Storied career of children’s librarian ends after 50 years
CANANDAIGUA — Storytelling looks easy when Mary Ferris does it.
The 50-year Wood Library children’s librarian holds a book in her right hand and positions it so the youthful audience can see the pictures.
Her voice changes with the characters as she reads. Sometimes she dresses in costume. Some people have wonderful voices for storytelling, Ferris said.
So does she.
Allow Ferris, whose last day as the library’s first children’s librarian was March 15, to pull back the curtain and show you what’s happening behind the scenes.
To an onlooker she’s just holding a book, but the story she’s telling is a selection that Ferris has already put a lot of thought behind. Will this appeal to kids? What is the best way to appeal to this age group of kids?
At the same time she’s reading, Ferris is wrangling the attention of 25 preschoolers. What’s going on out in the hall? What’s coming next?
Are the kids focused on the story or on her, because the storyteller shouldn’t be the story?
“The storyteller is just the vessel the words are coming out of,” Ferris said.
Ferris will be missed for many reasons, and not just because she made the job look easy.
Ferris is known throughout the Canandaigua community and beyond for her skill, from adults who remember her stories from when they were kids to the kids who continue to be enthralled. Many of them will be in attendance for a goingaway party at the library on March 17.
Her flannel board stories, fingerplays, dances and songs are quite the hit with all the kids, said Wood Library Executive Director Jenny Goodemote, relating a story of how her son heard Ferris singing “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” and wanted to sit in and listen as he did when he was younger.
“Kids have this memory of these times with Mary,” Goodemote said. “They hold onto them throughout their lives.”
Here are a few takeaways from 50 years of inspiring kids to read.
On the importance of reading
Growing up in Lockport, Ferris remembers how her father would bring home newspapers for everyone to read, each at their own speed.
Today, Ferris said one of the most important things parents can do is read to their children and demonstrate a love of reading.
Reading, after all, affects everything in life. Even if you go to a baseball game, you’re going to be reading a scoreboard. If you’re going on a trip, you’re going to be reading a map.
“I wish that everybody could have that aha moment the minute they realize what the squiggles on a page mean. It should rate up there with learning how to drive a car,” Ferris said. “It is really one of the most exciting things to me and one of the most important things is being able to read and love it. If you can love it, it just opens the doors for everything else.”
Changes in children’s lit over the years
There is a lot of “schlock” out there, and Ferris felt that one of her purposes was to weed through it and put the very best in the Wood Library collection for people to enjoy.
“You’re seeing a lot more effort to make sure that there’s inclusivity, whether it be in the story itself or the illustrations,” Ferris said.
A Harry Potter fan, Ferris said the books featuring everyone’s favorite youthful wizard were eye-opening to the publishing industry in that they learned you don’t have to talk down or read down to kids.
“Good old Harry Potter showed kids that, yeah, you don’t have to read a skinny book. You can read a longer one and still enjoy it,” Ferris said. ”They’re willing to stretch if it’s a good story. That, to me, is really the important thing.”
What books does Ferris enjoy reading?
Two works, for different reasons, occupy spots on Ferris’ “best of” children’s bookshelf.
The ones that are considered classics don’t always stand the test of time, because different books are appealing at different stages of life, but this one does: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. It’s so successful in its simplicity and so unique in its construction, said Ferris, who dressed up as the caterpillar for Halloween one year. The illustrations, which are done with tissue paper collage, are beautiful. Such a little book, which is aimed at preschoolers, teaches so many lessons. The days of the week, counting and metamorphosis are just a few.
“I think it’s one of the most perfect ones,” Ferris said. “It’s at the level of the audience, so it’s not talking down to them. It presents all kinds of concepts in a really, really simple way.” Once Ferris discovered the Harry Potter novels, she was taken.
“I just totally, totally went into it and enjoyed it,” Ferris said. “Even to this day, if I’m someplace and I don’t have a book with me, I can use my phone and start reading Harry Potter again.”
Time for someone to ‘see things with fresh eyes’
Ferris always said she wasn’t going to retire until she had plans for what she was going to do next, but she doesn’t.
“I just feel that it’s time for somebody else to come in with some new ideas, see things with fresh eyes – I ain’t no spring chicken! I’m well past retirement age but I never felt like I wanted to retire,” Ferris said. “It’s just time for somebody else to put their mark on this wonderful position. It’s such a joy to work here. The people I work with are wonderful; they’ve become like a second family to me. I’m going to miss them and the families who come in. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful place to have a career.”
Rachel Brill, who comes to Wood Library from the Webster and Pittsford libraries, started Feb. 28. Count Ferris as a fan, who has seen her work with children. “She’s going to be great,” Ferris said. “She has great ideas, and is going to be able to create her own path and is eager to do it. Everybody here is going to be in good hands with her.” In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon resigned from office as a result of the Watergate scandal. Atlanta Braves slugger Henry Aaron shrugged off death threats and racism and hit homer 715, moving past the storied Babe Ruth as Major League Baseball’s home run leader. Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon was born that year.
And on Feb. 1, 1974, the first and up until her successor was hired, the only children’s librarian the Wood Library in Canandaigua had employed sat at a desk and asked, “OK, what do I do?” Ferris recalled. “I really had no idea. I knew I wanted to connect with the community. I wanted to connect kids with books. I wanted to connect with families.”