The X-Perience @ Wiggin Memorial Library

Our Traveling Pants program on July 11 was part of our Teen Summer Reading X-Perience. A surprisingly small number of young women turned out to decorate the Pants, considering how popular the books are. But even six young adults having a smashing good time with their friends in the library is tough to beat. I provided a panoply of embellishment materials, and as always, was impressed by their creativity. Given the opportunity, teens can be remarkably artistic, especially when electronic devices are unplugged! A few girls brought in their own jeans and shorts to decorate once the Pants were done, while the rest worked on creating the scrapbook page.

My thanks join those of Nancy from Plainfield, to those folks who got this program rolling – it’s been a fun way to make a creative connection to books and reading!

-- Mindy Donohue, Youth Librarian
Wiggin Memorial Library/Stratham

The NH Traveling Pants Reunion Tour

The NH Traveling Pants are currently on their second tour of the state. All libraries participating in the first tour will get a chance to see the finished products. The Pants are currently touring the White Mountains. They'll make their way down to the Lakes Region, the Upper Valley, the Monadnocks, the Merrimack Valley, and the Seacoast. This sixty-four week tour will end January 24, 2009 in Barrington.

Thanks to everyone participating with this project. We greatly appreciate the donations received.

Tim Sheehan

A Tale of Two Libraries and Several Pairs of Pants

Our original Traveling Pants program was a bit ambitious.
We envisioned a series of four book group/crafts events, where
the girls would read the books (in fact, all attending had already
read all 4 of the books!) and then talk about them, and then
decorate their own jeans and a pair for our library, the Goodwin
Library, in Farmington, culminating with the arrival and decoration
of the “official” NH State pants. We joined forces for this project
with the Nute Library in Milton.

I held my first program on May 23. 7 girls attended, 4 from
Farmington and 3 from Nute. I began with a book discussion
about Book 1, and the girls weighed in with their take on the
Sisterhood, and then had a great time decorating our library pair
of jeans as well as the jeans they brought themselves. We had
a variety of crafts materials including tulip paint slicks,
beads, buttons, swatches of fabric.

It was a wonderful group of girls and our home girls were very
welcoming to the girls from Nute. They chatted through the
whole evening and hated to stop working when the program
ended and the library was ready to close.

Karen Brown, at Nute Library in Milton, led the next two
meetings. I heard good things about their programs.

On August 22, four girls showed up to work on the “official” pants
and the scrapbook. Our embellishment was a small felt book with
pages that the girls decorated. I ordered a Traveling Pants cake, and
the girls had a great time chatting, decorating and eating cake.

It seems this is the type of program does attract teens
who are readers and are looking for a fun, creative project to do.
It was a lot of fun being involved!

Stephanie Piro
Goodwin Library
Farmington

Baklava, Demin Locker Pockets, and a Movie @ Weeks Public Library's Party

The week was pretty good. The pants were out and on display for the week, and we tried to grab every teen to sign them. We had a party on Thursday night and had 3 girls and two boys show up. The craft was a denim locker pocket. We had baklava as well, and the movie playing in the background. The teens ended up sitting and watching the movie after they completed their craft.It was a great idea, though I think for this community we just missed the cusp of real interest in the books!

Sharon Taylor
Assistant Director
Weeks Public Library
Greenland

Pants @ Plainfield

Our events went very well. We had four programs leading up to the actual traveling pants arriving. Four teenagers performed an original skit on the book, then we had two evenings of decorating our own jeans. These were on display for several weeks and patrons voted for their favorite. A local clothing store donated a gift certificate for the winner. Then the last program was actually decorating the traveling pair. I thought it was very successful. The girls had a lot of fun doing it, and patrons really enjoyed seeing everything.

Nancy Norwalk
Philip Read Memorial Library
Plainfield

Windham's Jeantastic Event and Pictures

Our time with the pants went very well. We had 5 girls come to our event and they really enjoyed themselves. It was nice because even though they didn't all know each other, they were chatting and laughing and having a great time. They designed the patch for the Traveling Pants and then went to town decorating the "Windham" pants. They were having so much fun they stayed for three hours and still didn't want to leave! There are some great pictures on our website at:

http://www.nesmithlibrary.org/Misc/Teens/scrapbook2007.htm

Lori Morse - Nesmith Library

Two Pairs Decorated @ Merrimack

The small group of four girls that attended Merrimack's program had a great time decorating their part of the NH Traveling Pants. The girls laughed, and enjoyed the snacks that were provided. When they were done with the NH Traveling pants they got to focus all of their attention on the Merrimack Pants. The girls decided that they had so much fun decorating the NH Pants that they wanted a pair to decorate for our library. A fun time was had by all!

Alex Estabrook
Merrimack Public Library

Derry Goes Demin

The Pants made their first public appearance at the Derry Public Library on Tuesday May 29, 2007. The Library’s Anime Club received the first chance to make their mark on the Pants. Our Anime Club is dominated by boys. They never read the Sisterhood books but were impressed with the concept.

Later in the evening, we had our Pants Party. We at first had only two people show up. I did some recruiting around the Library and we ended up with seven teens working together. They used the supplies I bought and created Derry’s embellishment and the scrapbook page. They ate Strawberry Pop-Tarts and Cheese Puffs while chatting and working on the Pants. All were happy with their labors and enjoyed themselves.

The Pants spent the day at Pinkerton Academy’s Saltmarsh Library on Thursday May 31 to give those unable to come to the Public Library a chance to make their mark on the Pants.

Derry looks forward to seeing the Pants again.

Tim Sheehan - Reference/Young Adult Librarian

Pants @ Plaistow

We had a great program with five girls from my Middle School Book Club. Since we didn't have enough time, or photos, they came back and created the scrapbook pages a few days later. They mostly loved the snacks! and seeing what other libraries had done.

Deb Hoadley
Plaistow Public Library

Goffstown unites Pants Event with Women's Appreciation Month

Traveling pants week was great! We had planned a decorating session and we tied in our sisterhood theme with Women's Appreciation Month at the library. We also had "mini pants" for people to write their thoughts about the women in their lives, which will run through May. All in all, we had a great week, and we look forward to doing something like this activity again.

Jessica Stevens, Goffstown Public Library

Ashland Town Library

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 6-8 pm
We displayed the pants along with the scrapbook and the series of
books in the main area of our library. Our patrons enjoyed
viewing the items! Jessica, Maddie, Kayley, Chelsea and Heather
all had a great time eating pizza and salad. The girls watched the
movie while they worked on the scrapbook and decorated the
pants. Our thanks to all of the wonderful librarians who created
this program.
Sara Weinberg & Terry Fouts
See photos.

Brentwood's Celebration

We did advertise for our evening, but it must be that this age group has lots of other things happening. We got three girls that showed up, but they had lots of fun. We had pizza, music, drawings for the books, and worked on the traveling pants as well as a pair of our own for the library. The others missed out on a fun time.

Joyce Miller

Children's Librarian
Mary Bartlett Library
Brentwood

Excitement in Exeter over the Pants

Although it was school vacation week and a beautiful, warm day with spring beckoning outside, fifteen creative teens who love the Traveling Pants series came to the multi-activity program planned to celebrate the arrival of our pair of pants. In addition to signing the pants and designing our patch, teens could go wild and crazy on a pair of pants that will remain in our Teen Scene area. Denim bags to decorate and take home were popular. Raffle drawings were held for a DVD of the movie and for copies of the Sisterhood books. The trivia contest was a big hit and yummy food was enjoyed. Best of all, new friends were made amidst discussions of middle school versus high school activities. And one teen quoted from the book, "Don't ask me where I am going...because I don't know. "We do know, however, that the pants are now on their journey to Brentwood.

Jean Grout
Teen Librarian
Exeter Public Library

Fun in Hooksett Despite Lack of Raw Cookie Dough

We had a great time at the Hooksett Public Library when the pants traveled our way! Four girls came to our event night on Tuesday, April 24^th. They were more interested in watching the movie and eating the same snacks the four friends ate at their rules meeting from the book. We offered the girls Strawberry Pop-tarts with strawberry frosting, Cheese Puffs, Gummi worms, and even had them try Odwalla drinks!! (raw cookie dough was NOT offered that night). We did get them to create some attachments with beads for the pants as they watched the movie! We were hoping for more participants, but had a great time with the 4 who did come!! Thanks for the great idea!

Bow's Baker Free Library Introduces Teen Programming with the Pants

Celeste and I had a program on Thursday, April 19th with the Traveling Pants. We did a denim pocket craft making locker magnets out of pockets, signed the pants, worked on a scrapbook page, and had snacks. There was a lot of "buzz" about the pants and people were interested. However, the day of the program we only had two participants. This was the first nice day after many rainy cold days. This is also just the start up of our teen programming in our library. Hopefully, we will have more attendance at future events. Thanks for organizing this state-wide program. It was a unique, interesting program.

Jen Leger

Despite Snow the Pants Sizzled in Hopkinton

We had a dozen kids (girls) sign up. I was hoping for more as I was fortunate to have our middle/high school librarian, Shelley Lochhead, promote the program in the school. I made the pants available for signing after school on Tuesday through Friday but my big program was scheduled for Thursday. Thursday it stormed, school was canceled and by 3pm (time the program was scheduled for) no one came to the library! So we did all the signing and picture taking on the other days. The ones who did come loved the idea and the opportunity to participate (though I was surprised that a number of them had not read the book, which limited discussion). In evaluating the program, I realize that not having a teen advisory committee makes this sort of programming iffy anyway (weather not a factor). It may have been more successful if it were held in the school library - something I had not considered but I noticed the pants had made a visit to a couple of middle schools. I'm new at youth services (it's been 8 months) and it's a part time position so this was a great learning experience for me - if that counts?! I learned that even 7th graders don't like to read a lot of rules (even for the sisterhood) and supervision is essential as they (7th graders) have trouble limiting their input to a 1"x 2" space (sorry about that). Everyone liked looking at the scrap book, it added to the feeling of being part of a larger community. Overall, the pants generated a lot of buzz and I thought the program very creative and I'd like to be included in other programs like this. All your efforts are most appreciated - thank you so much!

Elissa - Hopkinton Town Library

The Pants Visit Hampton!

We kicked off our time with The Pants on April 14 with a fabric painting workshop led by a local Hampton artist. Four teens spent a Saturday afternoon hanging out at the library, listening to music, munching on snacks, and creating their own designer jeans. The NH Traveling Pants were on display in the room to provide inspiration. The Pants were available for teens who knew they would not be in town to sign them during the week. Since we had zero entries for our big embellishment contest, the participants also applied their talents to making an embellishment for The Pants. They decided on an ocean theme because Hampton is a beach town. (Their choice seems especially appropriate since the ocean tried to take over part of the town that same week.)

We had originally planned to have a TAB meeting the following Monday (April 16) to work on decorating The Pants, but due to the rain and flooding in the area, only one person showed up. We managed to double that number (two!) for our next activity, two days later: watching the movie, working on ideas for the scrapbook and this letter, and finally decorating The Pants with signatures and the embellishment. Good fun was had by all!

Cheryl French, Lane Memorial Library, Hampton

Beads and more in Warner

Pillsbury Free Library, Warner pants decoration, originally uploaded by nhtravelingpants.

The Pillsbury Free Library in Warner held a Traveling Pants program on Tuesday April 3. We were pleased to have four teens attend (and one latecomer), as this was our first attempt at an after school program for teens. They made an AWESOME scrapbook page and really got into using the alphabet beads. They jumped at the chance to return again in a week to decorate their own jeans, or make jeans bags, and we will see where we go from there!

Pants Perfection @ Dover

It was great! We teamed up with the Middle School and we had 13 kids come to our event. We had the "Traveling Pants" for them to sign and we bought a pair of our own pants so that they could be forever displayed in our Teen Corner. We had glitter, glue, feathers, beads, felt, patches, etc. and they went to town on our pair while they talked about their dream event or place. We had the movie playing in the background and juice and popcorn available. We drew names for prizes--books of course. I don't think that we could have handled many more kids so it was perfect!

Denise - Dover Public Library

The Pants @ Hillsboro

Well-- the high school librarian and I got together and had everything well advertised, the room all set up with candles and a blanket, lots of goodies to eat, music, games to play, etc. and then only had one person show up- and she was more or less corralled into it! But- we still managed to have some fun. Of course, the next day we had girls come in and ask if they missed it! So we had several more signatures added after the "Pants Party", and mailed our pair off to Pillsbury.

Word seems also to have gotten around that the fourth book was disappointing, and that may have made a celebration seem a little too anticlimactic. I also wonder if the wave of popularity the books were riding on has ebbed- at least here. We have had very few requests for the book.

So, overall, a disappointing response to a great idea.

Catherine - Fuller Public Library

A Good Time @ Cooks Memorial Library

The Cooks Memorial Library had a very nice program. We had 6 girls and 5 adults make a purse from a pair of jeans...took pictures...had popcorn... It was nice to get some different kids in participating than usually do. I hope everyone is having a good time with this program.

Amy

A Traveling Pants Lovefest in Rye

We LOVED having them! The participation of the girls (and one boy!) was phenomenal. Everyone enjoyed signing their name and favorite place. They had fun designing the patch for the library. The thing they REALLY got into was making the scrapbook pages. Participating in this program was very gratifying for all.

Lisa Houde
Rye Public Library

Pants in Madison

madisonpants1
Originally uploaded by Madison Library, Madison, NH.

Last week, pants pair #2 visited the Madison Library. We got a lot of questions from those unfamiliar with the Sisterhood, most went something like: "Who lost their pants?" More photos on flickr, and be sure to contact Tim Sheehan in Derry or Mary Cronin in Madison to get the email address so you can post your traveling pants photos directly to flickr.

A Great experience @ Richards Free Library!

The Traveling Pants program was great! We met in the teen room on two afternoons. We got a little crazy with the embellishments on the first day, but they actually look great. We discovered that the boys who attended could sew better than the girls. In all I saw about 20 students. Then I had made arrangements with the high school library so they had them visit for two days as well. It was a lot of fun!

Janice Brehio
Children's Librarian
Richards Free Library

Barrington Public Library's Traveling Pants event

The Barrington Public Library held its Traveling Pants event on Monday, February 5th with our Teen Advisory Board members. We had refreshments. I made up a small trivia quiz with a candy bar for those who got 100% or the most correct. We had a contest for the best embellishment idea, so they worked on them at the beginning as everyone took turns signing the pants. The winning designer received a new copy of "Forever in Blue". I also asked the teens to write something on a pad of paper I had placed on the counter -- it could be about friends, the library, the books, TAB, whatever they wanted, and I incorporated them into the letter for the scrapbook page.

Wendy Rowe
Barrington Public Library

Sisterhood Central website

Random House has a website titled Sisterhood Central - Your Source for All Things Sisterhood. The site has author information, some fun quizzes, and links to MySpace sites for each of the Sisterhood characters. Share it with fellow Sisterhood fans.

Ideas for Jeans Decoration

Looking for a book with lots of good ideas for decorating jeans? I just bought Jazzy Jeans by Mickey Baskett and published by Sterling Press. It covers distressing, appliqué, stones, studs, beads, embroidery and painting. I am happy to interlibrary loan it for the next month before I start my Traveling Pants Program.

Rhoda Capron, Blaisdell Memorial Library, Nottingham
Posted by Tim Sheehan, Derry Public Library, on Rhoda's behalf.

For librarians

Librarians coordinating this program at their libraries are invited and encouraged to add to this blog. You can do this by either contacting Mary Cronin at the Madison Library or Tim Sheehan at the Derry Public Library to request permission to be able to post a blog entry or simply send a blog entry to either of us in an email as an attachment and we will take care of the posting. Photos can be uploaded by email to flickr; contact Tim Sheehan at Derry or Mary Cronin at Madison for email address.