Bats at the Museum!

Want to know where Brian Lies bats really went next? To the museum!

Brian Lies' Bats at the Ballgame

For almost a decade I have been helping to decorate a tree for a local museum's children's literature themed Christmas tree exhibit.  Our group of six women, four of whom are educators, gathers every September to choose a book and begin an almost twelve week process.  Once we have our book, our first meetings are dedicated to brainstorming how we will represent the book.  Should we choose a theme?  Should we recreate a page in the book?  After we have chosen a direction, we begin to discuss the materials we will use and the mechanics for how it will all work. From that first meeting until the day we decorate our tree (which was today!), we are creating and experimenting, thinking and trying, laughing and cheering.  It is a very fun collaborative effort.  I look forward to these select nights each fall, when all that is asked of me is that I sit and build, sew, shape, saw, paint, create, etc..did I mention how much fun this is? The joy of unstructured unsupervised play!

We have created trees for: Martha Speaks by Susan Meddaugh; Shall I Knit You a Hat? by Kate and Sarah Klise; Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton; Whose Garden Is it? by Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrated by Jane Dyer; Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth; Pearl by Debby Atwell; Wild About Books by Judy Sierra; and, A Pair of Red Clogs by Matsuko Matsuno.

This year our book was Brian Lies' Bats at the Ballgame.  We hope you enjoy our interpretation!