A travelogue from Minnesota Author, David LaRochelle as he travels the state with Minnesota Illustrator, Mike Wohnoutka and the Once Upon a Reader star performer – Cow and their adventures in SELCO.
Hello Once Upon a Reader folks!
June is National Dairy Month so Cow was in high demand for guest appearances, but she took time from her busy schedule to join Mike and me as we visited six more SELCO libraries Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week. Once again the wonderful folks at SELCO (Amy, Amy, Reagan, Cindy and all the great librarians we met) did a fabulous job of welcoming us at each stop.
Monday’s rain didn’t keep the 125 attendees away from joining us at the Rochester Public Library. Despite some bad driving from David (I wish I could blame it on Cow), we made it to our second stop just in the nick of time, which was one of our most unusual venues to date: the weight room at the Rochester Family YMCA. 80 day camp kids and their counselors, spanning a very wide age-range, joined us in this unique location. Cow being the star that she is took it all in stride.
Tuesday was a beautiful day for a drive to the small town of Dodge Center where 50 kids packed the cozy meeting room in the library. It was then on to Spring Valley where Jenny Simon and her crew had the entire library decked out for our visit, with cow balloons, milk cans, window paintings, the Moo! Story Walk, dozens of cow books, and after our show, milk and cookies and a LIVE COW. 200 kids and their caregivers joined us under the storybook tree in the children’s area for our show.
Wednesday morning we had an audience of 150 at the Austin Public Library. We bypassed the Spam Museum (we were afraid it might hit a little too close to home for Cow), and headed to Albert Lea for a performance to 100 in the afternoon. Both libraries had beautiful lake views and the librarians in both stops were well prepared for our visit.
Thanks to all the librarians and the wonderful women at SELCO who made these visits so successful. We are glad that we get to work with you again in September.
Cow is out touring on her own at the moment, but I thought I’d pass along some of the photos from her appearances this past week.
Your bovine buddies,
David, Mike, and Cow
