Storytime 2013

Since I always forget to post the dates - and they are introuvables on the library's website - I'm posting all the 2013 storytime dates here. For once and for all...at least until June.

We are trying to do thematic storytimes and I'll add in more songs since, let's face it, "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" is getting really really old!

Come one, come all!

Saturday, 12 January  at 10:30
Wednesday, 6 February at 15:30
Saturday, 16 February at 10:30 (Valentine's Day)
Wednesday, 6 March at 15:30
Wednesday, 3 April at 15:30
Saturday, 13 April at 10:30
Wednesday, 15 May at 15:30
Saturday, 25 May (to be confirmed) Poids Plume
Saturday, 15 June at 10:30

(Lecture bilingue anglais-français "storytime". gratuit et amusant!)

For a fairly complete list of books we've read in the past, you can check out my amazon list.

Lille Halloween 2012: the sequal

Following up on last year's very successful Halloween endeavor, I'm coming back for more...

Last year, I managed to organize trick-or-treating in my quiet neighborhood and the gaggle of kids (all 8 of them!) really felt like, well, Halloween! So this year, I've decided to expand to the next street! Yes, dear readers, Halloween will take over two Lille streets! (and then the world...).

As with last year, I will distribute flyers with basic information about Halloween like how it's celebrated in the US, what time and what to give and will ask my neighbors to stick the imagine of the pumpkin from the flyer on their window if they are a Halloween friendly house. I found that by inviting the neighbor's to participate, the kids avoided much disappointment and the neighbors avoided much annoyance.

But that's not all!

Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year which also happens to be the day the next bilingual storytime is planned! So the librarians at the Wazemmes library are busy planning a special Halloween storytime full of scary books and songs (does anyone know any?).

I also plan on organizing a pre-trick-or-treat party for the little kids followed of course by a post-trick-or-treat party for the big kids. I was surprised to find jack-o-lantern lights at the big Carrefour supermarket as well as spider webs and spider rings! But, I haven't been able to find costumes...

A couple of years ago, I took on the task of making a pumpkin costume for Suzanne. I followed Martha Stewart's instructions and made it out of an orange pillow case. That costume was used by both kids. Helas, the kids now want to be a cowgirl-vampire and Super Why. I've already started pulling together the pieces of the Super Why costume but not quite sure how to attack the cowgirl-vampire thing.

I am also planning the menu which will be full of skeleton cookies, ghoulish drinks and spider cupcakes. We plan on going to the local farm this weekend to pick apples and to pick up some pumpkins for carving.

And last but not least, I have yet to ask my kids' teachers if I can do something Halloween-y in class. I'm not sure how it will go over now that Suzanne's in "big school".  You can be in French school but still have some fun...right?

Storytime tomorrow

Tomorrow at 3:30 another September storytime! 
If you're in the area, stop by! We're also busy preparing for the Halloween edition full of scary stories and some candy. And the special Scary Monsters storytime we're organizing in the framework of Lille Fantastique.
Storytime is open to everyone. It's free and it's fun!

Storytime: the new season

And we're back! The first bilingual storytime of the new season is this Wednesday, September 19th at 15:30 at the Wazemmes library in Lille. There are some exciting new things planned for the fall including a special Halloween reading and a special Scary Monsters edition in early November.

Come one, come all!

for more information, please leave me a message.

June storytime

The last storytime of the "year" will take place this Wednesday, June 20th at 3:30pm at the Wazemmes library.

We have plans for more storytimes next "year" and I'm planning on doing some reconnaisance while I'm in the US this summer. The library has also told me that they have a "budget animation" which means they have a small budget to buy new books for storytime. Yay! My kids won't have to risk their books any longer and I'll be able to read without Max screaming, "that's mine!"

I'd just like to say how pleased I am that this is taking off. Even if there aren't an enormous amount of kids, the kids who do attend make it totally worth it.

See you there (or in the fall)!

June storytime

June storytime is around the corner...tomorrow, Saturday June 9th at 10:30 am at the Wazemmes library. While I'm reading books, my daughter will be having her tooth drilled so this will be a happy distraction.

A second storytime will be held on June 20th at 3:30pm.

I had a comment on my blog a few weeks ago from germanintheafternoon, an American who started a German bilingual storytime in Pennsylvania. She left a comment about her son's reaction to her reading stories to other kids. I have to say that it struck home. I've found myself in terribly awkward situations while reading to groups of kids. How do you handle it when your almost 3 year is climbing on your lap and your 6 year old is climbing on your back while you read to a group of kids? Reading has always been an intimate moment for me and the kids, since the moment they were born. It has been my way of insuring that  they have some English in their French filled day. Reading means mommy time. Add to that the fact that many of the books I read are theirs! So, it's quite understandable that their animal instincts take over. But it takes everything I have to not yell at them...

At the storytime in May, at the book fair, the director of the main library came to introduce herself to me. And then I received an email from the branch's director with someone else in copy - who I assume to be one of the head honchos - asking me officially if I would continue doing the bilingual storytime and if we could do a special Halloween edition for Lille Fantastic 3000, the Lille festival that begins in the fall.

Woohoo! Now I just need to figure out how to get paid for this...

May story time and Max speaks franglais

I'm extremely excited to announce the dates for he May storytime for a couple of reasons. First because storytime is cool. Second because storytime is super cool this month because we'll be doing a special edition and third because Multilingual Living published an article I wrote about storytime.

So the dates: the normal Wednesday storytime will take place on May 23rd at 3:30pm at the Wazemmes library. Then, we'll have a special storytime at Gare  Saint Sauveur on May 26th at 2:00pm. There is a book fair and lots of special events going on so we're part of the festivities. It's really exciting because Stéphane Servant, the author of Le Machin/The Thing, will be there for sign books. So he'll hopefully get to see what we've done with his dual language book.

I promise it will be so very cool.

Since story time has really taken off, I contacted Multilingual Living, a really amazing webzine on all aspects of multi-lingual life. And the result is this article that I hope will be helpful to anyone else looking for ideas on how to increase the multi-lingual presence in your life. So here it is: Bilingual Storytime.

On another note, Max is increasingly proficient in franglais. I've previously said that Max doesn't mix his languages...and he didn't until the past couple weeks. I'm not sure what happened, maybe it's just the age where he's trying to say more things and doesn't have the words or grammar to do so in a single language. or maybe he's finally decided that not everything is black and white and can't be compartmentalized. In the past week I've heard Max use English grammar in French sentences a few times and use a couple of words in the wrong language. For example, he said "je veux les" to his grandparents which is a perfect translation of "I want them" (and he really did want those chips!). He also said "C'est pas droit" to his grandmother when she put on his boot. She thought it was funny because it wasn't right as in the direction (ie left and right) but what he meant was literally "it's not on right" ie the sock was scrunched up in his boot and it didn't feel right.

Another thing to note is that the kids spent all weekend with their grandparents speaking French. When I spoke to Suzanne on the phone yesterday, her English sounded French. It was very strange and interesting to see how quickly her language adapted.

Oh, tower of babble...

Storytime : spring has sprung!

Storytime at the Wazemmes Library has really taken off. The February dates were successful. The Saturday reading took place on the Saturday that school vacation started. Since my mother was our “guest reader”, I recruited some friends to make sure there’d be at least some kids. And to my surprise, the room was overflowing with both kids and their parents! There were at least 20 people crammed into the little room at the back of the Médiatheque Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier!

We didn’t have a French librarian with us that day, so I took over the French part (at one point reading the English instead! Old habits die hard). My mother and I read a couple of books in bilingual format to get the kids acquainted and then I let my mother do her librarian thing. She told the story of Joseph’s little overcoat, using paper and scissors to tell the story. She then read a couple of simple books in English, finishing with an English translation of a French book called Press Here (or Un Livre) by Hervé Tullet which is a book that screams for crowd participation. But the kids wouldn’t participate. By the time my mother was done, all of the kids were grabbing and pressing and shaking the book (this is normal behavior for this book which asks the reader to do all those things to move the spots around on the pages).

My mother observed how reticent the kids were. Where American kids would have been geting up and repeating the words or pressing the book, the French kids sat still and listened. This harkens back to my participation theory of the French which I’ve already observed in professional settings. But I digress...

March story time dates are Wednesday, March 21st at 3:30PM and Saturday, March 31st at 10:30AM .

Here is a list of books we have read so far and which seem to work well in the bilingual setting and format. There are both books in French and English, and there are some bilingual in the text.

• Le Machin/ the Thing by Stéphane Servant and Cécile Bonbon
• Bark George/ Aboie George by Jules Feiffer
• What a Radish! / Quel radis dis donc!  by Praline Gay-Para and Andrée Prigent  
• Little Blue, little Yellow / Petit Bleu, Petit Jaune by Leo Lionni
• A Color of His Own  / Une histoire de cameleon  by Leo Lionni
• The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog/ Le Pigeon Trouve un Hotdog by Mo Willems
• What Faust Saw/ La Nuit de Faust by Matt Ottley
• Yummy / Je te croquerai byLucy Cousins
• Elephant and Piggie : there’s a bird on your head / Un Oiseu sur la tête by Mo Willems
• I like Books/J’aime les livres by Anthony Brown
• Willy the Dreamer / Marcel le reveur  by Anthony Brown
• My Dad / Mon Papa by Anthony Brown
• My Mum / Ma Maman by Anthony Brown
• I Want My Dinner/ Je Veux Manger by Tony Ross
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear / Ours Brun, Ours Brun by Eric Carle
• We’re Going on a Bear Hunt /  La Chasse à l'ours by Helen Oxenbury
• Tralalire : Ours Bleu et Tigre Rouge - a bilingual text from issue 116 from july 2010)
• La maitresse dit hello by Kris di Giacomo
• Tout le Dit Hello by Kris di Giacomo
• Farmer Duck / Le canard fermier by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury
• Press Here / Un Livre - Hervé Tullet
• Come Out and Play Little Mouse  /Viens jouer avec moi, petite souris! x by Robert Kraus, Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey

Other books in English that work well for a non-English speaking group:

• Cat the Cat by Mo Willems
• Orange, Pear, Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
• Press Here by Hervé Tullet
• Monday Spaghetti by Eric Carle
• Jazzy in the Jungle by Lucy Cousins
• ABCs by Bruno Munari
• Red Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton

Story time : exciting times!

February story time will take place on Wednesday, February 8th at 3:30 and Saturday, February 25th at 10:30.

Tomorrow's edition will feature a new book and a slightly new format. The library director will be taking on the French reading since my usual counterpart, Marie, is off skiing. Marie has some great ideas so hopefully we'll have lots of little people to help us out!

My mother, a retired children's librarian, will be our guest star at the February 25th reading. My mom, once known for reading bedtime stories in her pajamas at the public library, has lots of surprises up her sleeves. She will be fully clothed.

If you would like to sign up or have any questions, please contact me here or get in touch with the Wazemmes branch of the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lille.

Now some French for the French search engine:

Lecture gratuite anglais-français à la médiathèque de Wazemmes (Lille) aura lieu mercredi 8 février à 15h30 et samedi 25 février  à 10h30.  Pour touts renseignements, laissez-moi un commentaire ou contactez la médiathèque de Wazemmes .

story time: the rebirth

Story time is finally coming to life! I didn't realize the beginning would be so rough...or that the rough period would last so long. We are celebrating a whole year.

Since the new director arrived at the library, everything's been looking up! My counterpart librarian and I have a rhythm and a solid and fun repertoire now so the readings are smooth. Last Saturday, there were 2 new families; last Wednesday, there were 2 returning families (plus my friends who have been endlessly supportive of this endeavor!).

The head librarian has been answering emails that were left untouched for months, among them a request for Saturday "camp" to come to the readings (20 kids!). We also have dates booked through June, including a reading at the Gare St. Sauveur during the Braderie des Livres. The Gare St. Sauveur is an unused freight train station transformed into an amazing cultural space in Lille.

People have been coming to me saying they have seen the posters up around town, including Story time with Rebecca (et l'équipe jeunesse de la bibliothèque). It's all very exciting. 

But the best part ? It's the kids...My kids really appreciate the language play, where we intermingle French and English in the same story. It reinforces their own bilingualism. As for the monolingual kids, it's showing them that language is fun and accessible. They really enjoy the stories and the new words! An, of course, discovering new books like, The Thing/ Le Machin, is always good.

I'll continue to post future dates here. Come one, come all!

Story time: January 2011

The next story time is Wednesday, January 11th at 3:30 pm.

I'm hoping the new year will bring new luck to my little project. I can't begin to explain how much more pleasure and satisfaction I get from reading to kids for 30 minutes than I do from a full day of work (unless that day includes a German Black Forest cake baked by my German co-worker or some hard alcohol from my Latvian co-worker).

The new director has finally arrived at the Wazemmes branch library and seems really keen on story time. The last session right before holidays was English only because the librarian was sick. But we still had a nice crew of 7 kids. SEVEN which apparently is a really good number. I would have thought a dozen but ok, seven. She said that we should send emails out to the schools to attract more kids and groups. Yay!

So please come and enjoy some stories in French and English, in a bilingual setting. It's free and it's fun!

Storytime December 2011 - free cookies and stories

Last Saturday's storytime was awash. We knew it would be because it was the neighborhood schools Nöël celebration. So Max and I read "Green Eggs and Ham" five times and he was quite satisfied with his personalized storytime.

Looking for something to do during the vacances? Next edition is Wednesday, December 21st at 3:30pm. Fun is promised for all! We will be reading Little Red Riding Hood, Mo Willems and others.

It's FREE, it's FREE BILINGUAL and it's STORY TIME. Plus, I'll try to make cookies beforehand and give one to everyone present, adults and kids alike. Now why would anyone NOT come????

Storytime : double whammy!

This week saw the double edition of storytime. On Wednesday, the group was composed of 10 6-8 year olds and my two little monsters and my friend Anne's bilingual kids. Suzanne pulled up a chair next to me and read her own books- although she enjoys storytime, it was understandably much less fun without any of her friends. Marie and I mostly reused some of the stories we'd done previously including Le Machin which works amazingly bilingually. but we also did "Three Billy Goats Gruff" from Yummy by Lucy Cousins. Her versions of the fairy tales are straight to the point and lend themselves well to split, bilingual reading. The group was enthusiastic and able to retain a certain number of words. The already had a good base which helped. Saturday's group was completely different. There were 4 kids plus my 2. All of the kids were between 3 and 6. Marie and I did some of the younger books including What Faust Saw, I Want My Potty, I Like Books and I'm Going on a Bear Hunt, the latter is a great exercise in otomotopea (isn't that a great word?!). The parents were enthusiastic and so is Marie, despite the issues the library is currently facing.

When we finished, she told me that there was an administrative mess up so storytime in November and December wouldn't apprear in the library agenda but that there would be flyers made for the library. She also told me that she didn't mind doing one Wednesday and one Saturday a month. I'm getting the feeling that she's enjoying storytime!

I wanted to do some Halloween stories but the library didn't have any that were easy enough to read to a mixed group of kids. Tant pis.

Other notable moments of the weekend included my distribution of Halloween fliers to all my neighboors at 11pm on Friday night in an attempt to remain visibly invisible. This is my attempt to bring Halloween to my street. One neighbor has already decorated her windows. Another told me that as long as kids didn't come ringing their bell and asking for candy, they would do Halloween. Um, yeah. My kids are extremely excited for Halloween. I've got to start working on Suzanne's ghost costume!

On Sunday, as the kids and I walked through the Wazemmes market square on our way back from visiting La Ferme des Dondaines, Suzanne asked me, "can we speak French together so people won't know we're English?" I decided not to correct her on the semantics of it - English versus American and the fact that I just physically cannot speak French to my kids. But when I asked her why she didn't want people to know we spoke English, she said, "because I don't want to go to prison." I then explained to Suzanne that in France, people don't get sent to prison for speaking a different language and that we should be proud to speak English AND French. I sometimes wonder how much the bilingualism adds to the insecure musings of the common 5 year old.

But seeing the semi-popularity of storytime, I don't think we need to worry about being imprisoned for a little while at least.

Storytime : October, November, December

The fate of storytime is in your hands...
Actually, it's in the hands of the city government. The Wazemmes library has lost 3 staff members since the beginning of storytime last spring. But Marie, my storytime partner, is standing behind it. We met this morning to set dates until the end of the year. And although the library is understaffed, she is firmly standing by storytime and all of the other animations planned by the library.

Storytime is a victim of its own success in many ways. The word is out and it's a little too loud! Marie informed me this morning that a group of ten 6-8 year old will be attending next Wednesday as part of the public day camp's activity. She also handed me an email from another Saturday morning program organized by the city. The email basically says we heard the library has a bilingual program and we'd like to work that into our Saturday morning language initiation program that's part of the city's PEG (plan d'education global ie the city's education plan which includes more access to foreign language education).

So, although I'm flattered to be the library's "bilingual program", I need to think long and hard about how I can 1) accomodate the demands and 2) make this into something real, profitable and with a future. Because, who would I be kidding if I said that I'd much rather play with european money than read to little kids all day long. But I digress...

Storytime dates are as follows :
October 12th and 15th
November 12th and 23rd (in time for Thanksgiving!)
December 10th and 21st

Wednesday is at 3:30pm. Saturday is at 10:30am.

If you need more information, you can contact me through this blog or get in touch with the Mediatheque de Wazemmes at 03 20 12 84 68
From January onwards, storytime will take place Wednesday OR Saturday depending on the popularity of the test dates we've had in the fall.

Storytime : the cursed

When I showed up for storytime a couple of weeks ago, I was mad at myself for not washing my hair or putting my "contaclenson" (as Suzanne says) because there was a journalist waiting for us. The Voix du Nord was interested in doing a little article on storytime so had contacted the library that morning. Luckily, Marie was able to get in touch with the main library to get permission.

So, we did storytime with a full house (8 kids including some I don't know!) and a journalist taking pictures. Afterwards, she interviewed me and a couple of the participants (my friends). You can find the article here. (By the way, I did not say what I am quoted as saying...). It's a good thing Suzanne was sitting on my lap in the picture.

In September and October, we are testing the Saturday morning time slot to see if we attract a larger audience. Wednesday is always a tough time in France because it's the day that kids are off of school so they often have activities like dance or circus or music or fencing...

So last Saturday was the first test. Friday, I got an email from the librarian - not the usual one since Marie had already told me should couldn't be there- saying she couldn't read with me and could I do it alone. Once again, I swore up and down because stortytime seemed to be cursed. I was mostly worried that because of the press coverage, there would be more people. And based on the experience of the first storytime which I did alone because my partner had appruptly left the library, I was scared : most of the people who attended the first storytime which was in English only have never come back. So, I reassured the librarian, told her I'd come in early to prepare and we'd do an easy and foolproof version.

In the end, it worked out perfectly. Fatiha, who was Saturday's French reader, did a great job. We chose a simple selection which included : Brown Bear Brown Bear, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Tout le Monde Dit Hello, What Faust Saw (my favorite book of the moment which is unfortunately out of print), and Little Blue Little Yellow (which I read on my own). The crowd, which included 2 newbies and 1 second-timer along with my kids and some friends' kids, was entusiastic. Fatiha even said that it was a good turnout for a Saturday morning.

October dates are Wednesday, 12th and Saturday,15th. Come one, come all!

PS Pictures to come soon.

Storytime September

Storytime is back, although the head librarian who has been so supportive has left the local library. Hopefully the staff will continue to be so supportive of the monthly bilingual free readings!

DAtes for September are Wednesday, September 7th at 3:30 and Saturday, September 24th at 10:30. We're testing the Saturday to see if we get more people.

if you have questions, leave me a message or contact the Médiathèque de Wazemmes.

It's bilingual, it's free and it's fun!

Storytime June : Woohoo!

In a single word: AWESOME.

June's storytime was great. There was an enthusiatic crowd, including lots of new faces (all of whom I knew at least indirectly). But still, the room at the back of the library was packed.
Marie and I had prepared ahead but we were out of synch for a couple of books because the translations aren't always exact or because we tried to vary our style too much, sometime reading every other page, sometimes reading every other line. But, everyone seemed to love it. The energy in the room was great!

We read We're Going on a Bear Hunt which was, surprisingly, a huge hit. The kids (and adults) liked hearing the difference between the French and English onomatopoeia. We read Little Blue, Little Yellow which I did for the first storytime in English only; it works extremely well in bilingual format. Polar Bear, Polar Bear didn't work as well as we'd expected because the translation takes artistic liberty on the last page and even adds in a line! I guess it's all in the name of rythm, but still...We also read a bilingual book that I can't remember. And then I finished with Every Peach, Pear, Plum which the kids loved. They all gathered around me and pointed to things, completely random and unrelated thing for the French kids, as I read.

When we finished, Marie said to me "il va falloir trouver un nouveau lieu pour storytime." Not yet a victim of its own success, but it's coming.

After we left the library, we invaded the local park. It was like an anglo invasion of Wazemmes with all that English chatter going on.

Stay tuned for September dates. We'll be testing Saturday too!

Here's a picture of part of the group post-storytime but pre-park (mine are the girl in grey showing her claws and covering her face with her hair and the little one in the turquoise stroller). For anyone who remembers the boy, he's the blondie in front. His sister is teh blondie girl next to Max and she's my God-daughter.

Storytime: June edition

Thanks to clairmaria for reminding me to remind you...

The June edition of stoytime will take place on June 22nd at 3:30 pm at the Wazemmes library. Marie (the librarian) and I have already prepared our set list which includes colors, animal sounds and songs!

And moegood news! Storytime already has dates in September and October. We'll be testing Wednesday and a new Saturday session to see what works best.

Be there or be square!

Storytime : May edition

Storytime will take place this Wednesdayn May 18th at 3:30 PM at the Bibliothèque de Wazemmes. We even made it into the Lille library brochure so hopefully there will be a nice crowd.

I met with my new French counterpart on Saturday and she's really motivated. We chose our books and went over our approach. We'll be reading The Thing by Stéphane Servant (a very clever French book translated into English), A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carl and The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog by Mo Willems. All books will be read bilingually (we testing formats).

Hope to see you there!

April Storytime: a blessing

I was wondering if my storytime was maudit (or cursed) because 2 days before storytime, the head librarian called me to tell me that Emilie - the librarian who I was supposed to do storytime with - had changed services and she wasn't sure who would be my french speaking counterpart. Since I couldn't come meet with the librarians beforehand, I gave her the idiot's guide to storytime.

When my brood and I arrived for storytime, there were already some familiar faces waiting for us. In fact, all of the faces were familiar since they were all part of my following ie people who I know or who I've personally invited. I was really glad to see Rachael and her two boys (she's a faithful reader). Just as we were about to begin storytime, a woman and her young son walked in. I didn't know them. Yay! I'll take that as a sign of success. In fact, storytime was published in the official Lille library agenda which means that anyone who cared to pick it up at any one of the branch libraries in Lille would have seen storytime on the dochet. Once again, there was a librarian from another branch present as an observer.

Marie - my new counterpart - and I took about 45 seconds to go through the plan and then started. We begin with the welcome song, followed by two bilingual books where she read the FRench and I read the English : Ma Cousine Dit Hello and a bilingual tale from a kid's magazine called Tralalire. We then read Bark George (Aboies George) by Jules Feiffer and I Like Books (J'aime les Livres) by Anthony Brown. A round of Head and Shoulders was thrown in there as well.

The kids seemed happy! The bilingual format worked well. I read a page in English followed by Marie who read the same page in French. It worked well because the books were short. But if we'd chosen longer books, I would have opted for an alternating style where I read one page and then she read the next page in French.

Even Suzanne best friend (the one who wanted me to read in French last time) was interested. I realized that the reason the library hasn't been pushy about it is because they are very excited about storytime but don't want to ask too much of me. Au contraire, ask ask! So, instead of storytime being cursed, I think it's blessed.

The next storytime is scheduled for May 18th at 3:30 PM. There is also a date in June. More dates to come...