There was more Magic than usual at the Prescott Public Library last Thursday.

As excited children and parents walked into the Founder’s Suite downstairs at the library they were greeted with the song “Puff the Magic Dragon” and a brightly attired magician, Mr. Jolly Roger himself, preparing to dazzle the children and entertain the parents.

As the audience was getting settled, Youth Services Librarian Amadee Ricketts came in and spoke to a couple of the younger children who really wanted her attention. Their question to her was, when do the fireworks start? Somehow they'd gotten the impression there would be quite a loud anc colorful display in the library that morning. Miss Amadee calmly explained that they were not allowed to have fireworks in the library. The children seemed to be ok with that as Miss Amadee introduced Jolly Roger and the children quickly quit looking for bottle rockets among the books, and focused on the show.

Jolly Roger, (aka Roger Blakiston) started performing in his native England when he was 14. He moved to the United States in the 1990’s, settling in Phoenix. Though he has performed for adults all over the world, his gentle humor and immense patience shows he is used to being in front of children. He will ask the children for a show of hands for different questions, ending with, “Hands up if you couldn’t care less.” (The adults in attendance got quite a few laughs themselves.) He asked for and received quiet from the children, and they were quick to do as he asked.

The children got a quick history of Jolly Roger’s childhood. He told them about being 9 years old when he first knew he wanted to be a magician. He said many adults would try to talk him out of it and told him that he would grow out of the idea. But, as he told the children, he stood his ground. Then he encouraged the children saying, “There are things you are passionate about. Follow those dreams. Nothing is impossible. And the best way to start following those dreams is in your library. Read books.”

He then asked Miss Amadee how many books the children could check out at one time. She told him “Fifty.” Then he asked, “And how much does that cost?” and she said, “Nothing.” Jolly Roger then told the children, “The best thing about the library is that you can check out 50 books, and if you don’t like them, bring them back and get another 50 books!”

The theme of this summer’s Prescott Public Library’s Children’s reading program is “Catch the Reading Bug” and Jolly Roger incorporated that into the act with a flyswatter that magically “grew” a huge bug. Other programs for children in the library this summer include "Real Creepy Crawlies" from the Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary on June 28th, "Worm Drive the Musical" on July 10th, "The Supersilliest Band" in concert on July 19th, and the "Catch the Reading Bug" wrap party on July 26th. The goal for the library this summer is to have 250 children enrolled in the summer program who complete six weeks of reading. If that goal is achieved, Miss Amadee has promised to eat a bug. A real bug. The bug will be cooked and was raised for food.