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Dear Mr. Gidwitz;
Thank you for saving my summer.
Okay, that may be an exaggeration. Thank you for saving Summer Reading Club. Or at least a couple of my Wednesdays this summer.
Our library's Summer Reading Club is a bit misnamed. It's more like Summer Club That Happens At the Library: send your kids off to US to run rampant for a week! Or five! Every Wednesday I attempt to bring Reading to this chaos through Miss Amy's Storytime, which the kids-- grades 1-6-- rotate into from their other activities.
This year's Collaborative Summer Reading theme was "One World, Many Stories," which you'd think would be a great boon to storytime. It says it right in the title! One World, MANY STORIES! Surely there are LOADS of great stories from around the world to share!
I am still sure there are, but I apparently couldn't find them. My storytimes this summer were a total wash. Most of them consisted of muttering, eye-rolling, boys fighting each other to ride the too-small rocking horse in the corner, and one deceptively angelic six-year-old girl interrupting what ought to have been a highly amusing book with, "When's it going to get to the FUNNY part?"
Luckily, I had a plan. Last week one of our countries of the week was Germany. German folktales ought to be familiar enough already to this group, and I REALLY needed something to hold onto the older kids, especially, who generally felt they were too old for read-alouds. But I'd personally read A Tale Dark and Grimm last year (and loved it), and I thought, hmm, that could do it. We didn't have it in our library, and, due to a recent move, I knew if I ordered it it would never get through processing in time, so I went out and bought a copy myself. That's how determined I was that this would work.
And boy did it work. You called their bluff right there in the introduction. They all perked right up. Want a sure way to keep a bunch of rowdy elementary kids listening? Promise them a dual decapitation by the end of the first chapter.
And heck, my plan to keep this to the older kids? Gave that up when faced with a group of hyperactive six-year-old boys. "Can you guys handle something SCARY?" I asked in desperation. "I watched all four Saw movies!" one boy informed me cheerfully. Well all right then. EVERYONE got A Tale Dark and Grimm. No one, as yet, has reported any nightmares.
"You will be able to check this out of the library eventually," I summed up that first week, "AFTER it gets processed-- it needs a barcode and spine label and book cover and to be put into the catalog. I don't know how long that will take." It was time to switch groups, and the kids started muttering again. This time they were saying, "But I want to stay HERE." I dropped the book off in the tech room and gave it a little pat of approval.
Yesterday I'd dug up nothing decent that fit with the week's theme for the older kids, so I snuck back into the tech room and snatched your book back (progress-- it had a barcode and spine label. Just waiting for a cover, I suspect). "Well, we could read these thematic picture books," I asked each group, "OR we could continue last week's book...."
You can guess the response.
"It's ALMOST ready to be checked out," I pointed out this time. "Maybe by the end of the week it will be on the shelves, and one of you can get it then. If somebody else gets there first, you can put your name on the reserve list at the desk." "I WANT IT!" at least half the kids shouted per group. "We're going to have quite a reserve list," I observed. To which one girl responded, "Never mind, I'M BUYING MY OWN COPY!"
And all those kids left the room muttering about how much they loved Miss Amy's Storytime and how they wanted to come back next week, even though Summer Reading Club is over.
In short, you, sir, like fairy tales once upon a time, are Awesome. I owe you a small bit of my dignity and a slightly larger bit of my sanity.
Thank you again,
Amy
Editor's Note: Adam Gidwitz wrote a Closed Letter back in response today. He was happy. Just in case you were worried that, you know, someone might NOT like a whole bunch of rowdy kids loving their book...
Thank you for saving my summer.
Okay, that may be an exaggeration. Thank you for saving Summer Reading Club. Or at least a couple of my Wednesdays this summer.
Our library's Summer Reading Club is a bit misnamed. It's more like Summer Club That Happens At the Library: send your kids off to US to run rampant for a week! Or five! Every Wednesday I attempt to bring Reading to this chaos through Miss Amy's Storytime, which the kids-- grades 1-6-- rotate into from their other activities.
This year's Collaborative Summer Reading theme was "One World, Many Stories," which you'd think would be a great boon to storytime. It says it right in the title! One World, MANY STORIES! Surely there are LOADS of great stories from around the world to share!
I am still sure there are, but I apparently couldn't find them. My storytimes this summer were a total wash. Most of them consisted of muttering, eye-rolling, boys fighting each other to ride the too-small rocking horse in the corner, and one deceptively angelic six-year-old girl interrupting what ought to have been a highly amusing book with, "When's it going to get to the FUNNY part?"
Luckily, I had a plan. Last week one of our countries of the week was Germany. German folktales ought to be familiar enough already to this group, and I REALLY needed something to hold onto the older kids, especially, who generally felt they were too old for read-alouds. But I'd personally read A Tale Dark and Grimm last year (and loved it), and I thought, hmm, that could do it. We didn't have it in our library, and, due to a recent move, I knew if I ordered it it would never get through processing in time, so I went out and bought a copy myself. That's how determined I was that this would work.
And boy did it work. You called their bluff right there in the introduction. They all perked right up. Want a sure way to keep a bunch of rowdy elementary kids listening? Promise them a dual decapitation by the end of the first chapter.
And heck, my plan to keep this to the older kids? Gave that up when faced with a group of hyperactive six-year-old boys. "Can you guys handle something SCARY?" I asked in desperation. "I watched all four Saw movies!" one boy informed me cheerfully. Well all right then. EVERYONE got A Tale Dark and Grimm. No one, as yet, has reported any nightmares.
"You will be able to check this out of the library eventually," I summed up that first week, "AFTER it gets processed-- it needs a barcode and spine label and book cover and to be put into the catalog. I don't know how long that will take." It was time to switch groups, and the kids started muttering again. This time they were saying, "But I want to stay HERE." I dropped the book off in the tech room and gave it a little pat of approval.
Yesterday I'd dug up nothing decent that fit with the week's theme for the older kids, so I snuck back into the tech room and snatched your book back (progress-- it had a barcode and spine label. Just waiting for a cover, I suspect). "Well, we could read these thematic picture books," I asked each group, "OR we could continue last week's book...."
You can guess the response.
"It's ALMOST ready to be checked out," I pointed out this time. "Maybe by the end of the week it will be on the shelves, and one of you can get it then. If somebody else gets there first, you can put your name on the reserve list at the desk." "I WANT IT!" at least half the kids shouted per group. "We're going to have quite a reserve list," I observed. To which one girl responded, "Never mind, I'M BUYING MY OWN COPY!"
And all those kids left the room muttering about how much they loved Miss Amy's Storytime and how they wanted to come back next week, even though Summer Reading Club is over.
In short, you, sir, like fairy tales once upon a time, are Awesome. I owe you a small bit of my dignity and a slightly larger bit of my sanity.
Thank you again,
Amy
Editor's Note: Adam Gidwitz wrote a Closed Letter back in response today. He was happy. Just in case you were worried that, you know, someone might NOT like a whole bunch of rowdy kids loving their book...
Love it!
Date: 2011-08-11 08:09 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)Cousin Dawn (since I seem to be listed as anonymous above and don't know how to give myself an identity)
Re: Love it!
Date: 2011-08-11 11:42 pm (UTC)From: