People-Eating Book

I had a group of elementary school students come into the library this week for a booktalk and a little craft. Among the books I introduced was The Book that Eats People by Mark Fearing. It's a very cute book that (as the title says) that eats a variety of students and adults. The book warms that you shouldn't handle it with "syrupy fingers" or it might get you too. I played up the book, dramatizing the scariness of the book. After I was through booktalking my selection a little girl timidly raised her hand. She said, in complete seriousness, "Does that book REALLY eat people?" I had to try not to laugh because this child was genuinely scared of the book sitting innocently on the table. I explained that "no, the book does not really eat people." She seemed somewhat consoled. I reminded myself that maybe next time I should play it down a bit.

Beach Party in December

For my last anime club I decided to have a "Bleach Beach Party" for no other reason than that the two words rhyme. At the words "beach party" the girls in my club immediately asked: "Can we wear our bathing suits?" I immediately thought of 14 year old girls walking around in bikinis in the library with all our leering older male patrons. I put a stop to that train of thought but the girls were disappointed.

At this "Beach party" I decided to have the teens make their own smoothies. I bought strawberries, blueberries, orange juice, vanilla ice cream and bananas in bulk from Costco and let the kids have at it. But I specifically told them that I would control the blenders and that I would do the pouring. This of course was ignored by most of the 30 teens scrambling for smoothies. So the inevitable happened: one teen poured smoothie all over the blender, table, and their hands.

At the same time some of the girls got it in their head that they would put makeup on the boys. One boy consented and so the girls assumed that ALL the boys would want eyeshadow, eyeliner, base, mascara, the whole works, slathered on their face. While I was trying to deal with the smoothie situation girls were forcefully pushing boys to the ground so they could apply makeup. One boy was crying "no, no, no" as three girls pulled on him. So I had to rescue these hapless boys from the girls and explain to them that not every boy wants makeup on their face. Once again, I disappointed the girls who if they had it THEIR way would be dancing around in bikinis putting makeup on every boy in the room.