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By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Before the singing began at the Disney karaoke party at the Dover Library on Wednesday afternoon, the crowd was promised there would be songs from “Aladdin," “Frozen," “Mary Poppins," “The Lion King” and “Moana.”
This was technically true, but failed to convey just how “Let It Go”-heavy the event was going to be.
The Idina Menzel classic that won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2014 was played five separate times over the course of the afternoon, a fact that Miss Angie (Young Adult Librarian Angie Howes) would call “not surprising” when informed of it.
The first time the song was sung was when Miss Angie tried to explain karaoke to the children, telling them about how the words on the screen would light up and how “if you see a bar scrolling, it means to wait for the next part.” She then let the kids select an instrument for when they were not singing, out of a box of mostly maracas and bells. When the kids had their instruments, Miss Angie said, “the first song we’re going to sing together - what’s a song I’m pretty sure we all know?” And with that, the entire crowd sang “Let it Go.”
A young man selects his instrument of choice.
The event was a huge hit and could have gone on for hours, considering how willing the kids were to sing, how much they liked using the microphones, and how many of them wanted second or third turns performing. Miss Angie gave kids that sang lollipops after their performances, but it didn’t seem like the prize was necessary - such was the level of enjoyment among the kids.
While “Let it Go” was the overwhelming favorite song, there were many others. There were performances to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins,” “You’re Welcome” and “How Far I’ll Go” from “Moana,” and “The Circle of Life” from “The Lion King.” Parent seemed to enjoy the event as well; many were seen singing along to the songs, both from their childhoods and that of their kids’.
But while the event was a fun way to kill an hour, the library had more than fun in mind when they set it up - it was also a means to encourage the kids to step out of their respective comfort zones.
“It’s really good to have kids going into kindergarten comfortable getting in front of crows,” the librarians explained. “It’s a good skill to have.”
