Story Night in the backyard...or not

I had Story Night here on Thursday. These are informal affairs, spread mostly by word of mouth. I provide stories for an hour, bug spray and a few places to sit. It's free. Sometimes there are fireflies.

I've always said that I'd do Story Night only in the backyard, not in the house. I don't want to spend time and energy making sure the house is clean enough. When I'm really busy, vacuuming isn't a priority.

On Thursday the sky clouded over in the afternoon. I'd planned three Story Nights this summer and the first was cancelled due to inclement weather. The second was lightly attended. Should I cancel this last one? When Janelle called from Kansas City to find out if it was happening, it was beginning to rain and I knew the seats and lawn would be wet. I decided to move it indoors.

I'm glad I did. There were 22 people here, one of the biggest Story Nights in the five or so years I've been doing this. It was a great group, too. We crowded into the living room. I stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Almost all the kids had heard me before, so I had requests: The ghost with the one black eye, Unanana, The goat in the chili patch, Drakestail. I also told Brainbox by Philippa Pearce, in an attempt to tell something Finn and Nora hadn't heard (they remembered it from a Story Night two years ago!). Trixie, the baby puppet, Grackle (the crow) and Bill (the white duck) made appearances. During all of this, Joe Fish slept in the office. Afterwards, he got pats from various children.

Now I'm thinking of doing a few more later this year. I'd do it again indoors, unless it gets too big. We could fit another ten or so listeners, if they were small.

P.S. I just took that picture of the backyard seating--can you spot the tipoff that it isn't in the evening?

Ants, and other comments on creepy crawlies

Last night I performed the puppet show of The goat in the chili patch for the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. I changed my mind about the ant puppet I'd made, using instead a truly icky plastic ant I painted red:


The choice of the paintbrush to show scale isn't random. I used the paintbrush as a rod for the ant, so my fingers wouldn't be visible. It worked. The daughter of one of the librarians last night noticed that I used a paintbrush, so I told her how I look around my house in search of useful stuff when I'm working on a show. This was as she was helping me pack up. She said, "I like helping famous people." I love that.

I've had some funny additions to the show. On Tuesday in Hiawatha, as I was explaining that removing the animals from the old lady who swallowed the fly (via an opening at the top of her back) was a delicate operation requiring a surgeon's hand, a young boy asked, "Did you scrub?" Yes, indeedy. Then last night in Topeka, at about the same point, two girls (ages around 6 and 7) started making beeping noises. "Ah, the hospital monitors are working well."

When I tell The goat in the chili patch, I ask the kids which animals came to tell the goat to get out of the garden. The usual suspects turn up--pigs, chickens, sheep. Sometimes they suggest tigers and lions. It works just as well. In the puppet show with stage, I even put a lion puppet in.

This is a good summer reading theme. I'm a bit tired, having done 33 shows since May 30 (yes, some days have more than one show), but I'm still having fun. That's key.