Adventures in Storytelling

The adventures of The Patchwork Players, Patti Christensen and James Nelson-Lucas, as they travel the dimensions of time and space, telling their tales

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Summer Reading


Summer Reading is now in full swing. What is Summer Reading? Every summer the state libraries have a themed summer reading program to encourage youth to...well...read during the summer. This summer the theme is “Get A Clue @ your library”...a detective type thing. So we developed a program called “You Be The Detective”; stories and riddles to get the kids thinking and excited about reading. We tell stories with a question and a clever twist. Along with stories, we pose some smart riddles to the kids. Those kids are really on top of things. They are great at solving mysteries and puzzles. We have nearly twenty “You Be the Detective” shows booked over the summer. So far it has been a blast.


Our favorite riddles? Here goes.....


What gets wetter the more it dries? (a towel)


What goes up a chimney when it's down, but can't go down a chimney when it's up? (an umbrella)


What sits in the corner and travels around the world? (A postage stamp....or maybe a suitcase.)


One of the delightful discoveries that we have been making is that if you ask kids to put on their detective hats, eyes and ears, they are able to make some really interesting deductive answers.


AND we have also been delighted to know that although the kids know some things about detectives and mysteries from TV and the movies.....reading mysteries is alive and well with some of the most popular being Encyclopedia Brown, Nate the Great Detective, Cam Jensen (girl detective with the photographic memory...just like a “camera”....) and (surprise!) Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.


Are you reading this before the middle of August 2007? If so, there still is a chance to catch us at a southern CA library near you. Take a look at our on-line calendar at http://www.my.calendars.net/patchworkplayers