OSFO and I were walking down Seventh Avenue puttting up signs about Teen Spirit’s benefit concert next week (October 14th at 6 p.m. at the Old Stone House) when my friend, Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story) called and asked if we were busy.

She needed help with her shadow puppet show.

Why not, I thought. We were planning on being at the reading anyway. And I knew it would be fun to help Barbara carry out her ultra-creative vision of a children’s book reading and puppet show.

In the cozy and whimsically decorated children’s section Community Books, Barbara set up her homemade shadow puppet theater — a grocery box with a shower curtain screen and a halogen lamp from Ikea. She handed me a paperback copy of the book with numbered cues and showed me all of the flat black puppets. It took a little practice but after the while I got the hang of it.

After a quick rehearsal, Barbara asked OSFO to do some directing. "Tell your mom how the puppets look. Tell her how to make them look better," she said.

For the show, OSFO was enlisted to sit alongside Barbara and pretend to read an oversized copy of the book while Barbara read excerpts outloud to the audience.

The reading was originally organized because Barbara got a fan letter from an 8-year-old girl named Ali who lives in Santa Diego.

Ali and family were shocked when Barbara actually wrote them back!!

Turned out that Ali’s family was planning a trip east for a baby naming ceremony at the Old Stone House. What a coincidence, they were making a trip to Park Slope of all places. So Barbara thought it would be fun to have a reading in Ali’s honor.

Sure enough, Ali and family arrived at the bookstore at 3:30 sharp. A small crowd packed the  back room of Community Bookstore and the short show went without a hitch. We did it twice when others wandered in who missed the show the first time around.

At the second show, OSFO got to be the puppeteer—and she did a great job. She even played the red spinet piano at the beginning and end of the show.

The book is great and is gathering up some great reviews, including one in the New York Times Book Review. There will certainly be more readings and workshops and OTBKB will keep you posted. In the meantime, pick up the bright orange chapter book (with the groovy black and white illustrations) at a bookstore and see what all the fuss is about.

It’s a really, really fun read. For excerpts from the book and examples of the illustrations, check out Barbara’s really cool website: barbaraensor.com