The Library story hour for the children began in a very modest
way at our West End branch. It has passed through the
experimental stage and is now a part of the regular routine of
our six children's rooms. At first disconnected stories were told
but when we found how much the stories influenced the children's
reading, we began to follow a regular program, which has proved
more effective than haphazard story telling. Last year we told
stories from Greek mythology and Homer and had an attendance of
over 5,000 children. The books placed on special story hour
shelves were taken out 2,000 times.
This year the stories are drawn from the Norse myths and the
Niebelungen Lied. They are told by the children's librarians and
the students of our Training school for children's librarians,
every Friday afternoon from November first to April first. As the
hour draws near, the children's rooms begin to fill with eagerly
expectant children. There is an atmosphere of repressed
excitement, and when the appointed minute comes, the children
quickly form into line and march into the lecture room where the
story is told. Once there, the children group themselves on the
floor about the story teller, and all is attention. It may be
that the story is a hard one to tell, the process of adapting and
preparing it may have been difficult, but in the interested faces
of the children and in the bright eyes fixed upon her face, the
story teller finds her inspiration.
Extra copies of books containing Norse myths have been provided
for each children's room. Since few of these books are for very
young children, we tell these poetic stories of our Northern
ancestors to the older boys and girls only. For the younger ones
there are such stories as The Three Bears, Hop-o'-my-thumb, and
other old nursery favorites. At Thanksgiving, Christmas and a few
other holidays, the program is dropped and one full of the spirit
of the season is told instead. That the children enjoy and
appreciate the stories is seen by the steadily increasing
attendance, and by the fact that the same children return week
after week. Teachers say the very worst punishment they can
inflict is to detain a child so late on Friday that he misses his
story hour. During the summer months, and early fall, when no
stories were being told, there were many anxious inquiries as to
when the story hour would begin. At our West End branch the
children clamored so for their stories that the work was
commenced a month before the time for beginning the regular
program.
And what is the use of story telling? Is it merely to amuse and
entertain the children? Were it simply for this, the time would
not seem wasted, when one recalls the bright and happy faces and
realizes what an hour of delight it is to many children
oftentimes their only escape from mean and sordid surroundings
Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson once said that to lie on the
hearth rug and listen to one's mother reading aloud is a liberal
education, but such sweet and precious privileges are only for
the few. The story hour is intended to meet this want in some
slight degree, to give the child a glimpse beyond the horizon
which hitherto has limited his life, and open up to him those
vast realms of literature which are a part of his inheritance,
for unless he enters this great domain through the gateway of
childish fancy and imagination, the probability is that he will
never find any other opening. To arouse and stimulate a love for
the best reading is then the real object of the story hour.
Through the story the child's interest is awakened, the librarian
places in his hands just the right book to develop that interest,
and gradually there is formed a taste for good literature.