Yesterday’s origami program with Michael LaFosse was fantastic.  Truly fantastic.  Michael is an excellent teacher and a really nice person.  With his status and credentials, he could have been forgiven for being overly full of himself, but Michael’s not like that.  When he and I went up to the hall where the program was going to be held, and I had set the room up completely incorrectly (I hadn’t put out any tables, and had arranged the seats as I would for a movie night – duh, what was I thinking??), he didn’t blink an eye, but immediately mucked in with me and worked harder than I did to totally rearrange the room.  Michael hauled tables and chairs around to set up 50 chairs around tables, and never once did he complain.

So that impressed me right off the bat, but his teaching style was even more impressive.  We had 63 adults and children in the room for the first session that he taught, the session for ages 6 to 12.  It could have been chaos, but somehow Michael is able to explain folding techniques and walk around the room offering help where needed while maintaining a calm and controlled atmosphere.  Every child in that room left with a completed 8-piece puzzle box, a sailboat, and an owl.  Some of the children in the room were able to fold multiples of these pieces.  No one was bored, and everyone felt satisfied with their finished projects. 

For the final touch on this program, Michael brought out some of his origami works of art to show the group:  a squirrel, folded from a large single sheet of paper, no cuts; a cardinal; a gargoyle, folded by one of his students, once again from a single sheet of paper.  Showing these pieces at the conclusion of the first session is pure genius, since by that point everyone in the room had developed enough origami confidence that no one was intimidated by these masterworks.  Instead, I could see that a lot of kids were inspired by them, and I’m guessing that these kids will go on to try more difficult origami projects.

By contrast, for the adult and teen session, Michael began by showing his masterworks.  Once again, genius: any adults who might have been skeptical were immediately convinced that they were in the presence of an origami master.  From that point on, there was a wonderfully congenial feeling in the room, as we all helped each other with our projects.  We made a three-piece puzzle box, two foxes, and a butterfly.  And then the sweet lady sitting next to me asked Michael for advice on folding a paper airplane for her grandson.  He first suggested that she could look up directions online, if she had internet access, but as soon as she said that she didn’t even know how to turn on the computer, Michael rose to the challenge and said that he’d be happy to extend the program over-time if anyone wanted to learn how to fold his own design for a paper airplane.  Almost all of us stayed for an extra 25 minutes, and added one more project to our collection: a really great-flying airplane. 

Sadly for those of us in Massachusetts, Michael is literally on the verge of moving to Hawaii, so it’s doubtful that we’ll ever be able to have him visit the library again.  Selfishly, I kind of hope that Hawaii doesn’t measure up to Massachusetts, and that Michael moves back this way.  I can guarantee that we’d have a full capacity crowd waiting for him!

Last call for today’s terrific program at the library:  Michael LaFosse of the Origamido Studio will be running two programs on origami at the library.  The first, at 4 PM, is for ages 6 to 12, and the second program, at 5 PM, is for ages 13 to adult.

For those of you who don’t know Michael LaFosse’s work, here is how he is described on the Origamido website:  “Author and artist Michael LaFosse is one of the most seasoned and respected presenters of the paper arts.  He and Richard Alexander have authored 32 books on origami, and produced over a dozen DVDs.  They have also built major origami exhibits for the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; the Louvre, Paris; the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson; and the Morikami Japanese Museum, Delray Beach, FL.”

I am thrilled that we were able to have Michael come to the library before his move to Hawaii, and I can’t wait to pick up tips on both how to teach origami, and how to fold some new origami projects.

There’s still room in each section, so do join us if you wish!

I’ve been waiting to write this post until Lisa emails me the photo of Coco and me, but Lisa is on vacation next week, and it’s looking like it will be a while until the photo arrives, so…

Last week the library hosted a terrific show, Hurdy Gurdy, Monkey and Me, with Tony Lupo and Coco the Capuchin monkey.  Tony and Coco are both true professionals, and the show was SO much fun – Lisa and Alyson and I laughed our heads off in the back of the room, and the packed house of kids and parents obviously had a great time, too.

After the show was over, Tony invites kids to come up and have their photo taken with him and Coco (Tony stands between the child and Coco, of course, for Coco’s safety and sanity).  Lisa had brought her camera with her, but we decided that we should hang back and wait for all the children and their parents to get their photos taken before we went up to get ours.

But we waited too long.  Just as Lisa and Alyson and I sidled our way up to the stage, Tony signaled to Coco that the show was over, they were done, time to pack up.

“Oh, wait!” I said, “Can we get our photos taken?  We were waiting until all the children were done…”

“Sure,” said Tony, and he started to refasten Coco’s leash onto her tiny collar.

Coco looked at me with pure, unadulterated hatred, and started to scream her little monkey head off while waggling her tongue out at me.

“Ummm…that’s ok…we can skip the photo,” I said, with more than a little fear.

“No, no, no,” replied Tony, “it’s ok.  She just thought we were done, but it’s ok.”

Coco stopped screaming, but she still shot eye daggers at me.  The photos that Lisa took are evidence of Coco’s hatred of the librarian who  1) couldn’t manage to throw the ball well to Coco earlier in the show – ten feet off target for one throw, and 2) interrupted Coco’s happy routine of being done with work and getting to settle in for a nice nap in her wheeled carrier. 

When Jim heard the story later that night, he grinned devilishly and said, “Ah, you shocked the monkey.”

(But thanks to Tony and Coco for the absolute best show of the summer.  It was a blast, and maybe when I meet Coco again in the spring I can win her over…we’ll see!)

Amazingly, though summer is only mid-way done, I’m in the midst of scheduling all of the library’s children’s programs for the coming school year: storytimes, book groups, craft programs, and outside performers.

And I just spoke on the phone with my number one choice for a performer for this year, Alex the Jester, and he has officially inked us in on his calendar.  For those of you who have never heard of Alex, take a look at his website, especially the video of him performing, and you’ll see why children’s librarians all over the state of Massachusetts write rave reviews about his shows.

Since I know we’ll quickly be at capacity for Alex’s show, I won’t be revealing the exact date and time yet…and registration priority will be given to residents of the town in which I work.

Those technical details aside, I am THRILLED that we were able to book Alex!

Hugh came to the library a couple of weeks ago, to a packed hall full of Hugh fans (young and not as young), in a fabulous antidote to the mid-winter blues.  For those of you who don’t know Hugh Hanley, he’s a former preschool teacher turned musician and performer who tailors his interactive programs to the under-7 crowd.  As a former teacher, he pays close attention to the dynamics of the crowd, and alternates as necessary between the quiet songs and fingerplays and the active, stand-up, gross motor songs.  He also has a wonderfully subtle way of requesting that parents stop talking with each other, as he instructs the children to tap on the shoulders of adults who are talking during the show. 

Hugh is masterful, and clearly a large Hugh-fan club is forming in town, so after the show I asked him whether we could just make this a yearly event.  I also had to apologize profusely for the too-large audience (the limit was 75, but a LOT of people came who were not on my list – how do you turn away an eager three-year-old?), and I promised that next January we’ll go for Hugh’s large audience deal with the sound system. 

If you ever get a chance to see Hugh perform, or to bring Hugh to your own library, go for it.  He’s terrific.  Thanks, Hugh!