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October 09, 2007
All-Day Storytime, or The Kind of Thing Sane People Don’t Plan for the Day After They Return from Vacation
Thanks to Melissa (oh, yeah, Melissa—I’m calling you out), Jason got this crazy idea that it would be fun to have an all-ages drop-in storytime that would last from the time the library opened until the library closed. Being me, I was all like, “AWESOME!” After some discussion, we settled on having it yesterday, Columbus Day, because we like to have something going on when the kids are out of school. When I write that, it sounds so reasonable. Driving to work yesterday morning, it didn’t sound reasonable. It sounded like I had signed up for an eleven-hour storytime. And I was tired.
All-Day Storytime went really, really well, though. I had to get my allergy shot before work, so Jason handled the first 45 minutes by himself. Then we just kind of spent the rest of the day alternating reading and telling stories. Sometimes one or the other of us would do a longer stretch. Sometimes we’d read or tell a story together. (Cowboy and Octopus by Scieszka and Smith and My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems were great with two voices. Our telling of “The Fat Cat,” which we’ve done dozens of times before without a problem, was way clunky, like maybe we were making it up as we went along, but, in our defense, that was around 7:00, and I was really tired by then.) Marcia read several stories, including an *awesome* reading/singing of Abiyoyo with Jason accompanying her on the guitar. Speaking of Jason, at one point when he was out of the room, one of our four-year-old regulars asked me why Jason always did the songs, and I always read the stories.
“Jason knows how to play the guitar, and I don’t,” I said.
“Well, why does he play guitar and read books, then?” she asked.
“Well, that’s because I taught him how to read when he started working at the library,” I said.
That might have been my favorite moment of the day.
The most interesting thing about All-Day Storytime was how long some people stayed. One family was there for at least three or four hours. Some people came, stayed for a while, left, and then came back. Jason posted the full stats on our blog, but we had about 130 kids and 90 adults stop in throughout the day. For the entire 10 ½ hours we were reading (from 10:00am-8:30pm), there were only 15 minutes in which there were no children in the Story Room—a success indeed. Crazy as it is, I think this is a program we’ll run again.
Posted by adrienne at October 9, 2007 09:24 PM
Comments
Color me impressed. Sometimes thirty minutes feels like too much for me. You rock.
Posted by: MotherReader at October 9, 2007 10:50 PM
“Well, that’s because I taught him how to read when he started working at the library,” I said.
And now Jason's returning the favor with guitar! Huzzah. I need a partner with Thacher Hurd's Mama Don't Allow, by the way. I can read the story or do the guitar, but it's very hard to do both.
Posted by: Alkelda at October 10, 2007 01:44 AM
Adrienne, what a great day you've described. My hat is off to all of you!
Posted by: Susan T. at October 10, 2007 08:06 AM
I've been waiting to hear how this went! That's fantastic!
Posted by: Sarah at October 10, 2007 09:11 AM
I wish I'd been there to see all this! Maybe when you do your next one (you're crazy, btw!)...
Posted by: olivia at October 10, 2007 11:05 AM
Awesome. Wish I could have heard you all reading Cowboy & Octopus and My Friend is Sad.
Posted by: Jules at October 10, 2007 01:42 PM
Okay, for serious, you are my hero. For 4 years at one of my past library jobs I had 3 back-to-back storytimes every Wed., and I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day. I hope you spent the evening sipping tea & honey for your poor, tired throat.
Posted by: eisha at October 10, 2007 08:19 PM
Thing is, Marcia *looks* so much like Abiyoyo that it's really easy for her to get into character. Same smell, too.
(I got mentioned in Adrienne's blog! And not even derogatory-wise!!! Woo-hoo!)
Posted by: Marcia at October 10, 2007 09:39 PM
MotherReader, The longest storytime I'd ever done had been 45 minutes, and that was once. A half hour is much more my deal. Going into this, I was seriously worried that I might not be able to make it through the day.
Alkelda, :) I've been slacking on my practicing a bit with the traveling, but I'm feeling the strong urge to return to my good habits.
Olivia and Jules, You so *should* have been there. You could have read a story, too!
Eisha, I am drinking throat-tamer tea, which has been helping. Yesterday, I had storytime in the morning and then reference in the afternoon. This morning I did a lot of talking (and a bit of a short, informal presentation) at our systemwide chidlren's librarians' meeting. So my throat still hurts. I need to stop talking.
Marcia, You're so silly.
Posted by: adrienne at October 10, 2007 11:33 PM
That's OUTSTANDING! Yay!
Feel better. Rest up.
Posted by: Little Willow at October 10, 2007 11:49 PM
Of course, Jason deserves all the credit: *anybody* can sound great over a good soundtrack! (I've read that story about a million times, of course, but it was a real rush to have the "atmosphere" just happen automatically--wow!)
Posted by: Marcia at October 11, 2007 08:58 AM
Adrienne did NOT teach me how to read... she just read the stories to me over and over again and I memorized them.
Abiyoyo was awesome- definitely a highlight. It felt really natural.
And I was lucky enough to be able to take the next day off. Though my voice wasn't nearly as tired as I thought it might be.
I also like how you added "and lots and lots of fun" to the end of my wplkids blog post :). Stinker.
Posted by: jp at October 11, 2007 01:04 PM
I did, in fact, go on to imply that you had just memorized the stories from my repeated readings.
Posted by: adrienne at October 11, 2007 01:50 PM
I forgot to mention that one short-term trick for throat discomfort is to place something hot around your neck (rice sock) and drink really cold water at the same time.
Posted by: Alkelda at October 11, 2007 03:48 PM
Now that will be a handy trick when we do this crazy thing again (which we seem to be seriously discussing, if by "discussing" one means "suggesting within each other's range of hearing").
Posted by: adrienne at October 11, 2007 09:39 PM