Photo By Joel Troyer photo/www.buyphotos.comBarb Landers, Wayne County Public Library children’s department manager, reads a book to her story time patrons at the Wooster library on Liberty Street.
By LINDA HALL, Staff Writer
WOOSTER — A dog who doesn’t bark, but instead gets mixed up in making other animal noises, brings out the best in children’s imaginations, and in Barb Landers’ storytelling.
She doesn’t like to read “Bark, George,” word for word to her young patrons, but rather involves them in the interaction that the book by Jules Feiffer elicits from them.
At the end of the book, when George, much to his distressed mother’s chagrin, says, “Hello,” Landers explained, “Kids don’t get it right away.”
“I just kind of let it ’sit,’” she said, until it sinks in.
One little boy, who had already seen a picture showing the cow George had allegedly ingested, came up with his own insight. “He swallowed a people,” the young listener told Landers, the children’s department manager at the Wayne County Public Library in downtown Wooster.
“I love books like this that are on two levels,” inviting response from children and adults, she said.
It is not the only way Landers is unique as a librarian, or the way that her life is a blend of many experiences and insights.
Landers, who graduated from The College of Wooster with a major in religion and a minor in psychology and sociology, first learned she was dyslexic during a psychology experiment conducted by an older student.
She suddenly understood why she often saw things differently from her classmates and why she never particularly liked reading as a child.
“But I loved learning,” said Landers, who related one of her coping mechanisms as a student whose diagnosis at that time had no therapeutic antidote was to “check, double-check and triple-check” all of her work.
She can still recall 1,000 pages a week in her Western Civilization class at The College. “It took me forever to slosh through that,” she said.
But hard work and coming up with her own coping mechanisms paid off with a Phi Beta Kappa key and honors in graduate school as well.
“I wouldn’t accept anything less than it took to make (my work) perfect,” she said.
Originally seeking a career as a minister, Landers’ first job as an adult was social work at Wayne County Children Services.
After taking time off for her children, she volunteered in the library at Franklin Township Elementary School in Triway Local Schools and for a time worked part time there and part time at the Wayne County library.
When she worked in outreach services at the county library, her job very effectively meshed her two seemingly disparate careers.
Combined with earning a master’s degree in library and information science at the University of Illinois, “A lot of that all scrambled together to make this job,” she said.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, part of her own life, based on the small town where she grew up in Illinois, is in a book — two, actually — “Long Way from Chicago” and “A Year Down Yonder” by Richard Peck.
“Whoever thought Milmine would be in a book?” asked Landers.
“I’m really committed to early childhood literacy,” Landers said, for children who have trouble reading, as she did, and for those who simply haven’t been exposed to books.
“Having fun with the books and the words — I can do that,” Landers said. “I do change (the script) of books … so that kids get a chance to use their (own) language.
“There is so much they need to learn to get ready to go to kindergarten,” said Landers, who clearly still enjoys the process of learning herself.
“She really loves her job and loves working with children,” fellow children’s librarian Becky Vaeth said.
She also enjoys keeping up with children’s literature and is “always reading books and telling us about them,” Vaeth said.
The children’s department knows it can count on her “to suggest (a book) that will fit perfectly for (a specific) child,” Vaeth said, adding, Landers keeps everyone in the department enthusiastic.
Reporter Linda Hall can be reached at 330-264-1125, Ext. 2230, or e-mail lhall@the-daily-record.com.
