There is a Book Sale going on this weekend at the Town Gym, behind the Town Offices building.  It is very unusual for the Friends of the Library to offer a book sale at this time of year, so I hope many families discover it.  A portion of the proceeds from the book sale fund the programs that the library offers – including the refreshments for Dads and Donuts every month.

I started today’s storytime with the book If I Were Your Father by Margaret Park Bridges.  The story is a dialogue between a young boy and his father.  After finding out that there isn’t a school to teach you how to be a father, the son decides to teach his Dad by pretending to change places.  Mostly we get a glimpse of what life is like for a young child, but sometimes the perspective makes the dads laugh in recognition.  “If I were your father, I wouldn’t yell if you stood in front of the TV while I was watching a game.”  “Even if you missed a home run in the World Series?” “Even if I missed a whole game.”

We’ll have a special storytime next month with a duck theme that coincides with a duck race in town.  I used this book to remind me to mention it.  By the time I got to the last page, I was looking at the children and not at the book and I said, “Welcome back” instead of “Welcome home.”  One of the children corrected me and then another said he knew that in his brain.  So I took advantage of the great readers I had in the room and asked them to help me read the next book.

Mo Willems is becoming one of our most beloved authors for young children.  There is not another book like this – unlike his Elephant and Piggie and Pigeon books.  But children love to read it over and over again. I taught everyone in the room to read the word NOT so they could help read this book.  Some of the older children also read along with other words as well.  This is a delightful tale that everyone in the room enjoyed.

By this time in the storytime I knew that everyone in the room was very nice, so we all read this book together.  The cats in the book need lots of help, and by the end of the book one of the says, “I KNEW you were nice.”  The last page of the book says, “Did you like the cats?  I think they really liked you.”

I know I really liked everyone who came to the Dads and Donuts storytime today.  Thank you all for helping.

~Maureen