I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes younger children intimidate me. I’m getting much better about interacting with them, mostly due to hanging out with my BFF’s boy, who I adore. But I’m still no where near as comfortable interacting with the 5 and under set as I am with teens. Since I’m getting my MLIS with a specialization in librarianship for youth and young adults, I know I need to gain more confidence and experience both with younger readers and their literature.
Longtime readers will know that I have volunteered for years at my local domestic violence shelter. I lead new volunteer training sessions, work with the teen dating violence prevention team, answer the crisis hotline, and work an advocate shift at the shelter. At shelter we often have women with young children, and I saw a perfect opportunity to not only provide a valuable service to those staying in shelter, but practice my storytime skills.
For my first time, I chose a few picture books about books and the library. Selecting books is a challenge. Unlike in a library setting, where we have storytimes for designated age groups, I never know from week to week who will be coming to storytime, how many kids I’ll have, or how old they’ll be. It’s definitely a learning experience!
Library Lion by by Michelle Knudsen (Author), Kevin Hawkes (Illustrator)
The kids really liked this story and thought the idea of a lion wandering in the library was hilarious.
Ralph Tells a Story by Abby Hanlon
The older kids liked this one, but it was over the heads of some of the other readers.
Do Not Open This Book! by by Michaela Muntean (Author), Pascal Lemaitre (Illustrator)
This was a hit with the whole crowd. They liked the pig and the sarcastic tone.
The Lonely Book by by Kate Bernheimer (Author), Chris Sheban (Illustrator)
This one was long and some of the kids got bored. I really liked the story, but it was their least favorite.
The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers
I loved the illustrations in this one and the crowd liked it.
Storytime is still intimidating to me, but I love being able to get outside my comfort zone and bring a valuable experience to a population who might not find it easy to come to the library for storytime for a variety of reasons. I’ll periodically feature the books I’m reading and my trials and tribulations of reading aloud to kids of all ages!
wrapped up in books 
This is so funny to me… I’m the total opposite. Little kids want just a few things from an interaction with an adult: they want someone to listen to them; they want to be treated like a person (not a pet dog); and they want to learn something cool. Little kids have an open and unfiltered view of the world around them — which is so fascinating and refreshing to me. We all started out there. How I envy them that. You don’t have to be self-conscious around them – they aren’t judging you. But teens… *shakes in intimidation* Well, teens ARE judging you. Or at least I’m pretty sure they’re judging ME. ;)
Thanks for the great suggestions!