North Bay

Go where you will this weekend; just don’t move your car or the pride people will steal your space.

The Art of William Steig

See the career highlights of the man responsible for Pete’s a Pizza, and the original Shrek at this fascinating exhibit of Steig’s drawings, New Yorker covers, and other doodles.

When: Ongoing daily through 9/7 (museum is closed Wednesday); Age 7+; Free with paid admission (Free-$10).

Where: Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street (between Third and Fourth Streets), San Francisco, 415-655-7800, thecjm.org.

38th Annual San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration

The big parade starts moving down Market Street at 10:30 a.m. Sunday; hunker down early to get a good spot and once you’ve gotten an eyeful, move on to the afterparty at the Civic Center for food, music, vendor booths, and fun. If the crowd scene gets too hectic, drop in to the Family Garden for gentle kiddie fun: face-painting, games, arts and crafts, and the like.

When: Sun., 6/29, noon-7pm; All ages; Free.

Where: Parade goes from Market and Beale Streets to Market and Eighth Streets; Civic Center party is between Market, Van Ness, Leavenworth, and Turk Streets; (Family Garden is at Larkin and Grove); 415-864-0831; sfpride.org.

Peter & the Pirate

If your child has gotten bitten by the pirate bug, bring him to the San Francisco pier to meet Peter, Captain Bootleg, and Peter’s sea lion pal, Saline D. Ion, in this original maritime musical. Kids are invited to sing and dance with the cast.

When: Ongoing Saturdays and Sundays, 6/28-8/31 with shows at 11:30am and 1pm; All ages; Free-$15.95.

Where: Pier 39, Beach Street (at The Embarcadero), San Francisco, 415-433-3939, peterandthepirate.com.

Mrs. Grossman’s Company Store Annual Warehouse Store

Few local parents realize that Mrs. Grossman — she of the long, skinny sticker sheets that are sold in just about every toy store and pharmacy in America — is practically a local, and once a year the Petaluma warehouse sells deeply discounted stickers that make the sale worth the drive. No strollers allowed during the sale so leave very small kids at home and just bring the walking sticker freaks.

When: Fri., 6/27, 9am-5:30pm; Age 3+; Free.

Where: Mrs. Grossman’s Company Store, 3810 Cypress Drive (at South McDowell Boulevard), Petaluma, 800-429-4549, mrsgrossmans.com.

Cinemark’s Summer Movie Clubhouse, ten weeks of bargain-basement-cheap film showings for kids, is probably an easier sell in cities where it’s actually hot in the summer. No one weathering a San Fran summer is dying to spend a couple of hours in an air-conditioned theater…although at least it’ll keep you off those windy playgrounds.

The weekly special engagements are $1 a throw or $5 for a card good for all showings, and take place at several Bay Area theaters, including San Francisco’s CineArts @ Empire in the West Portal. All of the screenings are revivals, a treat in a summer when the new kids’ movies all look like crap. The first movie is Annie. Just try to leave without getting It’s The Hard-Knock Life stuck in your head.

When: Tue., 6/17, 10am; All Ages; Free.

Where: CineArts @ Empire, 85 West Portal Ave. (at Vincente), San Francisco, 1-800-FANDANG, theater number 963, cinemark.com.

A small-but-interesting study suggests that babies delivered by C-section are more likely to develop asthma and allergies. Researchers analyzed the umbilical cord blood of 50 babies born by Caesarean and 68 babies delivered vaginally, with at least one of the baby’s parents afflicted with asthma or allergies.

Says Dr. Ngoc Ly, one of the study’s authors and an assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF, “We found a dysfunctional cellular response in the normally protective immune system among C-section babies. And although more work needs to be done to follow how long this response might endure, we think this disrupted immune pathway may influence the development of asthma later on.”

The researchers also theorized that vaginal delivery could expose infants to immune-building microbes.

This seem particularly rich to me given that the U.S. has the highest rate of C-sections in the world. And despite UCSF’s pride at their C-section rate of 22.8%, lower than the national rate of about a third, and also lower than the going San Francisco rate of about a quarter, that’s still almost 1 in 5 women going home with a big slice across their bellies, and an infant who may be affected for life, in ways we don’t even really yet understand.

Interestingly, another of the study’s lead authors, Dr. Wilfried Karmaus, is involved in other crunchy-compliant projects, such as a study to determine the best diet for breastfeeders and a long-term project linking exposure to environmental toxins to immune system damage. Could be a good idea to keep an eye on that guy.

So how are you celebrating Children’s Book Week (May 12-18)? Themed cocktails? A festive backyard barbecue? Sex with the spouse? With the focus on kids and books, why not give your commemoration a local spin with these six great reads from Bay Area authors.

The Bad Beginning, by Lemony Snicket. The first and still the best of the delightfully dismal chapter-books in the “Series of Unfortunate Events” penned by SF’s answer to Edward Gorey.

It’s Okay to be Different, by Todd Parr. Local law dictates that you own one of the primary-colored picture books by this Berkeley resident Parr, who espouses Bay Area-friendly values like “Some mommies drive motorcycles” and “It’s okay to have a different nose.”

Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco. Polacco recently moved to Union City, Michigan, after living in Oakland for almost four decades. But just because she defected from the Bay Area is no reason to blow off this sweet, simple tale of an amazing goose that lays eggs brilliant enough to wow the crowd at a Russian spring festival.

Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride by J. Otto Seibold. Seibold is best known for his endearing Olive the Other Reindeer, but this particular book, with its hectic illustrations and wacky inventions (like a “scientific super cake” where every piece is a different flavor), is my family’s favorite.

Hannah Is My Name by Belle Yang. Yang is the author of several adult memoirs about her family, but this lyrical and moving picture book focused on a Chinese family desperately trying to secure American citizenship is aimed squarely at kids who may not know enough to appreciate their luck at being born in the U.S.

The Many Adventures of Pengey Penguin by John Burns. Ideal for families with adopted kids, this three-handkerchief illustrated tale for school-age kids follows Pengey’s misadventures as he searches for his human “mother” across several continents.

Holy moley, it’s already the end of April. Did you plan to let your kid hang around the house all summer, starting fires and eating handfuls of Cap’n Crunch? No? Then you’re going to have to figure out what to do with the little darlings, and your best friend in this endeavor is the monthly Bay Area Parent magazine, which publishes a mammoth, essential Summer Survival Guide each springtime. Every blessed page of it is online, so you don’t have to go scouting for it at libraries or grocery stores. Just about every article is clip-and-save worthy: primers on local ballparks, beaches and pools, calendars of local outdoor concerts, spotlights on unusual summer camps. Fire up your printer, drag out your calendar, and schedule yourself an unforgettable summer.