Book power: Johnson County program helps children in courthouse ‘feel not alone’

Going to a courtroom can be scary, especially for children at the center of custody cases. Getting a small gift can help to take some of the fear out of the experience.

That’s where Courtroom Assisted Reading Encouragement (CARE) comes in to help. Those in charge of the program maintain a small book collection in the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe, and any child who comes through Judge Kathleen Sloan’s courtroom gets the opportunity to pick a volume to take home and keep.

“They get to end their day that probably started in the courtroom with entering this room and experiencing this very positive, empowering event,” said Melody Kinnamon, a librarian for the Johnson County Library system.

“They get to pick what they want, and they get to keep it,” says Kinnamon, who oversees the program. “We’re coming alongside these kids during what we’re assuming is a difficult situation, and we’re trying to make it better.”

Sloan, who handles child-in-need-of-care cases, said she has invited other judges and court-appointed special advocates to bring children to the CARE collection.

“These are children who have either been removed from their parents or they stay with their parents with court involvement,” Sloan said.

“Humanity or normalcy” is important, she said.

Currently, about 150 to 200 new books each year are given out.

“For a lot of kids, that might be the very first book they had, ever,” Sloan said.

It started about 18 years ago, when Sloan and Kathy McClellan, then a librarian, were thinking along the same lines when it came to kids in difficult situations. McClellan had previously done a story-time program where a 4-year-old peppered her with comments.

Afterward, a childcare worker with the boy, who was in foster care, told McClellan that it was the first time she’d heard him talk in the two weeks she’d known him.

Meanwhile, Sloan had already started collecting stuffed animals to give to kids in her courtroom and had also worked on a library program where she had a book club with teenage juvenile offenders on intensive supervision probation called Changing Lives Through Literature.

When McClellan heard how interested Sloan was in giving books to kids, she sought her out. The result, with a $1,000 starting donation from the Johnson County Library Foundation, was the CARE collection.

“I think it helps create a safe place for them. It helps them feel not alone. It helps them understand people care about them. Somebody out there wants them to have this,” McClellan said.

Originally, McClellan stocked books with themes she thought the kids might relate to, such as abandonment, growing up too fast and loneliness.

Now, the focus is just providing books with a wide variety of topics for all reading levels. Kinnamon said the library system’s collection development team chooses the titles for the CARE collection.

Some kids are super excited to see the collection, and a few are a little reluctant.

“I remember a boy, I asked him if he enjoyed reading, and he wrinkled up his nose and said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘You might see something your friends are reading, and you might want to read it.’ And the boy came back, and sure enough, he picked out a book,” Sloan said.

In the years since it started, Sloan has heard back from kids about how important it was to get the books and stuffed animals.

“When their case is done, I give them my email address and say, ‘It’s not an order of the court, but if you ever want to email me and brag about yourself or tell me how you’re doing, you’re welcome to,’” she said.

“I’ve had several that have come here to say hi to me (and say), ‘I remember when you gave me that book. I still have that stuffed animal.’”