Library Performances

Stuart Stotts is a favorite library performer. His own love of reading and his enthusiasm for libraries are apparent during his performances. Besides singing and telling stories, he talks about growing up reading, and watching and teaching his own children to read. It is an authentic opportunity to encourage children and their parents to return again and again to the library, to use its many resources.

Stuart's program for 2008 is featured below.
In addition, you can read his contribution to the Madison Public Library newsletter from 1998 on the Joys of Reading.

For the 2008 Summer Reading Series, Stuart presents How Do I Know? (I Read It in a Book!) His program includes animal stories, songs to encourage reading, and lots of laughter and participation. Your young readers will walk out singing, humming and grinning as they hurry to the checkout desk with more books to take home. Stories include "Jaguar, Crab, Vulture and the Oonkaloonka Fish," "Bear and Chipmunk" or "Why Cats Wash After Eating." Expect the title song, the "Jump Up" energy of "When I Grow Up," and a trip up and down other musical scales on the shiny and unique National Steel Guitar.
Other themes available as well for summer 2008.

Comments from past library performances... "Excellent, would be happy to have him back...held kids attention easily...a delight...very positive comments...I loved the dancing !...

Special Requirements: inside or outside fine, sound system available if necessary.

References:
Sonja Ackerman,
Wausau Public Library

Kate Fitzgerald-Fleck,
Waukesha Library

and many more on request!

I was rummaging through memorabilia a few years back, and I came across old report cards. I noticed that in my first semester of first grade, I had gotten a U. The grading scheme was different back then; U stood for Unsatisfactory. We would call it an F these days.

I was shocked. I had always thought of myself as an exceptional reader. I came from a family of readers and all through grade school and high school, I read constantly.

I guess I didn't start out that way. I'm sure my parents were frantic that first semester at the thought that I wasn't learning to read.
Somewhere soon after that, I guess it clicked for me. I remember my first grade teacher going over the phonics chart every morning with us. Our reading groups were named according to her perception of our abilities: the redbirds, the blue jays and (I'm not making this up) the goonsquad. She would regale us with stories of people who had learned to read driving by in red sports cars while the non-readers dug ditches. Maybe I learned to read out of fear.

Whatever the case, another first grade image is me, sitting at a table in the library with a stack of books. My mother tells me that the librarian is concerned that such a small boy won't be able to read all those books. I assured her that I would. And I did.
I read under the covers, I read in cars, I read on Saturday mornings and through summer vacations. I read The Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings in fourth grade and was totally immersed in a different world for two years straight.
Something from those years remains alive in me today, as I make my living telling stories and writing songs. I know how my time spent reading has shaped and continues to shape my work. Reading is partly about information, but more importantly about imagination. And, as Einstein said, "Imagination is more powerful than Knowledge."

Fortunately, the joy of reading has never left me. It is true that the reading in our home plummeted when our daughters were young. But now, not only can we read in peace again, but we get to watch with incredible pleasure as both our girls discover reading for themselves. One reads at night, under the covers, with a flashlight. And she is in first grade.

I have always loved good novels. Right now my favorite author is Elizabeth Berg. She combines a great deal of emotional energy with humor and good pacing. Talk Before Sleep and Range of Motion are both great. Barbara Kingsolver is consistently good. I read a wonderful first novel called The Right Man for the Job by Mike Magnuson. I can also recommend A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, which is about life in India. Besides novels, I am currently reading books on sustainable forestry, solar energy and C. G. Jung's idea about the shadow.

Libraries are great places for readers, of course. I use ours a lot. I also perform in them often. If I have extra time before or after a show, I get to read a while.

And there are times, between books for me and books for my daughters, that I almost expect a librarian to express a friendly concern about whether or not we will really read all of them. But I am sure we will.