The International Literature Festival Dublin has brought a wealth of children’s entertainment for its 2025 edition. Aisling Breen’s Sensory Storytime is among them. Beginning with every parent’s nightmare, a sing along to Baby Shark, much to the delight of every toddler in the room. We were introduced to Sally Shark who is a little nervous and needed everyone to sing to her to help her feel better. We go straight from there into the first book Peekaboo Shark.
Aisling was calm and easy with the children, even throwing in a couple of jokes for the adults in attendance. She is a natural storyteller, filled with enthusiasm and encouragement. She was completely unfazed by toddler chaos and happily went along with whatever the children did, including allowing one child to feed pom poms to her mermaid puppet and a raid of the sensory equipment by several of the children in attendance. She was bright, bubbly, and engaging to watch. She encouraged the children to join in, but never forced it, and also made frequent laps of the room with different sensory equipment and puppets.
There are frequent singing breaks of both familiar and unfamiliar songs. When needed, Aisling took the time to explain the actions required for the songs. Storytime started with scarves already in place for the children to explore. A particularly big hit were some giant pom poms that everyone was encouraged to pretend were sea urchins.
There was a little too much squeezed into the short period of time. There were at least 6 different books read and there didn’t always seem to be a rhyme or reason to which sensory equipment was handed out when. There were also some items handed out that seemed inappropriate for the advertised age group, such as gold coins that could be choking hazards and colourful feathers that had parts that could easily pull off.
Overall, it is a very fun experience to have with your toddler and we are lucky that Aisling Breen is the storyteller in residence for Dublin City Libraries.
Review by Zoe (Almost 3)
I liked the story about the pirate best. I said hi to the mermaid and she ate my Pom Pom. I loved singing. It was so much fun.
Runs Until 23rd May 2025.
