children and try interactive educational activities brought from the House of Histories’ (T. Kosciuškos St. 3, Vilnius) exhibition History Wags Its Tail. Festival attendees had the chance to meet a robot puppy, see and smell the world as dogs do, learn colorful dog-related idioms, feel like archaeologists while examining real bones, and banish their fears by sending them away via “the jaws’ mail.” Visitors could also take a personality test to find out what kind of dog they would be.
LNM, together with its partner—the Lithuanian Audio-Sensory Library—also introduced a newly published certified inclusive e-book History Wags Its Tail in EPUB format, now accessible to everyone.

Educational Activities

The museum also invited young visitors to take part in educational sessions. On November 22, History Wags Its Tail co-curator Sigita Mikšaitė and House of Histories educator Greta Gaidelytė led the workshop Life in a Dog’s Fur: History and Everyday Life. During the session, young explorers listened to stories and engaged in interactive activities to learn about the history of dogs and their senses.
On November 23, Justina Brukštutė-Šimkė, acting head of the LNM Publishing Department, hosted a creative workshop Make Your Own POP-UP Dog, where children learned how to create a paper puppy.

New Releases Coming Soon

The museum aims to foster curiosity and interest in history among young visitors from an early age. Popular museum publications for children—such as History Wags Its Tail, The 7 Keys of Vilnius, or How the Iron Wolf and Basilisk Saved Vilnius, and Who Was Afraid of Šliūpas?—are already available for purchase at the online shop parduotuve.lnm.lt and at LNM ticket offices.

In the near future, the museum will introduce two new educational books for children. One will present the Ainu people, who live in northern Japan, and their researcher, anthropologist Bronisław Piłsudski. The Ainu will also be featured in next year’s large international LNM exhibition A Human Between Worlds: The Ainu People of Northern Japan and Ethnographer Bronisław Piłsudski, which will be on display at the House of Histories starting February 5, 2026. The book’s author is one of the exhibition’s curators, Simona Širvydaitė-Šliupienė, and the illustrator is Reda Tomingas.

The second upcoming publication is a comic book for teenagers about LNM’s newest branch, the House of the Castellan (Pilininko House, Arsenalo St. 1, Vilnius). It is being created by archaeologist Sigita Mikšaitė and illustrator Viktorija Dambrauskaitė-Ežiukas.
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Photo by: Silvestras Samsonas, LNM