Sunday, February 20, 2005

Storytime

Well, you asked for storytime stories, so I will try to give you a few. Last Thursday night's storytime theme was the rainbow, a fitting ending to a series of storytimes we (the librarian and I) had put together usings stories about colors. In our little act, I first bring out a finger puppet fairy named Tinkerteller, and she whispers things into my ear, and generally acts shy while we sing the opening nonsense song. At the beginning out this story session six weeks ago I introduced Tinkerteller as a very sad little flower fairy I met while shopping at Krogers. She was sitting in one of the flower refridgerators next to some bedraggled roses feeling sorry for herself, so I invited her to come tell stories with me at the library. Every week now I come in and parents ask their kids, " where did Tinkerteller come from, do you remember?" I didn't realize the families would like my creation story so much.

After silly songs the story lady, as our librarian is referred to, opens the box with some object that represents the theme. In this case it was a bunch of colorful plush rings of various colors, which were piled on my head it a tottering crown ( the kids loved it, especially when they fell off). Then I read Alice the Fairy by David Shannon. Very cute story about a little girl who believes herself to be a Temporary Fairy, and gets into lots of mischief as a result. Then the storylady told a story (Don't let the tiger eat you) and then I presented The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater using a fantastic felt board put together by another librarian. I started the story, "A long long time ago, like, in the 1970s" and that parents thought that was pretty funny. If you don't know this story, it involves a seagull carrying a bucket of paint. If I say anymore I'll ruin it.