Vení que te cuento

This past weekend was the first of four reading events organized by Fundacion Leer. They normally organize events in communities outside the city. This new series is aimed at approaching the local urban community. They are actually mini-versions of their full blown out events that they hold at little towns and communities throughout the country. So what was the first event like?

I walked into the basement of the bookstore and it was decorated like it was Halloween. It was very cute. The theme was scary stories. The kids would look around as they started coming down the stairs holding on to their mother´s hand. They wanted to touch the paper ghosts, skeletons, plastic spiders and spiderwebs decorating the room.

Story time creeped up and the storyteller thanked everyone for coming and organized everyone into a circle on the floor. She lit a candle, as a nod to pre-light bulb days of storytelling and reading, and started her scary story. The children were all quite, captivated by the story unfolding before them and in their imagination. After the happy ending the organizers brought out black paper that was already cut into the shape of a haunted house. They also brought out glue, scissors, crayons, etc. All the kids loved this part and some parents even got into it as well.

Afterwards, the children gathered around the storyteller one more time. This time the storyteller had some parting gifts for the little ones. Each child received a free book and a giant Sugar and Spice Chocolate Chip cookie (with no nuts). As you can imagine, there were lots of smiles, laughter and even some dancing. My own daughter broke out into a dance with her new book in one hand a giant cookie in the other.

If you are around Buenos Aires on the weekends and you have kids you might check this out for them. The next events are:

"There´s a Monster in My Closet"
Libreria Santa Fe
Santa Fe 2376
Recoleta
29 September at 4pm

"The Monkey That Speaks"
Boutique del Libro
Thames 1762
Palermo SoHo
6 October at 4pm

"One That We All Know - Classics of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow"
Libreria Hernandez
Av. Corrientes 1436
Downtown
13 October at 4:30pm