Even during pandemic, these passports will take young readers to magical places

With no timetable for returning to normal life, libraries have been seeking new ways to tell stories. The Johnson County Library has been partnering with cities around the county and investing more in an existing program that seems tailor-made for pandemic times.

It’s called Walk and Read.

For each Walk and Read, the librarians take a book, cut apart the pages and post them on signs along a short trail in a public park. Each page is laminated to keep it safe from the weather.

Youth librarian Carrie Lea Worth first started Walk and Read in 2015 when she worked at the Gardner Library. In previous years, the Walk and Read programs only lasted one weekend and drew in children with inflatable moonwalks, popcorn and high school kids dressed up as book characters.

Now, the library is leaving the signs up for much longer and encouraging social distancing by avoiding a centralized event. One of the most recent ones was at Quail Creek Park in Merriam from July 17 to 27. Anyone could walk through the park at any time during the day.

“The books come to life through these signs, and as the person is walking through the park, they’re reading the book while being able to physically distance and getting some physical activity at the same time,” said Renee Nagle, recreation supervisor for Merriam’s parks and recreation department. “If my kids were still little, that’s the we way I would do it to get them excited about what’s going to happen and to get them to take an extra few steps.”

The quarter-mile loop featured signs with Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” in one direction. If you turned around and walked the same loop in the other direction, the signs also carried “Mouse Paint” by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

“Kids, once they love a book, they read it over and over again. We post two books. One is a popular title; one is lesser-known. One is more detailed, the other simple,” Worth said.

Other factors that go into it are the font size, whether the pages feature bright colors and the book’s length. The selected stories usually fit within 16 to 18 signs.

Because the library is not reproducing the pages but actually slicing up the book and using it, there aren’t any copyright issues for the display.

“We actually have to take two books and cut them up, which is a really hard thing for a librarian to do,” Worth said.

The short loop trail in the park is what made it attractive for this program. It’s not too long for small children to walk. Every trail they choose is stroller- and wheelchair-friendly.

“We want to make sure it is very much made accessible for families. Grandparents could take the little ones. I like that it’s getting people outdoors, which they’ve said is very important, even before the COVID issue,” Worth said.

Prior to this year, each city had to provide its own metal frames and corrugated board for the signs, and with 18 for the stories, plus a few more directional signs that are needed, that could run about $500, making the program a tougher sell. With so many library summer programs canceled due to the pandemic, there was some money in the budget to allow the library to purchase its own sign frames.

Having that infrastructure on hand makes the program a more attractive prospect to cities.

“Now that we’ve purchased the signs, it’s just a matter of working out dates and the times. Everyone seems to be willing to do whatever it takes, because it’s fun and it’s something we know is effective,” Worth said.

The library is already planning more Walk and Read events from now through October in Overland Park, Prairie Village and Merriam. They’ve already done them in Gardner and Shawnee this year.

“The hard thing about a passive program is we don’t know how many people get to enjoy them and see them,” Worth said. “…We’ve got families who are looking for them, and then we’ve got families who just run across them and enjoy them.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Even during pandemic, these passports will take young readers to magical places."