Storytime

Our children's librarian quit and I covered the program for about a month while we hired someone new. The funniest part to me is interacting with the kids after we've finished the readalouds, rhymes, etc. because we have them do a little 'craft.' Most of our attendees are really too little for crafts, but the adults like the idea, and practicing holding crayons, glue sticks, etc. is still good for developing motor skills, so we do them anyway. I get overwhelmed by trying to pick activities when it's wide open, so I try to do a craft that's related to one of the books we read the same week.

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar so the craft that week was gluing a series of green ovals (with a red one for the head) onto a piece of paper to make a caterpillar, then decorating with crayons. I tried to win over one little girl by telling her "nice caterpillar," and she gave me the most frustrated sigh and said "it's a spider." Oh, sorry!

The day after Halloween we read a book called Hello My Name is Tiger that features a kid who goes to school dressed in a tiger costume, and 'corrects' his name tag to say 'tiger' instead of his name, so I gave the kids each a piece of paper with a blank name tag and told them to draw themselves as their favorite animal and then have their grown-up fill in the name tag with the name of the animal. All but three kids just ignored the paper or scribbled unidentifiably on it. Of the other three, one drew a giraffe and two drew themselves as monsters, and happily told me that 'monster' was their favorite animal.

The biggest failure was when we read books about colors, so I gave each kid a color wheel and a bunch of stuff they could glue to it--pieces of pipe cleaners, feathers, sequins, etc. Not only did the kids totally fail to grasp the idea of gluing red things to the red section, green things to the green section, etc., but it was choking hazard city. I'm just glad I didn't have to perform the Heimlich Maneuver during that one.

Seems fitting

Caller: Hi, I got a call from you that I returned a DVD case without the DVD inside it?
Me: I'm sorry to hear that. How can I help you?
Caller: Was it 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'
Me: Yes, it looks like that's what the note on your account says. Don't worry, you have plenty of time to look for it before we charge you for anything, we just like to let people know as soon as--
Caller: Oh, I know where it is. It's stuck inside our DVD player. We have a pet rabbit and he chewed through the cord and now it won't open.
Me: Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that! Well, I don't know if that's fixable, but is there anything I can do to help?
Caller: Nah, it's okay. I'm gonna take it apart.
Me: Okay, thanks for calling! All the best to your rabbit!

Kids at outreach

We set up a table at a nearby elementary school's "Literacy Night" recently to talk to families about the public library. The kids were given some sort of literacy-based scavenger hunt to do for the evening, plus a bunch of sugary foods.

A pack of tween girls run at full tilt past the table. The girl in the back of the pack is complaining: "I didn't mean run literally!" 

"Are you here all the time?"

Six-year-old apparently all alone, no parent and no ID: "Hello. I'd like to sign up for the library, please." 

Different kid: Can I have a library card?
Me: If your mom or dad comes to tell me it's okay and answers a few questions--
Kid: No, I know I can't sign up for an account by myself. I just want one of the plastic cards even if it's not connected to anything. They look cool.

"Wow! I saw you before! You got me some movies!"

A young boy walks back and forth past my table a few times, each time very carefully balancing a styrofoam cup of cocoa. Then I see him skip past a little bit later, and he says, happily, "I finished my hot chocolate, so now I can run free!"