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  • CAROUSEL STORY TIME

    April - September 2021  | One Saturday Each Month @ 9:30am 

    In collaboration with the Puppet Co., Carousel Story Time offered young children and families a delightful free fantasy ride on a carousel each month from April through September. Through the power of storytelling, kids of all ages enjoyed a different carousel-themed book brought to life on the screen by talented performers from the Puppet Co., an award-winning children’s theater residency at Glen Echo Park.

     

    Carousel Story Time #1 - A Carousel Tale by Elisa Kleven

    Saturday, April 24, 2021 at 9:30am

    Ernst loves the carousel near his house, and his favorite animal is the dog. When the dog's wooden tail comes loose just before winter, Ernst is given the important job of keeping it safe until springtime. But the tail looks sad sitting on Ernst's shelf without its dog, and Ernst can’t help but try to cheer it up. It isn't long before he has transformed the lonely tail into something wonderful. As spring approaches, Ernst wonders if he will have to give up his special creation. And if he doesn't, what will the poor dog have to wag? The imaginative crocodile from "Ernst" and "The Puddle Pail" shines once again in a story that children will treasure.

    Carousel Story Time #2 - A Ride to Remember by Sharon Langley and Amy Nathan

    Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 9:30am

    The true story of how a ride on a carousel made a powerful Civil Rights statement A Ride to Remember tells how a community came together--both black and white--to make a change. When Sharon Langley was born in the early 1960s, many amusement parks were segregated, and African-American families were not allowed entry. This book reveals how in the summer of 1963, due to demonstrations and public protests, the Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Maryland became desegregated and opened to all for the first time. Co-author Sharon Langley was the first African-American child to ride the carousel. This was on the same day of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Langley's ride to remember demonstrated the possibilities of King's dream. This book includes photos of Sharon on the carousel, authors' notes, a timeline, and a bibliography.

    Carousel Story Time #3 - Carousel by Donald Crews

    Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 9:30am

    Choose your horse. Hold on tight. The music's starting and you're on your way!

    Carousel Story Time #4 - Harry the Carousel Horse by Karin Tetlow

    Saturday, July 17, 2021 at 9:30am

    This is a rare children’s story that talks about emotions and the idea that we can have control over how we feel. Harry lives on a carousel on the Mall. He is unhappy because no children want to ride him and goes on a dream journey to find out why. On the way he meets different horses and finally finds Will, who helps him change how he feels. Will is an ancient horse who finds happiness by looking down on beautiful and mysterious crop circles. The book concludes with a Real Life Notes page with photographs of the horses, characters and places that inspired the story. They include the carousel horses on the Mall in Washington D.C., the bright gold statue of Joan of Arc in Philadelphia, a Medicine Hat horse belonging to a riding therapy program for disabled children, a beloved rocking horse ridden by a Philadelphia child, and the Alton Barnes white horse carved on an Wiltshire hillside near Stonehenge, England. Wiltshire is the most active area in the world for crop circles. For children ages 3 to 7 years old.

    Carousel Story Time #5 - Up and Down on the Merry-Go-Round by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

    Saturday, August 7, 2021 at 9:30am

    In this rhyming story that's perfect for reading aloud and along, children describe the sights and sounds of riding on the merry-go-round from atop the colorful menagerie of horses, elephants, and giraffes that carry them into imaginative adventures.

    Carousel Story Time #6 - The Carousel by Liz Rosenberg and Jim LaMarche

    Saturday, September 18th, 2021 at 9:30am

    Two sisters remember their mother saying, "The carousel horses sleep all winter and wake in the spring." But one gray-skied February twilight, as the girls make their way home from school, they hear strange whinnying noises coming from the carousel in the park. Peeking inside the carousel canvas, the sisters step into the unknown. Could it be that the horses are moving . . . clopping their hooves . . . alive?

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