David Zucker came to the library yesterday with his performance of “Poetry in Motion.”  David describes his program as “an exhilarating tour-de-force,” and that’s actually a bit of an understatement.  The kids who attended, some of whom were quite young, were an absolutely rapt audience as David did mime, acted out poems, incited participation from the kids and adults, and changed characters.

Since it’s August, attendance for library events is at low ebb, which is a shame, because only  forty adults and kids attended yesterday - but this was also a boon for me.  I was able to sit down in the audience and enjoy the show, rather than stand by at the door.  Sitting in the back row, I was sucked into the show along with the rest of the crowd; I haven’t enjoyed myself so much in a long time.

David possesses the rare ability to be intelligent AND accessible while engaging kids.  Poetry probably seemed like a dry topic to many of the kids in the audience before yesterday, but after hearing David’s rendition of “Casey at the Bat,” complete with our help with sound effects, the entire room erupted in a loud round of applause.  In fact, there were many rounds of spontaneous, heartfelt applause: after David recited and acted out “Jabberwocky,” after he recited and mimed two of A.A. Milne’s poems, after he took on the character of an alley cat and recited an alley cat poem.

I love that David stopped several times after speaking a difficult word (“mackerel” and “zwieback” among them), said “Hold on!  I can’t read a poem when there’s a word I don’t understand,” and solicited audience input for word meanings before re-winding and starting the verse in question again, word meaning in mind.  What a fabulous way to demonstrate reading strategies without hitting the kids over the head with them.

I also love that the discriminating woman who sat in front of me, who I have known in a casual way for years (she was one of my more particular customers at the Toy Shop), turned around mid-performance and whispered to me, eyes wide,  “This is wonderful!”  I love that one of our former teen volunteers, who has just finished her freshman year at Smith (a smart girl, needless to say), came up to me at the end of the show and raved about how amazing the show was.  I love that the audience was reluctant to leave at the conclusion of the performance.

Definitely a great performance to end the summer.

**  (ok, there’s still a week of summer reading to go, and a few activities left, but in my mind this was the functional end of the summer shows)