All aboard for a bedtime reading rumpus

Anthony Souffle, Star Tribune

Author Phyllis Root read to parents and children on the Como-Harriet Streetcar during the “Jammies-in-the-Trolley,” the first of three this summer sponsored by Wild Rumpus Bookstore.

Cookies and milk, stories and a streetcar -- how will they ever get to sleep?

By KATE McCARTHY Special to the Star Tribune

Last update: June 24, 2009 - 3:04 PM

As local children's author Phyllis Root read from her volumes "Toot, Toot, Zoom" and "Flip, Flap, Fly" last week, 60 children under age 9 clustered around on the floor to the clang and rattle of the Como-Harriet Streetcar in Minneapolis. The PJ-clad audience, 3 feet tall on average, was rapt and sated on the milk and cookies that had been served on the trolley platform.

The sold-out rolling bedtime party was the brainchild of the streetcar line and the Wild Rumpus, the independently owned, animal-predisposed, endearingly daft children's bookstore in Minneapolis' Linden Hills neighborhood.

There will be two more story-hour (7-8 p.m.) pajama parties on the trolley this summer. On July 23, Derek Anderson will read from his "Little Quack" books. On Aug. 20, Nancy ("Luanne the Pig") Carlson will tell her "Kindergarten, Here I Come" tale and other crowd-friendly stories. Tickets for the July and August events (which include a bedtime snack of milk and cookies on the platform) are $5 at Wild Rumpus. Call first (612-920-5005); they sell out fast.

The bookstore has a 17-year history of creative, quirky events like ferriers shoeing horses, children shearing sheep, tweens mummifying their Barbies and a Mother's Day "mama-vs.-llama" spitting match. (Animals, even the large and equine, are a regular presence in the store.)

Rumpus co-founder and buyer Collette Morgan was in her creative element as she handed out tickets and ran interference at the train station.

"It's all about the stories, and how we can connect kids to those stories," Morgan said. "When we make that connection, it's just the most gratifying thing."

All aboard.

Kate McCarthy is a Minneapolis freelance writer.

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