Bonjour, bonjour les amis, comment ça va? "Hello, hello friends, how are you?"
A cheerful French song greeted children attending the Laurel Library's bilingual storytime on Saturday, Jan. 10.
Despite the icy weather outside, four kids had shown up for L'heure du conte bilingue, or French/English story hour, led by children's librarian Andrea Erickson.
Erickson, a graduate of McGill University in French-speaking Montreal, has led the monthly bilingual storytime for nearly a decade; the program started in 2006, according to news reports from the time.
It's an opportunity, Erickson said, for young children learning French to strengthen their vocabulary, as well as for children who are native speakers to participate in an activity intended to make them feel comfortable and enthusiastic about speaking their mother tongue.
Laurel's French/English story hour is one of several bilingual storytimes in Prince George's County. The Oxon Hill branch also hosts a French storytime; for Spanish-speakers and students there's Cuentos para niños en español y ingles at Oxon Hill, Hyattsville and Greenbelt. The Greenbelt branch also hosts a Chinese/English story hour.
In Anne Arundel County, public library system officials recently announced two Spanish/English storytelling events at Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie. The first was held on Friday; another is scheduled for Feb. 13 at 11 a.m.
The bilingual storytimes reflect the area's diversity: according to data from the 2010 census, nearly a third of the residents of the city of Laurel – 30.5 percent – speak a language other than English at home.
Sisters Lalla Khadija Haidara, 5, Lalla Summayah Haidara, 4, and Lalla Maria Haidara, one and a half, attended the Laurel heure du conte for the first time with mother Aisha Raheem and grandmother Armoyssa Haidara.
Raheem said the girls had been to other storytimes at the library before, but she chose to bring them to the French story hour to include her mother-in-law, who speaks French, Arabic and two languages native to Mali, where she grew up.The girls speak French at home.
Huddled in a semi-circle around Erickson, the sisters and another girl, a student at the Robert Goddard French Immersion School in Greenbelt, listened to the librarian read a book about a boy with too many toys. Erickson interspersed the story-telling with remarks in English: "that's a lot of toys!"
Next, it was time for another song: "Vive le vent d'hiver," a song about the cold winter wind, in honor of the weather outside. Erickson passed out sleigh bells for the children to keep time as they sang along.
The story hour – which is actually closer to a half-hour – also included nursery rhymes with a talking French (stuffed) hen, voiced by Erickson, a game of head and shoulders, knees and toes (tête, épaules, genoux et pieds), as well as an "I Spy"-style picture hunt.
Erickson bookended the storytime with another song: Maintenant la fête est terminée... il est temps de nous dire aurevoir. "Now the party's over, it's time to say goodbye."
Singing along, some of the children echoed the song's response rather earnestly: Oh non, non, non, non! "Oh no, no, no, no!"
The next French/English storytime is scheduled for Feb. 7 at 10:30 a.m. at the library's temporary location, 8101 Sandy Spring Rd.