On Tuesday afternoon, we had a fantastic outdoor program: the World Class Frisbee Show and Playshop with two-time World Freestyle Champion Todd Brodeur.  Todd was upbeat, educational, and inspirational, and I’ve had dozens of adults and kids talk to me about how much fun they had at his show.

First Todd did some cool tricks, like rolling a Frisbee along his arms, juggling Frisbees, and catching Frisbees in increasingly difficult ways.  Then he showed off some of his collection of Frisbees, including an original tin pie plate.  And then he loaned Frisbees to everyone in attendance, and taught everyone some tricks.  Once the show was over, he sold different types of Frisbees to the crowd for very reasonable prices, and signed each that he sold.

And along the way, he delivered some really excellent messages to the kids in attendance, including: when it comes to the sport of Frisbee, girls and boys are on equal footing; Frisbee doesn’t require special equipment like some sports; and Frisbee is a great way to have fun with your friends.  Most importantly, in my opinion, Todd personified physical fitness, and it’s clear that his physical fitness comes not from playing a standard competitive sport, but rather from an alternative sport that can be a lifelong passion.

During his show, I kept looking around at the field of 150 attendees and thinking “What better way could there be to spend a warm, sunny summer afternoon than hanging out on a beautiful green field playing Frisbee with your friends?”  Thanks, Todd, for a great show, and for inspiring all of us to stay fit and have fun doing it!

Today’s performer at the library was  Yo Yo People.  Rebecca had hurt her ankle that morning, so John came and did the show alone – and it was fantastic!  I had a fantastic time, and everyone I spoke to who was in the audience had a fantastic time, too.  How many times can I use the word fantastic in one paragraph?  But it was!

We lucked out with the weather, too, and were able to hold the show outside in front of the original main entrance to the building.  Not too sunny, so no baked audience members, but also no rain (and there are torrents of rain predicted for tonight).   A quick note about the stress and misery that Jennifer and I went through trying to figure out if it was going to rain at 3 PM today or not:  we both studied the online weather forecasts from various sources, and ultimately couldn’t decide what the weather was going to be today, since one of the sources kept telling us there was a 100% chance of rain at 3 PM.  Finally, at 2 PM, that source changed its tune, and said there was only a 10% chance of rain at 3.  Typo, mayhaps?  Annoying, for sure.  But who cares, since it all worked out and we were able to have the show in the best possible spot – outdoors. 

So, obviously, the weather forecast isn’t what’s important here: the show is what matters.  John is extremely professional, and presents his material in a way that makes you feel like he’s just doing it for the first time.  That’s a real skill, in my opinion, and the mark of someone who is a born performer, since the only way to do a great show is to rehearse and practice ad nauseum.  If you can still make the audience believe that your material is fresh and exciting, despite having rehearsed and performed it dozens of times – well, then you’re pretty good at what you do.

Lot of kids (and one adult) from the audience got to participate as volunteers, too.  One second grade girl showed off her impressive hula hoop prowess (I’m not kidding – she was great!).  A fifth grade boy served as unicycle assistant, steadying John as he got on to his unicycle.  A fourth grade boy helped out with a very cool yo yo trick, then treated us all to an awesome dance (I think the music was James Brown).  A brave dad held out a match, which John lit with a flick from a yo yo, then balanced a quarter on his ear, which John knocked off with a yo yo – without hitting the dad.  Wow.

And, of course, there were the yo yo tricks.  Pretty darn cool stuff – things that I never knew you could do with yo yos.  Throw a yo yo in the air and catch it in your pocket?  Awesome.  Make a yo yo and its string look like a bow tie or the Eiffel Tower?  Wicked pissah.  Ride a unicycle while working two yo yos?  Amazing.  At the end of the show, lots and lots of kids were clamboring to learn yo yo tricks from John, who very kindly stuck around to teach them.  What better way to spend a summer day than learning yo yo tricks?

For any of you children’s librarians looking to book a great show, Yo Yo People are tons of fun and an absolute crowd pleaser.  Totally worth it.  And now I’m going to drag Jim in to Faneuil Hall someday to see them perform…

It’s a great day for me – today I begin the week-long school visits at the elementary school to promote the library’s summer reading program.  I already visited one class last Friday, a great group of fourth graders, but today begins the real deal.  I’ll see four classes today, three tomorrow, four on Thursday, and four on Friday.  Then a couple of more classes next week to finish these visits off.

At my visits, I read a story or two to each class, then talk to them about summer reading.  Then, depending on the availability of the computer lab and the age of the students, we might also go in to the computer lab and have each student log on to the library’s website and follow the link to the ReadsinMA page in order to create an online summer reading account to track each student’s reading hours.  Given this summer’s theme of “Go Green at Your Library,” these online accounts seem particularly appropriate this year…though obviously we’ll still have the clock-face paper logs still available (and I can’t deny the educational value of the clock faces for the younger children, since they help them visualize what fifteen minutes of reading looks like on the clock, and also help with those clock-reading skills – a skill with which today’s children seem to be struggling).

Speaking of that theme of “Go Green,” I have one gripe.  I had a GREAT idea of wearing a t-shirt with a big recycling symbol on it to each of my class visits, and ordered two shirts, one green and one black, from an online t-shirt company.  I had visions of making a real statement about the environmental message in this year’s program.  This seemed especially key, since I’m asking that attendees for the Ice Cream Social consider bringing their own non-disposable bowls, cups, and spoons to the Social in order to reduce the amount of trash created (with over 400 attendees at last year’s Social, I felt a little ill as I hauled away trash bag after trash bag of used styrofoam bowls, paper cups, and plastic spoons).  The cool t-shirt would really get the message across, as the recycling logo stared at the kids through the whole storytime and into my spiel about the summer program.

But, alas, apparently the women’s fitted t-shirts on this t-shirt site were made for a twelve-year-old girl and not an actual woman.  Even though I bought size large, I still could only barely squeeze into the shirts.  And it’s not like I’m a really big girl, either – maybe I need to lose seven pounds, but that’s no excuse.  It was a huge disappointment when the shirts arrived in the mail on Friday, too late to order replacements.  The only option now is to wear plain green shirts all week, which still works but isn’t nearly as cool.  In defense of this online t-shirt company, though, they sent me an email saying I will be credited for the full purchase price, and I can keep the two t-shirts.  Since the shirts don’t fit me, I think I’ll make them summer reading raffle prizes for the kids…

At any rate, I’m still very pumped for this week’s class visits, and I’d like to publicly thank Mrs. Harvey, the most awesome Media Specialist around, for making me welcome and putting up with the piles of summer reading bags all week.  Thanks, Mrs. Harvey!!