A tale of two alpacas

Children sing along before settling in to listen to the story.

 Preschoolers packed Belgrave Library to listen to a story about alpacas playing maracas.

The Wednesday 22 May event was part of National Simultaneous Storytime, which children at libraries, childcare centres, schools, and preschools around the country take part in at the same time.

They all read the same book, which this year was Alpacas with Maracas by Matt Cosgrove.

Yarra Ranges Councillor Len Cox helped out as a guest reader at Belgrave.

“It is lovely for me to be here today to meet all of you,” he told the children.

“I didn’t know what a maraca was until this morning. I really didn’t.”

Belgrave’s Youth Services Librarian Chris Nugent hosted the storytime session, which also included song, dance and more books.

Children sang ‘alpacas with maracas’ to the tune of Bananas in Pyjamas, adapted a few other songs to include alpacas and llamas, and read other alpaca and llama-related books.