I, a young ice bear, have been on an adventure to learn more about the library, and so far, it's been really exciting! For those that don't know me, I am Vanilla Ice Bear, a member of the Children's team at the Main Library. I mostly help out with Story Time with my mom [Haylee Blystone] and can be seen involved in a variety of other projects. I usually stay in the Children's Department, but recently I have been journeying across the system to seek out the coolest employees and learn what they do. This time, I stayed a little closer to home and met with Destinee Garrison and Rebecca Powers. They both work in the Children's Department at the Donelson branch, and I hear they do some pretty cool things over there. Let's see what we'll learn today!

Sitting down with Destinee Garrison

Vanilla: Hello! Thanks for agreeing to meet with me! Both of you already know me since me and my mom have been working at Donelson since Main has been closed. We've gotten to know each other for some time now, but I'd like to take some time to really dig deep and get to know you guys better. I know you work in Children's here, but what do you do specifically? Let's start with Ms. Destinee!

Destinee: I'm Destinee. I brought my friend Mr. Bunny with me. I do lots of Story Times. One for infants zero to twelve months, and then I do Toddler Tales for one to three years. Mr. Bunny helps me greet the babies when they come in for lap sits. He gives them little kisses and hugs. In Toddler Tales he's not really out. He sits and just watches. 

V: So, Mr. Bunny only participates in one program right now?

D: Right now, yes. Eventually he's going to start doing Toddler Tales. So, he's being trained in one.

V: I got it. He's not qualified for the other one.

[Destinee laughs]

V: That's so smart. I actually started in Music & Movement myself and I just don't think I'm ready for anything past that. 

D: Why?

V: Well, I'm very busy with this blog now. 

D: Yeah, I get that. And Mr. Bunny, he's a hardworking man, so right now, one program a week is enough. 

V: So you do lots of story time. 

D: I do. 

V: Two a week? 

D: Yes.

V: Two story times a week! That's a lot!

D: Yeah, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

V: Do you read the same books? 

D: I read different books. 

V: Why? 

D: Just because you don't want the baby to listen to the same stories over and over again. We have patrons that will attend several our Story Times.

V: That's really smart. I can tell you care. If it was me, I would read the same book. Do you ever read books about bears?

D: Not really. Sometimes. 

V: Say more. 

D: I have two on my cart right now called A Good Day for a Hat, and it is about a bear. 

V: I've read that one during a Story Time before!

D: Do you ever read books about bunnies? 

V: Actually, yeah. 

D: Title of the last one? Mr. Bunny wants to know. 

V: Wait, you're putting me on the spot! So, you see, while we've been at Donelson, we haven't really been doing a lot of Story Times.

D: But haven't you and your mom done Story Time with me and Mr. Bunny?

V: I almost forgot that! For the people at home, when me and my mom first came to Donelson, we helped with the Saturday Story Time here a couple of times.

D: Yeah we've been through Story Time together. Like three of them, I think.

V: Which is how I'm familiar with you. But I haven't had a chance to get to know you, Ms. Rebecca because we haven't done a program together.

R: Correct.

V: Okay, so we've done Story Time together, but you haven't read any books about bears. Interesting. 

[Destinee laughs]

V: Will this change your mind? Maybe read more books about bears. 

D: It will. I've read Bears Lost Glasses recently. 

V: That's a good one! 

D: You know, Timmers? [Leo Timmers, author]

V: Yeah! Me and my mom recommended that book in the Read to Rise Newsletter last month.

D: I saw that!

V: Now, I want to go back to Mr. Bunny. Do you think that the babies prefer Mr. Bunny and the toddlers don't, or do you think that the toddlers aren't ready for a friend?

D: I think that the person who cares for Mr. Bunny is not ready. But he is. 

V: Well, that's fair. 

D: Babies love him. 

V: Tag teaming Story Times can be a lot of work. You gotta practice. 

D: You do. 

V: You gotta make sure that you and Mr. Bunny are on the same page. What if Mr. Buddy goes off script? 

[Destinee laughs]

D: That's fair.

Sitting down with Rebecca Powers

V: Ms. Rebecca, I don't want to exclude you. Can you introduce yourself?

Rebecca: Hello, I'm Rebecca and I'm a Children's [library] Associate here at the Donelson Branch.

V: And you also brought a friend?

R: Yeah.

V: Who is it? 

R: Shelley McSnailpants. 

V: That is a name. 

R: Yeah!

V: And do you do Story Times together? 

R: We do Music & Movement together. 

V: So, do you also have more than one story time?

R: I do. I do Family Story Time and Music & Movement. 

V: So, you both have two story times?

R: Correct. 

V: And both of your friends only participate in one story time?

R: Shelley McSnailpants sleeps a lot, so she can only wake up for the one she really likes. She wakes up for Music & Movement because she loves dancing. She loves singing ABCs and 123s.

V: Is that her thing? 

R: Yeah, that's her specialty. She sleeps. She sings the Alphabet. She counts and then she likes to give snuggles at the end of story time

V: Cute!

R: And she likes to eat fingers.

V: Less cute.

[Rebecca laughs]

V: You're telling me that this snail eats babies but is allowed to be in story time.

R: She likes to eat baby fingers. 

V: We should probably talk about that.

R: Probably.

V: This feels like a good time to address Shelley. Shelley, do you have any thoughts on that? 

Shelley: Sometimes the babies offer their fingers. They're freely offered. They offer their fingers, and I will nibble them.

V: Nibbling is a little different from eating. 

S: That's true. They like to feed me. They like to pet my antenna. They like to pet my shell. 

V: Well, I'll ask you the same question I asked Destinee. Why does Shelley not participate in both Story Times? Is it you, Rebecca, that doesn't want Shelley in the other story time? Or is it Shelley? 

R: I just don't think I'm ready. I think Shelley just really digs music and instruments, so the music calls to
her.

V: That's really nice. Does she have a favorite book that she likes? 

R: She does love reading bear books this time of year. Bears are getting ready or they are hibernating. She really likes to learn more about that. 

V: Okay, well, Shelley definitely gets brownie points because my next question was going to be any bear books, but you already do that. That's amazing!

R: Yeah, absolutely. Not that Mr. Bunny is not.

[Both laugh]

R: Next month, we're going to have a "Are you as tall as arctic animals" with some fun polar bear facts in the children's department here at Donelson.

V: That's really cool! In my experience, polar bears are only like, three or four inches tall. How tall is it going to be?

R: Well, the tallest one on record was 11ft tall and eleven inches standing up on his hind feet. He was real heavy.

V: Wow, that's goals right there. If I stretch out, I'm like a foot tall

R: I think he's got you beat.

V: Yeah, I'm like a foot a hearty 2 pounds. Okay, so we need to grow. 

R: You need to add some protein to your diet. 

V: Yeah. What other arctic animals are you going to include? 

R: We've got the Arctic squirrel. 

V: I'm not familiar. 

R: What about the leopard seals?

Destinee: They're kind of scary. 

V: These sound made up. 

R: You'll just have to visit the children's department at the Donelson branch to learn about them. Come visit and see how tall you are in comparison to some arctic animals.

V: Well, me and my mom still work here, so I'll probably get to see it. Maybe I'll be as tall as a squirrel!
 

Sitting down with them both

V: So, addressing everyone now. You both have friends at story times. Did they ever do anything else? Do they help you with
social media? Do they have their own blogs too, perhaps? Or do they keep low profiles. 

D: Mr. Bunny keeps a low profile. He only comes out on Tuesday. 

R: Shelley McSnailpants is a homebody as well.

V: Are they shy?

R: She keeps to her shell a lot. I think she's just very busy. 

V: I love that. and I think it's great. You don't always have to be such a front presence. They just do their one thing and then they're done.

D and R: Yeah

V: So when these guys aren't around what do you do in your Story Times? What makes them special?

D: Besides not having Mr. Bunny, well, I would say we're doing song cubes, which I learned from Ms. Rebecca.

V: What's that? 

D: You put some little pictures of nursery rhymes on a block, and you roll the block, and then we sing the song
on it. Because nursery rhymes help with pronunciation.

R: They help with literacy.

V: That's so cool. I've never heard of song cubes before. I do know literacy tips! I say the literacy tip at Story Time, but not in a fun way like that.

D: You might have to steal that.

[Everyone laughs]

V: So where did you learn that Ms. Rebecca? 

R: From my great friend and now manager of Edgehill, Jahan Mahdi. 

V: We love Jahan!

R: Shout out Jahan. 

D: Shout out Jahan. 

V: We've worked with Jahan before she was a manager. She used to do Homeschool Friends and we went to her for advice and ideas. She's just amazing at everything!

[Everyone agrees]

V: Okay, so song cubes. And you do Family Story Time. Is that the one that was on the weekend? 

D: No, it's never been on the weekend. 

V: I'm making that up.

D: It was always on Saturday. It was just called Saturday Story Time.

V: Okay. So what are you doing? 

R: Family Story Time. We do just a regular story time song. We read books, we sing songs, and we end with arts and crafts. We create some art or a craft together for people to take home with them. 

V: And what makes this different from Music & Movement? 

R: Because Music & Movement also has songs and books. And Shelley.

S: True. 

R: In Music & Movement, we get out a lot of different rhythm instruments and we learn rhythm, and sing songs, and move our bodies, dance around and generally just have a really good time. 

V: That sounds awesome!

R: Yeah. In Music & Movement, we are learning beats and getting wiggles out, and it's a high energy story time. Whereas Family Story Time is a little more traditional. We read books and we'll sing a couple of songs, do some stretching, and then a fun craft together. So it's a little bit more low key. 

V: And because it's for families, do you have, like, an age limit or can anybody show up? 

R: We generally say zero to five, but everybody's always welcome

V: So I could go to that story? 

R: Sure. How old are you? 

V: Two. But do I have to bring my family? Can I just show up? 

R: You're still just two years old, so I would say you should bring a grown up with you. Your mama should come along too. She'll have a big time.

V: She would have a fun time. Besides Story Times, do you guys do any other programming, or do you focus on Story Time?

D: We both do outreach. I also help do the Read to Rise Newsletter. 

V: Okay, so a little behind the scenes computer action. 

D: Rebecca made all programming fishies in here. [Donelson program room, where interview took place, is decorated in cardboard fish]

V: So, crafts. You're a crafty person!

R: Yes. 

V: Who is your muse for crafting? Do you ever put Shelley in all of your art? I'm my mom's muse! I'm in
everything. 

R: I haven't thought about that, but that's a really good idea whenever I see snail books, I always choose them to read during story time. 

V: That's nice. Shelley, how do you feel about that.

S: I like it!

V: Do you like Escargot? That's the only snail book I know.

S: She's cool. 

V: Which one do you like the most? 

S: I love them all equally! I also like, I think it's called Snails in Space. That one's really good. Snail crossing. Love some Snail crossing. That's a fun one. 

V: Okay, how long does it take a snail across the road? This is not a joke. Genuine question.

S: A long, long time like. 

V: Days? 

S: Probably. We're not very fast moving. 

V: What about a snail, let's say, about the size of a bowling ball. 

R: She is a little bigger than your average snail. 

V: Would she cross quicker?

R: Oh. I think that she would probably, yes. But she does like to nap a lot, so she might have to take a lot of breaks.

V: That's not safe, Shelley. It's not a good idea. But as compared to Mr. Bunny, it wouldn't take him very long to get across the road. How long would it take him?

D: Bunnies are quick but look at his little legs! 

V: They are pretty small. How old is Mr. Bunny is? 

D: A year. 

V: He's a baby! How old is Shelley?

R: Shelley is a teenager. 

V: A teenager? Has she given you any trouble so far? 

R: She's a pretty happy snail. A pretty happy easy teen. 

V: That's nice.

[Everyone laughs]

V: What is your favorite thing that you have gotten to do at Donelson while I've been here?

D: Probably Saturday Story Time with you. 

V: Agreed! We had so much fun together! 

D: You helped Mr. Bunny learn to talk to the bigger kids. Usually he's used to the babies. 

V: Saturday Story Time was cool! Not only did we get to collaborate between Main and Donelson, but we also got to share experiences and I got to learn a little bit about the Donelson community. What about you, Ms. Rebecca? 

R: I think I really like doing the collaborative art pieces around the library. Like doing the tree.

V: Like what? 

R: Well, we built a tree. Everybody got a chance to make a handprint leaf that we put up on the wall and I thought that was really fun. 

V: So how did you make a tree? 

R: Very carefully.

[Everyone laughs]

V: You have a very collaborative community here at Donelson. Is that something that you guys helped build, or was that just already here when you guys started?

R: I definitely feel like we helped build that. 

D: For sure. We have a lot more that we can offer with a bigger building. A lot of children's staff. A bigger building. 

V: You were in a different building? 

R: Yeah. We used to be in a building. Really tiny, and there was only one children's person, so there was only so much that could be offered. 

V: Who was the children's person? 

R: That was me. 

V: Ms. Rebecca, you were the only person in the tiny building?

R: I wasn't the only person in the building, but I was the only children's person in the building. 

V: Was it lonely?

R: No, I wasn't lonely. 

V: Did you have Shelley? 

R: Yes, Shelley was there. 

V: So, Shelley, what was old Donelson like? 

S: It was very small. Very small.

R: It was cozy. It was a good spot, but now. We have more room for more friends. 

V: More friends like Ms. Destinee!

D: That's right. 

V: Because you weren't at old Donelson?

D: No, not really. For a little bit. I was back and forth between there and Bordeaux. 

V: Why? 

D: Because I was in circulation at BX. 

V: So, what brought you over to Donelson? 

D: I got promoted when the renovation was still in progress.

V: Ah that makes sense! You were back and forth because there was nowhere to go.

D: That way I could learn my new teammates.

V: Can we visit this place? 

R: We would have to see with management. The old Donelson still exists.

V: It's still a real building?

R: It still exits. 

V: But you don't work there. 

R: No, we're in the new Donelson because we work here. 

V: My follow up question is do you guys believe in ghosts? 

R: Yes.

D: Yes. In spirits.

V: Not ghosts, but spirits.

D: Yeah. Not ghost, but spirits. 

V: Are spirits different?

D: Yeah, I would say it's a little different.

V: I don't think I have any more questions. 

D: Thank you, Vanilla, for having us!

V: Is there anything else you want the people at home to know? 

D: Come check out the new Toddler Tales at Donelson!

R: Come and see Shelley and Mr. Bunny!