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