A very noisy library

11 August 2016

Finally I managed to drag CJ out of the art gallery and down the stairs. What I wanted to do next was go home and see Commando and his broken leg. CJ had other ideas though. We made it as far as the foyer. Then he spotted a baby zebra through the door of the library.
“How many zebras are there in the library?” he asked.
“Loads and loads,” I said with a sigh. I knew exactly where this was going and it reminded me of when he was a little boy. There were always lots of questions and they were usually designed to take me in circles until he got what he’d wanted all along.
“It probably wouldn’t take all that long to find them though, because they’re all in the same place.”

It was easier just to give in, much as I wanted to just go home. The baby zebra he’d seen was Rocket, designed by the children of Itchen Abbas Primary School as a tribute to astronaut Tim Peake. He has the Earth on his rear and a rocket zooming off into the darkness of space on his head. Between the two is a rainbow and his plinth is painted with rainbow stripes. No wonder CJ wanted a closer look.

Around the side of the desk we found Luna, designed by the children of Mansel Park Primary School. He was a lovely shade of blue getting darker towards his back legs to symbolise day and night and he was painted with tribal patterns and smiley faces. Best of all he had a rainbow mane.

Now we were inside there was no going back and, a little further on, we spotted Bruno, Brune Park School’s zebra. He was extremely colourful, covered with patterns created by every single child in the school.

This was the library I used to come to when I worked in Commercial Road. It was handy to pop in during my lunch break, but I haven’t been inside for many years.  It seemed much brighter than I remembered. It was also a good deal noisier. Once upon a time libraries were places of silence where people spoke in whispers so as not to disturb people reading or working. Today, probably because of the zebras, there were children dashing about everywhere shouting out and running up and down the aisles. Much as I liked seeing the children there I felt a little sorry for anyone who was using the library for its designated purpose.

We were moving about pretty quickly ourselves, stopping at each zebra just long enough to snap a photo, find it on the app and tick it off. We were at least doing it quietly. Our next zebra was standing at the end of a shelf of books. Her name was Dizzie and she belongs to the 4th Bitterne Girl Guides. She was inspired by the guides favourite activities and painted by them. I especially liked the flowers and butterflies on her plinth and the flowers in her mane.

Behind Dizzie’s shelf we found Zeebee, St Mary’s C of E Primary School’s zebra. She’s a hearts and flowers kind of girl with a pink heart on her tummy, white doves and lots and lots of flowers, butterfiles and bugs. What a lot of work went into painting her.

Our next zebra belonged to Bitterne Manor Primary School. Heads Hearts and Hands is a kind of school motto, reminding the children that they have all the tools within them to learn to be better. He has some rather splendid deep turquoise coloured stripes with hidden hearts and hands.

Very close by we found rainbow dash painted in stripes of red and white with the finger prints and names of all the pupils of Brokenhurst Junior School hidden amongst them. It seems a lot of schools have decided to use finger or hand prints and I like the effect very much.

At the end of the next row of shelves we found a zebra with a colourful sunset in his stripes. This was Serengeti Sunest designed by Jessica Fry of Stroud School and painted by the children. I have to say this was one of my favourite baby zebras. I loved the crisp white stripes against the bright colours of that sunset.

Zaphiya, at the end of the next shelf, was a very intricate zebra. His eighty two stripes were each painted by a child from Weston Shore Forst School so each is different, they come together beautifully to make a very handsome zebra in my opinion.

Around the corner I was confused to find Woody. We’d already seen Woody at the top of the steps in the art gallery and this didn’t look like him at all. This was a second Woody though and I soon found him on the app and ticked him off. This particular Woody was painted by Stoke Park Infant School with trees, leaves made from the children’s finger prints and lots of hidden woodland animals.

Ziggy, our next find, was made from beautifully marbled stripes in lovely muted colours, by the children of The Polygon School. The whole effect was very professional. On his plinth was a verse from Nathan Bell’s Footprints a reminder of the way we should all travel about the world. What a well thought out zebra Ziggy is.

Then there was Zanzi the result of a design competition at Wallisdean Infants School. Winner Abirami was inspired by Indian artwork to create his colourful swirls, triangles and Suns. He’s a lovely bright happy looking chap for sure.

Talbot, our next find, was one of my favourites. I loved his silver coat and the blue and purple stripes made from the handprints of the children of Talbot House Preparatory School. Somehow I think the children enjoyed creating him, even if they got a bit messy in the process.

The next zebra, Phyllis, was checkered rather than striped and her bright squares were filled with outdoorsy symbols. The idea behind her came from the 5th New Forest North Cub Pack and their leaders.

Everywhere we looked there seemed to be another baby zebra and each was completely different to the last. One of the more intricate zebras we saw was Jigsaw, designed by Laura Lo and named by Gabriella Arney of Wellow Primary School. It must have taken an awfully long time to paint so much detail.

The next bookshelf hid Rainbow, a zebra with some very colourful stripes. She was designed and painted by the children of Freemantle C of E Community Academy based on four different themes created by the children. I loved her camouflage plinth.

We had almost walked around the whole library when we spotted Kusini, another very intricately painted zebra. Her name means south in Swahili and she was the brainchild of the children of Southlands School. All the children helped paint her colourful geometric patterned stripes and rainbow mane.

We were now heading back towards the front desk where, as far as I could tell, we’d found all the downstairs zebras. Obviously it was time to go upstairs and see if the others I could see on the app were hiding there. It didn’t take long to find the first upstairs zebra, Learning Ted, the idea of the children and staff of Teddie’s Bright Horizons nursery. He’s covered with pictures of all the things the children use to learn through play and his plinth is covered with the children’s handprints.

Looking over the balcony was A-Zebra. His glossy black coat was painted with the initials of all the children at Hazlewood Infant School.

Zeus, looking over the same balcony, was also a team effort by the children of Botley C of E Primary School. He’s another checkered zebra but his squares are each filled with the artwork of a child.

Next came Heaven and Earth, the work of City Life Church. His stripes are painted alternately with symbols reflecting their theme, dark stripes for heaven, light for earth. I liked his gold and silver face, mane and legs.

Zanebow is a decoupage zebra, using photocopied zebra images and patterns created by the year 9 children of Dovehouse School Academy. His colour palette is very attractive and I love the contrast with his monochrome plinth.

Ellie, named after her designer Ellie Keenan of Upper Shirley High School, is a very girly zebra. She was inspired by aboriginal artist Judy Watson Naoangardi. I love her pastel colours.

Lucky was painted by all the children and staff of Woolston Infant School. He’s a very bold and striking chap in bright primary colours with some well placed fingerprints on his white legs.

Now we’d walked all around the upper floor but were still three zebras short according to the app.
“Perhaps we missed them,” CJ suggested.
“Actually, this one looks very familiar,” I said, pointing to the picture of Zinger. “Have we forgotten to tick him off?”
“Wasn’t that the baby zebra we saw in East Street? The one we couldn’t get the app to recognise?”
A quick look at my phone told me CJ was right. “Maybe he was supposed to be here but they changed their minds and forgot to update the app,” I said as I ticked him off. “Now we have just two more to find then.”
No sooner had I said it than we bumped into Stripe, hiding behind a desk. He was designed by Faith Moore during Fair Oak Junior School’s art week. He is based on the skin patterns of African animals and the work of Andy Warhol a real chimera of a beast.

Despite one more dash around the whole library, we never did find the final baby zebra, Everyone’s Unique. Maybe he’ll turn up in an unexpected place in the city just like Zinger. Once I’d convinced CJ that walking around the library once more just in case wasn’t a good idea we finally left the building. It was almost and hour and a half since I’d spoken to Commando on the phone and decided to cut our hunt short and go home. Now we were finally on our way. Of course I had to get CJ past Sea City Museum and the zebras in there first. As we rounded the corner we could see a zebra outside.

The zebra in question was Dave, sponsored by Greenspan Projects. At first I thought he was just a common or garden black and white stripy zebra. Then I looked more closely and discovered he’s made up from lots of hidden zebras. We tried to count them all but got ourselves all in a tangle and gave up.

“This has to be the last one,” I said.
“How many are there inside?” he said.
“Five, but we are most definitely not going in today. In fact I think we should head for the bus stop and get the bus home.”
I thought I might have a battle on my hands at that point but CJ left Dave behind without another word and we turned the corner to the front of the Civic Centre.

Dave wasn’t quite the last zebra of the day though. As we climbed the steps heading for the road, Barcode was waiting for us. Obviously, we couldn’t pass by without saying hello, especially when I spotted her snazzy woolen leg warmers.

Barcode is sponsored by Hobbycraft which sells all sorts of interesting things for crafty people. Her design was the idea of the store staff and reflects all the different crafts on offer, from the yarn bomb leg warmers, a colourful quilt pattern on her back to a paint brush tail. She was painted by Anne Mainwearing, Liza Burden, Christine Elison and the staff and customers of the store. Despite wanting to get on, I loved all the little hidden touches.

Finally we were heading for the bus stop. Well we were until CJ noticed a baby zebra in the window of Sta Travel. This was Stitch, created by the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts of the 1st Itchen Scout Group. Each member painted one colourful stripe, showing the thing they most enjoy about scouting.

A quick photo was snapped and, just as I was about to walk on,CJ spotted another baby zebra further inside the travel shop. This was Baden, another scout inspired zebra, sponsored by Hampshire Scouts and named after Baden Powell, the founder of the movement. He’s painted with a countryside scene along with some scouts tents and a wonderfully starry sky.

Baden really was our last zebra of the day and we were soon sitting on the bus on the way home. It hadn’t been quite the walk I’d planned and some of it had been overshadowed by worry about Commando but we’d seen some extremely imaginative zebras.

Much as I like the big zebras on the city streets, I think the babies made the day. It’s wonderful that so many children in the city have got involved in the zebra project and they’ve obviously put a great deal of thought into the beautiful zebras they’ve painted. Despite a bit of noise, it was good to see so many children in the library too. Hopefully some of them will remember it fondly and come back to become members. With the advent of digital books our poor libraries are closing at an alarming rate so drawing children in and fostering a love of books and reading can only be a good thing.

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