It's not every day that a visitor to the Yard hears Harvard first-years shouting, "It's Curious George! I love Curious George!"

But on Saturday, the cries of the 18-year-olds were just as enthusiastic as the cries of the four-year-olds when Curious George, the Man in the Yellow Hat and Big Bird led a parade through the Yard.

All this was part of a day to celebrate the opening of the Shops at Harvard Yard and to benefit the Cambridge Public Library's outreach programs, according to Katharine Kinderman, who is in charge of the communications effort promoting the shops' opening.

Curious George was the handsdown favorite among the children in attendance. In fact, at least one family came just to see the story-book character. "The children love Curious George," said Marie Haley of her daughters Kate, 5, and Molly, 3.

Each child who came to Saturday's celebration was asked to bring a book for the Homeless Shelter Literacy Program sponsored by the library. The 125 books donated will be given to homeless shelters around the city, according to Susan Flannery, director of the Cambridge Public Library.

"We try to encourage the families to read, tohopefully prevent adult illiteracy," she said."It's part of the outreach effort of the library."

The event was also "a fun-filled family day toshowcase the shops," with entertainment, craftsand a program at the University Cultural andNatural History Museum, Kinderman said.

She estimated that more than 400 peopleattended the event to see mimes, clowns,puppeteers, unicyclists, magicians and variousanimals, including a rabbit, mouse, frog, polarbear, giraffe, lion, elephant, gorilla and shark."I think this is fabulous considering the rain,"she said of the turnout. "The kids are loving it."

Au Bon Pain buzzed with the happy sounds ofchildren practicing on free kazoos they receivedthere. The restaurant also donated a snack foreach child in attendance.

"She liked the animals and the monkey with theorgan grinder," said David Foss of daughterSophie, 5. "And the free snack was very nice."

Joshua Brown, 9, said he wasn't sure what hisfavorite part of the day was. "That's a hardquestion," he said.

He said that he particularly enjoyed themagician, whom he helped with two card tricks, andthe hula hoop which was used to surround childrenin giant bubbles