You Just Never Know....

Well, last week I felt very discouraged - not a single child showed for our Monday storytime. When I arrived on Wednesday my supervisor had other tasks for me, so we didn't even try to set up for storytime. As a result I didn't post here last week. I prepared a flier, which we placed around the library announcing the storytimes, hoping that it might generate some interest. Well, it did! This morning I had two kids arrive - for storytime - just before it was time to start, and by the time we started the first book, there were ten! This is one of the largest groups they have had for a storytime at the Base Library!

Our theme was "Summer Fun" and I read four books about summer time activities and we did two fingerplays, sang three beach/summer songs and enjoyed a flannelboard rhyme all about ice cream. It was quite a sight to see ten kids all giggling as we got our wiggles out doing "Head, Shoulders, knees and Toes" In a space that was not much bigger than my living room! The kids were attentive, engaged and even participatory!

The first book we read was:
A Fabulous Fair Alphabet by Debra Frasier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book has amazing illustrations and fully captures all the color and excitement of a day at the fair. The kids studied the pictures and reacted to their favorites (like "C" - cotton candy) As a storytime book, I felt it was a bit flat, in spite of the images. We all decided that using "Zucchini" as the last item was somehow wrong...and even the kids expected the last image to be sleeping children driving home with "Z's" circling their heads..."X" stood for exit, after all, and to follow that by Zucchini....well....

We sang about a chocolate ice cream cone (Tune: "Baby Bumble Bee") and then got out a felt ice cream cone and said a rhyme and counted the scoops. Then it was on to

Sheep Take A Hike by Nancy Shaw

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Nancy Shaw's sheep are such fun! This one didn't engage the children quite as well as her "Sheep in a Jeep" but the kids loved the illustrations and the rhyming text of this great hiking adventure where the sheep must deal with loss of a compass, getting lost and having to be rescued from the mud by a moose! I made up a song about taking a summer hike (Tune: "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush") which we sang after this book.


The last two books and songs and a fingerplay was all about one of my favorite summer activities...a visit to the beach:

Sea, Sand, Me! by Patricia Hubbell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


We all loved this beautifully illustrated book about a young girl's visit to the beach told in rhyme. It was great fun to read. The rhythm makes this a great read aloud and girl and her new friend have a very busy day doing everything you possibly can at the beach!


At the Beach by Anne F. Rockwell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Another day of activity at the beach! Lovely illustrations and simple text describes all sorts of beach activities. The kids expected the last page to describe the ride home, but this book only takes the reader through lunch! We followed this with the fingerplay, "Inchy Pinchy Crab" (based on "Itsy Bitsy Spider"), which the kids really enjoyed.

Everyone stayed for coloring sheets and I really enjoyed being able to spend a little time with the kids and their Moms, Oohing and ahhing over their great coloring and learning names. Hopefully, I will be able to build the sense of community that I have found lacking here. At a nearby public library, the storytime is done by volunteers, but they are amazing - it helps that one is a professional storyteller, another a retired teacher and another is a retired librarian. I was able to swap flannel tips with the retired teacher, and have picked up storytelling hints from the storyteller.

While working at one of the local public libraries, I also performed the annual periodical review for the branch, weeded the reference section and explained how to use e-readers and our e-book catalog to an ever increasing number of library patrons. The format may be different, but the desire to access library materials is still very much the same.

A Midsummer Knight's Festival and other parties

Life is interesting when you work have two part-time jobs in two very different library settings. At my military library, this week we celebrated the end of the summer reading program, while in my public library job, I'm still passing out prizes to finishers and chaperoning a "Teen-after- hours-lock-in" this Friday. Until the day comes when I have one full time employer, I will continue to juggle different themes, calendars and patrons!

So, at the military library, this last Monday was the big end-of-SRP-party: Our Midsummer Knight's Festival. We had 40 kids or so, make Prince/Princess swag bags (to collect all their small prizes) and crowns (for the photo opportunities this created) They were entertained by a celtic harpist dressed in Renaissance garb and an abbreviated storytime, a prize drawing and a dragon egg hunt. All of this in just under two hours. Everyone left happy with plenty of swag, a big prize and a crown. It just doesn't get any better for a toddler/preschooler.

We got the kids attention with our usual opening storytime song: "If you Want to Hear A Story" (Tune: "If You're Happy and You Know it") and opened with a Castle fingerplay. We did two other fingerplays with flannel board pieces: "Five Royal Knights" and "Five Green Dragons" sang "The Noble Duke of York" recited "The Queen of Hearts" with flannel board pieces and read the following three books:

Hush, Little Dragon by Boni Ashburn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A dragon version of "Hush Little Baby," what could be better? The kids loved the rhyme, the lovely illustrations and the love between the mother dragon and her baby. The warmth and the humor comes through loud and clear and as I closed the book on the lovely last image a number of parents and children let out an "Ahhhh"

Glubbery Gray, the Knight-Eating Beast by Beth Kander

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The illustrations in this clever, funny counting book are appealing to even the youngest child...and older children like it for creative ways that Glubbery Gray eats one knight after another. The youngest kids had fun counting the ever decreasing band of knights...and the older kids in my audience had fun guessing which knight would be old gray's next victim. Humorous with rhyming rhythmic text this was a great read-aloud with a large group ranging in age from 2 to about 7 as it engaged all of them.

The Egg by M.P. Robertson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was the perfect lead in to our final activity which was a "dragon egg hunt" Ok, so everyone played along and pretended not to notice that our dragon eggs looked suspiciously like plain old plastic easter eggs! This book starts strong and has great illustrations, is funny and sad in places...but as a read aloud, it doesn't flow as smoothly as some of the other books I have read. Maybe the book tries to cover too much in too short a time, but I almost feel like I have skipped a page here and there as the story takes an unexplained jump. Overall, it is great fun when a boy hatches a mysterious egg, which turns out to contain a dragon.

Then, today I was back for the Wednesday storytime - today the theme was "Knights vs. Dragons" and we read "Glubbery Gray" again, did the knight and dragon fingerplays/Flannelboards and sang "I'm a Little Dragon" (Tune: "I'm a Little Teapot"). After we made dragon finger puppets. Once again, the kids reacted to the books, differently than I expected (enjoyed them more than I expected, always a good thing!) and everyone enjoyed themselves. We read:

Do Knights Take Naps? by Kathy Tucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We started with this one, as it provided a great overview of a knight's life, in a way even young kids could relate to. Although the rhyming text was not as tight and rhythmic as I would have liked, the story and pictures were very sweet and informative. The kids enjoyed it more than I thought they would - always a pleasant surprise.

Don't Forget the Knight Light by Tina Gagliardi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everyone loved this twist on Knight vs. Dragon - Carly is a dragon with a deep fear of knights. A special "knight light" and an imaginary - human - friend are needed to help her overcome her fear when her class visits the dragon museum with it's dreaded "Knight room."

Dragon Pizzeria by Mary Morgan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a wonderfully creative book, which combines a number of children's favorite things: pizza, dragons and fairytales. When two dragon friends, Bebop (who likes to cook) and Spike (who likes to go fast) open a pizzeria in fairyland, they receive call in orders from such celebrities as the Giant from "Jack and the Beanstalk", the Three Bears, and Hansel and Gretel. The kids loved making the phone ring noise and guessing who was ordering the pizza - like when the order was "three porridge pizzas - one large and very hot, one medium that is cold and one small that is just right." Spike zooms through fairyland making his deliveries using various modes of transportation from hot air balloons to roller skates, which only adds to the fun. The kids loved this book!

This was one week where I felt I really got it right with my storytimes. Kids and parents left happy and everything worked just as it should. I hope I feel the same at the end of Friday's Teen Lock-In. More about that later.