One great example is Cora Jean’s Old Skool Cafe in the Hunter’s View/Baypoint neighborhood of San Francisco. Teens learn all sorts of occupational and life skills while building respect for themselves and taking responsibility for everything from showing up on time to managing others.

They do this while cooking and serving food and performing in a 1940s themed supper club which I am BY ALL MEANS VISITING very soon.

I Spy With My Little Eye
by Edward Gibbs

With its sneaky little spy hole and exciting and colorful drawings, this is an instant storytime hit. It’s a standard “guessing game” book, but what makes this book unique is the fact that you can adjust the hints to audience. First hints are vague — I spy something red — and give you a chance to talk about different red animals. Next you can read the quotation hint, i.e. “I have a long bushy tail” to help the guessing along.

I really enjoyed the artwork in this book as well — bright, cheerful, and lush pencil drawings made this book pitch perfect in terms of visual appeal. Babies loved it, parents, loved it, and toddlers were so excited they wanted to hear it a second time.

Pinterest is free, and it’s got the standard signup procedures (enter your email, make up usernames and passwords, yadda yadda). It’s an open site in that you can view others’ pins and boards without signing up, but trust me, once you spend a few minutes browsing you’d want to sign up. You can install a browser bookmarklet to “pin” things you like — just click it and it will bring up a window that shows the page’s images available for you to pick. You can also just “repin” from inside of Pinterest, which is what I end up doing more often than not, nowadays.

You’re welcome to follow all of my boards on Pinterest, but here are the Library related ones I keep:

Library Children’s Room
I had to change the name from “Children’s Room” because I got panicked emails asking if I was having a baby – nope, just decorating the library for hundreds of them!

Library Play
Focus on toys and other interactives for babies, toddlers and school aged kids

Kid Crafts
Crafts that preschool kids can do in under 20 or so minutes

Booklists
Newest board, not a lot up there yet

Storytimes
Flannels, songs, etc. for storytimes

Libraryideas!
Holding cell for all the rest of the random good ideas!

There’s no way around it. This book? Super schmaltzy. SUPER SCHMALTZY. Once you get past that, however, it’s lovely. It’s full of very poignant and true observations about how individual a person is – how every time they touch a turtle or sing a song, it’s an experience that no one else can replicate. The focus is on nature and animals, and Lynch’s full-spread acrylic paintings are perfect for this book. Would work OK for a storytime if the kids were lulled already and had some patience as the prose rolls well off the tongue and there’s a lot of opportunity for stressing the “you”s on every page.

My first experience doing this was last week. Our county’s Parks & Recreation department asked me to come by and add some library magic to one of their events – they were having a nature walk followed by a weenie roast wanted some stories by campfire to complete the experience. I’d never told a story without a book in front of me, but I figured an evening by the fire pretty much demanded REAL storytelling.

I didn’t know where to start, except the library catalog. It was good to me as the first book I found was definitely the best one: Twenty Tellable Tales by Margaret Read MacDonald. I read through most of the stories and picked one that had a familiar arc and didn’t seem like it needed TOO much acting in terms of voices.

Margaret’s book is great because it really walks you through the steps of learning a story by heart. I followed her directions as far as ways to practice and timing of practices and I think it really helped. I felt confident and ready when the time came.

I did learn a few things on my own, however. So here’s a list of lessons.

Top Lessons

• Know Your Strengths  I would do a terribly horror or ghost story because I’m too smiley and couldn’t be serious enough, so I picked a somewhat silly story
• But Not Too Silly!  Making people laugh is hard. Making kids laugh is a lot easier, but that can still be a lot a pressure for your first time. My story was goofy but not supposed to be overly silly, and the laughs I did get felt good
• Consider Your Audience  I didn’t really know what my audience was going to be like, but I did know they were going on a nature walk before I read. And I assumed that small children wouldn’t do that alone, so adults would be present. Since I generally focus on kids, I put in a very parent friendly story in the mix (see No One But You below)
• Go With Something Familiar  I looked through the book and found a story that had a familiar arc to it — the story I picked is Hopi and I’ve grown up hearing those and other Native American stories, so it wasn’t something new. I was intrigued by the other cultures’ folktales but their flow and slang were different so I skipped them
• Practice Body Language  Instead of practicing by reading the story barely outloud to myself, I went for it 100% in the car on the way to work or when I was home alone. It helped make it feel less staged when I told the story to strangers
• Practice Your Voices This was the biggie. I found that I kept changing Coyote’s voice from telling to telling and at the beginning, from beginning to end of the story. Trying out lots of different voices, settling on one, and then using it over and over again was key to keeping things consistent

So there you are. If I can do it, anyone can. I’m a terrible at memorization and I managed it by following Margaret’s instructions and practicing over and over until it felt like a story I’d been hearing and telling since I was young.

Here’s my whole program for the storytime, feel free to borrow at will.

Jennifer’s Campfire Storytime

♫ “If You’re Ready for a Story”

If you’re ready for a story take a seat
If you’re ready for a story take a seat
Clap your hands and stomp your feet
Make your hands all nice and neat
If you’re ready for a story take a seat!

Picture book, No One But You

This book by Douglas Wood and illustrated by P.J. Lynch is full of lovely acrylic paintings of children interacting with animals and nature. I introduced this story by talking a bit about their walk, asking what they saw, and then telling them that this was a schmaltzy book for the adults. Kids thought the word was funny sounding and the adults paid a lot of attention to the story and I think enjoyed it more than if they hadn’t been prepped for its dripping but sweet tone.

♫ We’re Going on a Bear Hunt!

Poem, “Ode To a Plain Old Pond Frog”

I found this poem, by William Pitt Root, in The California Coast: A Literary Field Guide. It was a good mix for kids an adults with a funny last stanza that sounded like frog calls.

Fingerplay, “I Had a Little Turtle”

I had a little turtle,
he lived in a box.
He swam in the ocean,
and he climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at the minnow
He snapped at the flea
He snapped at the mosquito
And then he snapped at me!

He caught the minnow
He caught the flea
He caught the mosquito
But he can’t catch me!

Story, “Coyote’s Crying Song”

This is the story I chose from Margaret Read MacDonald’s Twenty Tellable Tales. It’s a Hopi story so I introduced it by telling everyone how I grew up around Indian Reservations and we talked about where Hopi Pueblo is located.

I enjoyed this author’s previous book, 17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore, and was surprised when I saw some negative reviews on Goodreads. People were upset because a) they think the book would give kids ideas of “impish” things to do and b) the ending of the book is ambiguous in that the child may or may not be lying to her mother. This second book is still about naughty deeds, but gets extra points for teaching the Scientific Method and making me laugh out loud as well. Each of the 11 experiments starts with a question, such as “Can I order a beaver by mail?” then a hypothesis such as “Anything can be ordered by mail,” ending with the results of the experiment. This book is hysterical and a great one-on-one read for any kid into science, causing mischief or silly books.

A Children’s Librarian, on the other hand, visits all of the grades and has to bring materials that will work with all sorts of different levels and attention spans. I went to 9 schools last month, and here are the books I brought. It’s a good mix of booktalk-able items with attention grabbing covers and fun titles. In the 5 or so minutes (!) in between classes, I’d talk with the librarian to see what kinds of readers were next: a voracious set 3rd graders, a solemn set of 2nd, or a 1st grade class that was having trouble getting started in the reading arena. That way I’d have a good selection for that specific group of kids. It worked well, and with some tweaks, I’ll be using this list again next year.

The best thing you can do when it comes to school visits is to make sure your library has a printout (or 20) of the titles you booktalked. Kids WILL go to the library that week asking for something you mentioned and it can be cruel to leave your coworkers scrounging for that one orange book with a monkey on the cover.

Non-Fiction

I always bring a good amount of non-fiction books, mostly to demonstrate to kids that they can read any type of book, not just stories. I also think it’s great to demonstrate all of the cool tidbits you can learn from reading factual books.

• Life-Size Zoo and More Life-Size Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya are fantastic books for showing to kids while they are waiting for others to show up or to get them excited if they are non-plussed. Big, beautiful color photos of animals at real size are enthralling and it’s fun to have a brave kid stand up next to the lion face and see how the kids react.
• National Geographic’s Weird but True!books are perfect for school visits. Asking “what color is hippopotamus sweat?” is an instant icebreaker as everyone yells out colors. The answer is PINK.
• Danger!by DK Publishing is another winner. I highlight how every page spread is different in style and topic making it an awesome choice for readers with a short attention span. Usually I mention parasites and explain what those are, because nothing ropes in boys better than choruses of “Grooooosssssss!”
• Orangutans are Ticklish: Fun Facts From an Animal Photographeris by Jill Davis and photographer Steve Grubman. Each spread is a different animal with one or two well written, short paragraphs about the animal plus a quotation from Steve about his experiences photographing that particular animal. With this book, you can ask for a show of hands: which would win in a fight, a tiger or a lion? The answer is surprising and kids love it.
• Never Smile at a Monkey: And 17 Other Important Things to Remember by Steven Jenkins tells you all of the things you ought not to do in the presence of different animals. Including platypuses. This one is worth bringing because you can act out some of the more dramatic scenes, like the spitting cobra — I aks someone to be the cobra then stand 8 feet away and we see if they could get to me with their venom (they can). Lovely paper illustrations in this one as well.

Fiction

• Olivia Kidneyby Ellen PotterA girl is locked out of her apartment and taken in by old lady whose apartment and furniture is made completely out of glass so that you can see the people in the apartment below and the girl saves life of baby who is about to drink Drain-o. That’s really all you need to say.
• The Peculiar Pink Fanby Nancy SpringerI love, love, love the Enola Holmes Mysteries and brought this one because it had the best cover as far as making it out from a distance. Rope them in by asking who Sherlock Holmes is, then ask if they knew he had a little sister.
• The Westing Gameby Ellen Raskin”Hey, who here has read 39 Clues?”
• Geronimo Stilton and the Kingdom of FantasyThis one pretty much booktalks itself — ask who has read it and let them do it if they are game
• Ivy & Bean #8: No News is Good NewsThe girls earn money by creating a local newspaper – I ask if that sounds like a good idea
• Babymouse #14: Mad ScientistHere you can just say Babymouse creates something that’s big, green, slimy, and wears a baseball cap
• The Adventures of Tintin: The Crab with the Golden ClawsI don’t actually booktalk this, instead I make sure they know that the movie has a book counterpart, and that it’s a hard comic to read with small handwriting print – I tell them to look for the bigger/single story copies instead of the digest versions which are way too small for new readers
• The Cheshire Cheese Catby Carmen Agra Deedy, Randall Wright, Barry MoserI thought this would be fun to booktalk, but in all honestly it came off a bit flat – kids didn’t know what a pub was and thought it sounded babyish (meanwhile the same kids read “Warriors” so who knows)
• Calli Be Goldby Michele Weber HurwitzWith a nice, wholesome girl on the cover, this was a winner – all of the girls wanted to hear about this one – a cute story about relaxing and not getting too preoccupied with accomplishments
• Bad Kitty Meets the Babyby Nick BruelGreat fun to booktalk because you get to share all of the very, very bad things that Bad Kitty tries to do with the new family member
• The Iron Giantby Ted HughesThis new edition, illustrated by Laura Carlin, is beautiful. Most kids have seen the movie, and they are excited to read the book, especially when you give them a teaser and tell them there are many parts that are very different from the movie.

Reading Aloud (K-1st grade)

For the younger kids, I found reading a short and super engaging story was best since I only had 10-15 minutes with them. We’d talk quickly about why reading (and being read to) over the summer is a good idea, I’d show the prizes, then we’d jump into a fun book. The Bob books and Easy Readers I had standing up on the table behind me so they could see all of the different options available.

• Assorted Bob books
• I Love Rainy Days by by Hans Wilhelm (Easy Reader)
• Variety of Peggy Parish’s Amelia Bedelia titles, some Dr. Seuss, Frog & Toad books, and Curious George (Easy Readers)
• Dinosaur vs. The Libraryby Bob Shea(picture)This book is my #1 pick for SRP or any kind of school visit (in or out of the library) – kids can “ROAR!” as loudly as they like and it’s super fun
• Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoesby Eric Litwin (picture)I alternated between Shea’s book and Pete, just to give my brain a break. Most kids know the book & the song, and if they don’t, they really enjoy learning it — warn teachers that they’ll be hearing it ALL. DAY. LONG.

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“Follow us for ideas, tips, and patterns for your storytime flannel board activities!”

Ideas for “firsts”:

• first sisters to finish
• whole family to finish or sign up
• first from each school
• first kid under age 5

This is the newest “Dinosaur vs.” book from Bob Shea. A highly interactive story that begs for kids to participate, this book is fantastic for reading to new groups that may not know you well and need some encouragement to be engaged. Like me telling them that when they see ROAR! they need to roar as loud as they can without making their neighbors cover their ears.