Bowerbirds!

In May I was invited to be a guest reader at the National Simultaneous Story (NSS) time event held at Kingston Library which is our ‘local’. This was a first! Over the years I’ve participated in many an NSS as audience member, crowd control, and the odd non-speaking, acting role, but being the star attraction! I was more than a little chuffed.

This year’s book was Bowerbird Blues by Aura Parker, and because attention to detail is important, I immediately went into ‘what will I wear mode’. Then the reality that I have never been a children’s librarian, and have had limited practice with the storytelling gig hit, and an inventory of what blue outfits I had in my wardrobe paled into insignificance. I needed help; I turned to Karen!

Karen Smith is one of my dearest friends – she’s also a cousin as we discovered when we started doing our respective family histories back in the day. Karen was a brilliant children’s librarian before she went on to become an inspirational library educator – so who else would I ask. Unfortunately family can be cruel, and she broke down laughing when I called for advice before accepting the challenge. My subsequent ferry trips were spent reading out loud ( much to the interest of those in nearby cars).

22 May dawned bright, and I dressed in my bright blue best and headed to the Library. I looked at smiling faces and hoped that it would be OK. I sang the songs, I did the dances it was fun – but I was totally upstaged by Jeremy, one of the Kingston team, who read another book The Bowerbird by Catherine Rayner which was absolutely hilarious. Totally recommend it!

Meanwhile  4,448.9 km away in Humpty Doo my friend Jo Scott was conducting NSS in an outdoor aviary. Did you know that there is a Northern Territory Bower Bird? I didn’t until Jo and I were talking about what we were doing as part of one of our ALIA mentoring sessions. Our journey together as mentor (me)/mentee (Jo) had a sense of the Bowerbird about it. Our conversations ranged widely and we would each pick gems from each other’s ideas. Some great things happening in the NT!

I was delighted to be given my own copy of Bowerbird Blues by Libraries Tasmania. While it was tempting to keep it as a reminder of my 5 minutes of fame, instead I decided to share it with our much-loved Teddy. When he unwrapped it he immediately clocked that it was ‘that book from the library’!

Congratulations ALIA on yet another successful NSS, and for non-Australian readers an explanation this is a day when across Australia and New Zealand libraries, schools, playgroups come together at the same time to read the same book. Magic.