Tuesday, September 25, 2007

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