Observation Report, Eng 47-W
3/27/00
I visited Barnes and Noble bookstore this weekend to observe their regular storyteller read Madeline stories.  Storytime at Barnes and Noble was honoring the author and illustrator of Madeline books, Ludwig Bemelman.  The stage was already set when I arrived at quarter until eleven to find a seat for storytime.  There is literally a small stage in Barnes and Noble, decked in Winnie the Pooh attire, for the storytellers to read on.  Around ten children had gathered, all probably under the age of seven (if not 5 or 6), when an older man wearing a goofy yellow hat with red antlers strolled up to the stage with a wooden chair in his hand.  The kids giggled and I knew this man was wise in the ways of children.
 He centered his chair, introduced himself, and started laying out the “rules” of storytime.  He made clear his point, to children and adults alike, when he stated, “There are no rules- and I enforce that.”  A few children were still wandering around and their parents looked relieved to hear that- so did the kids.  He gave a short introduction to Ludwig Bemelman and told the kids that after the stories, the group would get hats and have a parade around the store.
 The storyteller read Madeline and the Bad Hat and Madeline’s Rescue.  In Madeline and the Bad Hat, Madeline and her schoolmates come across a mischievous neighbor boy who loves to collect animals and flirt with the girls.  In the end, after the proper girls had been turning their noses up at him the whole time, he turns out to be the Spanish ambassador’s son.  In Madeline’s Rescue, the schoolgirls romp around Paris and find a stray dog which they take home with them.  They almost lose the dog when the inspectors come, but Madeline saves the day and soon the dog has enough puppies for all of the girls to have one.
The storyteller had great technique.  He held the book up high and slowly and constantly rotated the book for all the children to see.  He pointed out the details of the picture that correlated with the text.  This helped because the pictures for Madeline are sketched, not large and visible.  Anytime a large word, such as “vengeance” came up in the story, the storyteller would explain the meaning of the word in simple children’s terms (ie: “ooh, I’m gonna get back at you” for vengeance).  He had a loud and clear voice and readily took on various accents and demeanors of characters entering the story.  He got the children to interact by asking questions like, “What kind of noise does a dog make?”- to which all of the kids in the audience quietly roared, “ruff ruff, bark bark!”  He would also sometimes ask the kids what certain things in the pictures were, to get them to respond and really get into the story.
After the first story, the paper hats were brought out for the audience kids.  They were blue with yellow ribbon for the girls, and black sailor style for the boys.  Both styles were taken from Madeline books.  This is a great, and generous, idea from Barnes and Noble, but I think it may have hindered storytime.  The kids were very excited about the hats, so when they came, they preoccupied the children.  Looking around, not many kids were listening anymore, but rather adjusting and playing with their new hats.  It would have probably been more effective to hand out these hats right before the parade at the end.
The storyteller was great at Barnes and Noble and the children really seemed to enjoy him.  My only critiques lay in the early hat distribution and the unfortunate illustrations contained in Madeline.  The pictures are wonderful if the book is right in front of you, but for a storytime, the pictures were hard to see.  This, I could tell, bothered the children, too.  They would squint to see the pictures, or just look uninterested when the picture swung towards them.