Did You Know?
• The “StoryWalk” concept has been used in almost 1,000 cities in 49 states and several countries.
“Animal Boogie” definitely was a fast-paced story: A few readers were running from one page to the next.
Barbara Jorgenson, the librarian at Three Creeks Community Library, led a group around the perimeter of H.B. Fuller Park in Salmon Creek as the narrative of Monday morning’s tale unfolded one page at a time.
Story times at Three Creeks usually feature kids sitting on the floor, maybe in a parent’s lap, as a library storyteller keeps the pages turning. Monday’s session was not about turning the pages; it was about chasing them down.
In this telling, each page of Debbie Harter’s book was laminated and mounted on a wire frame that was posted along the park’s walking trail. Each animal that was featured gave members of the group the chance to slither, leap or dash to the next page.
The concept — it’s trademarked as StoryWalk — has been around for a while, but Monday marked its debut in the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, Jorgenson said.
(For some grandparents or great-grandparents, this literary genre might echo the verses on “Burma-Shave” signs that highlighted road trips when they were kids.)
Jorgenson will lead another session at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at H.B. Fuller Park, 389 N.W. 139th St., just west of the library branch. The group will gather near the playground equipment at the west end of the park.
And beyond that?
“We’ll find another book and definitely do it next year,” Jorgenson said.
The StoryWalk program was started by Anne Ferguson in 2007. The Vermont woman wasn’t coming from a literary perspective, by the way. She was looking for an activity that would get kids — as well as the adults in their lives — moving around.
“I was working in the field of chronic disease prevention,” Ferguson said by phone from Montpelier, Vt. “I wanted to figure out ways to help people be more physically active: the children in particular.
“I tried different things, but parents were standing around with their arms folded, getting no exercise whatsoever. I wanted parents as active as children,” Ferguson said. She also wanted an activity that was “fun, free and something with some substance to it.”
Ferguson found her answer in what she called “tons of really great books,” as well as a new way to enjoy them: one page at a time.
Keeping it legal
But first, she had to make sure the page-by-page approach wasn’t illegal.
“I called around to find out if was even legal to take books apart,” she said.
As long as she laminated each page as it was published in the original book, “I was not causing trouble with the copyright situation. You can’t change the book in any way.
“However, people have contacted authors or publishers and gotten permission to enlarge the pages,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson’s target audience is children from birth up to about 7 years old. Monday’s session seemed to reflect that demographic, with the youngest kids navigating this outdoor literary circle in strollers.
Two-year-old Heather Anderberg spent some time on her dad’s shoulders, while her 4-year-old sister Bethany followed the story from trail level.
“It’s a neat idea to keep kids engaged during the summer,” their father, Travis Anderberg, said.
Niomi Mansfield said she and her 2½-year-old daughter Eliza have been going to the story times at the downtown Vancouver library, and a friend told her about Monday’s StoryWalk.
Her daughter “loves being outside,” Mansfield said, “and this combines the two.”
