Middle-school children from across Evanston gathered at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., on Saturday to read and act out passages from the first installment of the best-selling fantasy novels “The Bartimaeus Trilogy.”
“Whether they feel comfortable reading in front of a group or not, this is a great way for fantasy geeks to come together and discuss this incredible book,” said Martha Meyer, the coordinator of the event and a North Branch library employee.
Saturday marked the first production of a Readers Theater for Teens event at the library, which is “about halfway between reading out loud and theater,” according to Meyer.
Children and parents gathered in the library’s community room and performed, watched and later contributed to the group discussions.
The middle schoolers scrambled toward the piles of photocopied “scripts” prepared by Meyer, and chose which parts they wanted to play.
“This is the first Readers Theater that I’ve been to, and I think it’s great for kids,” said Evanston resident Judy Royal.
“My son was just up there reading.” she continued. “They don’t seem to have any performance anxiety since they don’t have to worry about memorizing lines.”
“The Amulet of Samarkand,” the first installment of the trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, was the star of Saturday’s event. The New York Times best-seller has captured the interest of adolescents and adults alike all over the country.
“I really liked the book when I read it,” said Ben Mattson, a 13-year-old Evanston resident.
“It’s really dark and gothic, and I think doing these performances is pretty cool,” he added.
This event ended the library’s Teen Read Week, which took place from Oct. 17 to 23. The theme for this year was “IT’S ALIVE at Your Library” which presented teens with events and books related to mystery, fantasy, forensics and horror to get them excited about reading.
Christie Chandler-Stahl, the young adult readers advisor at the library, headed the Teen Read Week project and collaborated with Martha Meyer to organize the Readers Theater event on Saturday.
“Martha had contacted me and said that she had just read this incredible book and wanted to know if we could do a Readers Theater performance,” Chandler-Stahl said. “And I thought, ‘What a great way to cap off Teen Read Week.'”
Performances continued through the afternoon complete with dimmed lights and sound effects courtesy of audience members shaking aluminum foil and dropping books on cue.
The adolescents then split into groups to discuss the 480-page novel’s dark themes of revenge, death and humiliation, and its unique writing style, particularly the author’s choice of multiple points of view.
Mostly, the middle school students just wanted to share how much fun they had reading the novel.
“Readers Theater is an excellent tool to get middle school kids to talk about literature,” Meyer said. “It works like a charm. Give ’em a part to play and they really pay attention.”
Reach Colin Schoenberger at [email protected].
