For several years now we have had teen volunteers running weekly storytimes at the library on Saturday mornings.  The teens are all excellent storytellers, brimming with joy and enthusiasm, and for most of those several years, there has been good attendance at the storytimes.  And then this year, the year of the Unseen Preschooler, hit.  My Thursday afternoon preschool storytime, formerly an in-demand event, has been so quiet that you can hear crickets – so quiet that I’ve gotten rid of this Thursday afternoon storytime and replaced it with a couple of preschool storytimes scattered through the month on various experimental days and times.  And the Saturday Storytimes?  No preschoolers have been showing up, not for a couple of months now, leaving the teen volunteers to read to each other. 

So Jennifer had a great idea, which we instituted as of this month:  one or two special themed Saturday Storytimes each month.  This month, the teens will be doing a Dr. Seuss storytime on January 15, and a Princess storytime on January 29.  I’ve printed out some colorful posters and mailed them to all the preschools and placed them all over the children’s room, and parents are noticing.  I’ll be picking up some crowns for the teens to wear at the Princess storytime, and M. promises that she’ll wear her rainbow socks to read at the Dr. Seuss storytime – and if Lisa finds her Cat in the Hat hat, then one teen can wear that, too.

With any luck, we’ll have some excited listeners for these terrific teen readers on the 15th and 29th – if you’re reading this post and have a preschooler, please do come to one or both storytimes!  And remember…someday your preschooler will be a teen, and that teen will be wanting an audience for their volunteer gig reading at the library…and you’ll be wishing that some preschoolers will show…it’s all cyclical, after all.