Pirate Party!

A couple of days ago I had a "Pirate Party" to celebrate our Summer Reading Program's theme of "Make a Splash" at your library. Kids love pirates, of course their idea of pirates are the Pirates of the Caribbean type not the Somali type but nonetheless they love them. I had a whole passel of kids, mostly boys out to the library and I had pirate names for each of them on name tags. I found a pirate name generator to come up with the names but I had to edit them because many of the pirate names it came up with were naughty like "Bessie Slovenly Wench."

First we had a pirate storyteller come out, Pamela Hanks, you can find her at this site. She dressed in full pirate regalia and had the pirate "accent" down.

Then we divided the group in half and half went on a treasure hunt around the library and the other half made pirate crafts. I made six different treasure hunts around the library leading the kids from clue to clue until they got a word which they would take to the Reference desk to get a bag full of goodies. Of course this led to kids running around yelling "there's the next clue!" and dragging their parents along. Devising 6 separate hunts with 9 different clues was quite a task and I don't plan on doing a treasure hunt again in the near future. The party was fun but I think this "Admiral Slovenly Wench" is going to take a break for a bit.

Bawling Babies

The library is supposed to be a quiet, serene, place. Not so. A day does not pass in my library where one child does not sit down in the middle of the floor and start screaming its head off. The screams of these children and babies are more than fits they are temper tantrums, angry bawlings and yellings that always happen to take place right in the middle of the library. This week I was sitting back in the staff room, far away from the main floor when I heard a piercing scream from behind the door. It sounded as if a tiger was mauling a young child. The screaming continued, increasing in intensity. Upon further questioning from my coworkers the incident started because a marker was taken away from this one toddler.

I understand that children and babies cry. It's in their nature. What I do not have tolerance for is their parents who sit with them for several minutes while they cry and cry trying to soothe them. It is clearly obvious to the dozens of people in the library that the parents soothing does not help the child as the screams become ever piercing. But the parent does not seem to understand this and thinks that if they just say the "right" words their child will turn into an angel again. What I want parents to do is as soon as their child starts screaming to take them OUTSIDE the library and then calm them down. It will make the library experience better for everyone. I wish I could make a sign that says this and every time a child starts screaming I could just point to it and motion to the door.