Once upon a time, at a public library in San Francisco, a drag queen arrived at story time and read to the children she met there.

The children — no strangers to playing make believe — had fun, and soon the idea of drag queens hosting story time spread to New York.

It was an unconventional idea, both for the normally staid libraries and the drag queens, many of whom were more accustomed to hosting night-life events than M.C.-ing daytime singalongs.

But it quickly caught on.

Today, four years after that first event, drag performers regularly entertain children at libraries and community centers in progressive enclaves like New York and Los Angeles as well as red-state towns like Juneau, Alaska, and Lincoln, Neb.