BonnerSprings.com

With the help of a large, orange, furry friend, Storytime librarian Jeanne Dunbar instills a love of letters and books into the hearts of young children.

She does this each week during an event called Alphabet Express Storytime, where toddlers and preschoolers get the chance to learn about letters and numbers and hear the sound of Dunbar’s animated voice bringing alive whatever adventure happens to be in the pages of that day’s selected book.

After five years of serving as the Bonner City Library’s Alphabet Express Storytime coordinator, Dunbar said her feelings regarding her job are just as strong now as they ever were.

“I hate it, can you tell?” Dunbar said with a laugh. “I love it, I love these kids. I love doing this. It is an immense joy to me. I see these little kids … that don’t know how to sit (still). This is their first experience learning how to sit and listen to a story. So just seeing them grow and learn how to listen and how to learn. I love my job.”

Dunbar offers Storytime sessions several times a week at the library – one session for toddlers ages 1 to 2, two sessions for preschoolers ages 3 to five and one session for families – and also travels to preschools in Bonner Springs throughout the week. Her helper in this endeavor is Bill – a large stuffed gorilla that Dunbar often refers to throughout the 45-minute session and that the youths can interact with. She said Bill was given to her after her first, living and breathing Storytime partner, Susan Leininger, retired about four years ago.

“When she left, I was a little intimidated,” Dunbar remembers. “The first couple of times, (I thought) ‘What am I going to do with this 800-pound gorilla? And the kids loved it.”

More of this story can be found in this week’s issue of the Chieftain, out Thursday.

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