aka YA Literature

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Traveling Pants

I put on a Traveling Pants program for the teens at my library today. We watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants while the girls decorated a pair of jeans they brought from home. (I loved the books by Ann Brashares, although by the 4th one, I was like, enough already.) I say "girls" because, although the program was very well attended, no boys were in attendance. And I guess a program called Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is not really much of a guy magnet. Anyway, people were supposed to register in advance so I would know how many supplies to purchase. I only had 5 people register. 18 teens showed up (and 2 parents). It got a bit tight on supplies, but it was good in that it forced the teens to get more creative, as well as to mix with the other girls instead of sticking to their own social groups. I noticed that the fabric swatches were a big hit. The girls would cut out shapes and use the fabric glue to attach it to their pants. They also really liked the iron-on patches. Although I provided a small iron, most of the teens just chose to glue the patches on. The fabric markers did not show up very well on the jeans, but the Tulip fabric paint was very popular. I also has a thing of glitter that many of the girls put on their pants. This program was a lot of fun. We didn't even need to watch the movie because everyone was so intent on decorating their jeans that no one really watched the movie. It provided a nice backdrop, though. I would say this program has been one of my favorites, although cleanup is a real pain.
p.s. This program really was in my pants!

3 comments:

Sheryl said...

The craft programs are always really well attended. And can I say in regards to teen crafts that (a) the display for this program was a good opportunity for us to promote other YA nonfiction craft books and (b) some of our favorite YA "discoveries" have been cool craft books? If authors want to promote their books, they should include craft programs librarians can do with their books! Hmmm. . . maybe a future post should be us coming up with "crafts" (serious and not) that can be done with various YA books.

Anonymous said...

maybe a future post should be us coming up with "crafts" (serious and not) that can be done with various YA books.

Another thing you can do with jeans is this In-Jean-Ious Binder. I did this as a program when the Sisterhood movie came out and was disappointed by the turnout. But then I kept our sample on display all summer and people constantly asked about it. Why didn't you come to the program, then? Grr.

Also, Aranzi Aronzo's The Cute Book! So cute!! {Shameless self-blog-promotion}

For our Harry Potter/End of Summer Reading party, we tried to have kid and teen crafts that tied in to the Harry Potter classes. We did marble magnets (for the third time; must find new crafts) and said it was Divination. You know, crystal ball and all. It's a stretch, but what teen wants to make a paper bag owl or whatever?

And I just got the ARC for Poseur by Rachel Maude. It's about a group of friends who want to be fashion designers (I think), and there are patterns at the end.

Anonymous said...

Its great that u r actually making a pair of traveling pants. ive always wanted to do that. and i agree with u. i also read all 4, and i got kinda bored by the 4th one.