Watch: Brooklyn Library Hosts 'Drag Queen Story Hour' For Kids

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Once a month for the past six months, the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library has been hosting a special "Drag Queen Story Hour" segment of its "Saturday Storytime" series.

At each event, from 11 a.m. to 12 pm., a different drag queen in full regalia reads aloud a different set of books about queerness, gender nonconformity or "general youth discomfort," a library spokeswoman told Patch.

The Associated Press stopped by last Saturday's installment to tape Lil' Miss Hot Mess, a queen from San Francisco, as she read "Worm Loves Worm" and other titles to a packed roomful of babies, toddlers, preschoolers and their parents. (A depressing number of whom were glued to their fidget spinners throughout.)

"Who wants to be a drag queen when they grow up?" Lil' Miss Hot Mess asked the crowd at one point, to a few eager hands.

Follow along:

"Drag queen story hour is fantastic because it addresses all these issues of gender fluidity and acceptance and all of these topics that are real — very, very real," Kat Savage, a rep for the Brooklyn Public Library, told AP cameras.

Before each event, library officials train the drag queen scheduled to host, a library spokeswoman told Patch, and give her a "huge roster of books to choose from — usually about queerness, kids feeling weird and gender nonconformity."

Other branches in the system are now reportedly considering hosting Drag Queen Story Hours of their own.

Kesa Huey, a local mom at last weekend's Park Slope event, said it was a great learning experience for her daughter. "You know, that's what I'm looking for in all of our outings, is to present different ways of being in the world and make that fun and available to my kid."

The next Drag Queen Story Hour is scheduled for Saturday, June 10, at 11 a.m. at the Park Slope library branch at 431 6th Ave.

Video courtesy of the AP