Monster Puppets

This coming week's program theme is "Monster Mash."  I've never been especially thrilled about doing monster stories with little ones.   I've used only one monster book more than a couple of times at my Bedtime story times, and it's Emberley's Big Green Monster.  I let the kids shout out, "Go away, big green monster!" each time I turn to page, and that helps the monster go away.  It it empowers them.  Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are kinda scared me as a kid, so I've shied away from monster-themed storytimes as an adult librarian.  I don't want anyone to go away frightened from my programs!  But my box arrived with some pretty cute titles (including Emberley's book), and I decided to embrace the theme (for once)  and see if I can pull it off  without scaring anybody.  Of course, it's only with the preschoolers, not the babies or toddlers.  The flannel boards that were included in the program box didn't grab me.  So I even  made some very unthreatening monster puppets from two car duster mitts I picked up on sale months ago.  Usually I have my own back-up materials in case I'm underwhelmed with what's available in the program box.  But this time, since I've never really done the monster thing, I had none of my own materials to fall back on.  Making the puppets was fun.  And trying out a new theme after more than twenty years of doing storytimes will be too.  But mostly, I hope the kids have fun and are not fearful.  We'll see...