Storytime at the Monrovia Public Library

Lily, age two in two weeks, stands outside of the storytime room of the looking in as if she was observing natives dancing for rain. We’ve missed the opening act of today’s storytime and Lily is apparently hesitant about crashing the party late. Still clutching two puzzle pieces and white knuckled at that, my small nudges to lead her into the room are met with whines and that tell-tale leaning back with her weight that tells me a breakdown is imminent if I don’t play my cards right. It’s a delicate dance that every parent knows well.

“Hey, Peter! You guys here for storytime?” It’s Shawn Thrasher, Senior Librarian - Youth Services. We chat.

“Hey, Shawn. Yeah. She’s on the fence today. I don’t think she wants to interrupt.” We’ve only just started our routine of getting to storytime every other week, so Lily’s apprehension is understandable. Well, to me at least.

“Well, she’s probably ready for the Time for Two’s storytime right after this if you don’t make it into this one.”

“We need to pick up her brother from school after this. I don’t think we can stay that long.”

“If you don’t pick up the craft, it’s much shorter. You can stay as long as you like.” This kind of encouragement really makes for a much easier experience. With an open door to the storytime room and people emphasizing the relaxed nature of the programs, it’s hard not to love the library.

For a librarian, Shawn always seems extraordinarily tolerant of screaming kids roaming his section. It makes sense. Shushing for librarians is so passé. Around ten o’clock, the children’s section is usually pretty loud. The stereotype of the quiet library really breaks down during storytime in the children’s section of the library. While parents aren’t overly encouraged to let their kids run around like maniacs, they certainly aren’t asked or expected to do the impossible and keep their kids quiet for the sake of being quiet. One of the things I absolutely adore about the Monrovia Public Library is the fact that the children’s section is separated by the library’s lobby. Your child needs to really be having a Class 5 meltdown to genuinely disturb the rest of the library.

Hearing Shawn seems to have psyched Lily up. I’m even able to get the puzzle pieces from her hands  and finally lead her into the room. I grab one of the purple song sheets and we take our seats, and by “seats” I mean I sit on the floor, and by “we” I mean myself with Lily still standing and questioning her decision to enter. Slowly, she cuddles into my lap, all the while very suspicious of the whole affair. I quickly remind her how to sit pretzel-leg on the floor (you can’t call it Indian Style anymore, FYI. Criss-cross-applesauce is also acceptable).

Miss Annette starts with some warm-up bits. Silly songs, a puppet, and what is known in the biz as finger-plays to get the kids moving. The provided song sheet helps as all of the tunes are new to me. If you’re nervous about singing, don’t be. Everyone is doing it, and everybody is either paying attention to Miss Annette, or their kids. Well, almost everyone. I glance over at the only other dad in the room. He’s not singing. Rookie move, but understandable. Men are rare in storytime and you can’t simply drop the cool dad act at a moment's notice. He’ll learn. The songs are easy enough to follow along with. It’s amazing how much mileage The Farmer in the Dell tune has gotten over the years.

Children’s storytime hours are nothing new. Every library has one. They’ve been around for over a century and they started as a way to get immigrant children learn English. Today, the idea is more or less the same, although the motives may have shifted in importance. You don’t need to be a pediatrician, child psychologist, or even a parent for that matter to know the importance of reading to a child. The extreme rule of thumb is simply: TV=bad. Books=good. What storytime really excels at is modelling reading aloud behavior and techniques to parents. One of the worst things a parent or caregiver could do during a storytime is tune-out and not engage with their child, or pick up on some techniques to use at home.

We’ll cover the importance of reading to your children later. In short, in case you have managed to avoid every parenting magazine, book, pediatrician or other parents for your child’s entire life, the long and the short of it is that you need to be reading to your children every day.

Every day.

After the first book is read, Miss Annette passes out instruments to all of the children. Blocks, triangles, etc. Lily is given a tambourine. The music starts (playing off of a real record, no less) and each child is prompted to play their instrument when Miss Annette holds up a picture card of their instrument. This lasts for about twenty seconds. Soon the room is filled with the din of all the instruments clamoring in unison. It’s really quite a sight. I mean sound.

For whatever reason, we’re still working on the communication thing, but it is clear that Lily has had enough for today. She drops the tambourine and makes a bee line for the door. Her heart just wasn't in it today, and that's fine. It wasn’t her first storytime, and it won’t be her last. I don’t make any attempts to pull her back into the room.

Had Shawn not made such a big deal about leaving early not being such a big deal, I would have likely tried to coax Lily back in until the closing ceremonies. However, despite storytime being all about the kids, it seems prudent to not treat the whole affair like an obligation. That just wouldn’t be any fun. With no signing up required, fees to pay, or checking in or out process, getting in and out of storytime couldn't be more relaxed and stress free; just as it should be. 

Before packing it in for the day, Lily convinces me to let her have one more round on the swings outside of the library. As I push her, I take a quick look around the park to see if anyone is looking, or worse, listening. There isn’t. I take out the folded up purple song-sheet and in between pushes I practice some of the trickier numbers for next time. Practice makes perfect.

You can view the Monrovia Public Library’s Children’s Calendar here.