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intRoduCtion
“mY joB is to make kids laugh.”
That’s how I opened my introduction to Something Funny Happened at the Library
(ALA Editions, 2003). All of these years have passed, and I still feel this is one of
my missions in life. It is very satisfying for me to see children laugh because of
something I said, sang, or read to them. Humor is how I connect kids with literature
and imagination.
In Something Funny Happened at the Library, I wrote a “Tricks of the Trade”
chapter. I feel the words I wrote there on how to share humor with children still work
today. Briefly, these are
1. prepare your audience;
2. be expressive;
3. find your voice;
4. experiment;
5. create your own material;
6. pace yourself;
7. avoid inappropriate humor; and
8. have fun.
Although I go into greater detail for each “trick” in that book, for this companion
volume, I incorporated these tricks within each story-program lesson plan. Each
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