Few among us can, in some way, change the world forever for children. Lillian ”Bunny” New has been doing so for 58 years.
”You never know, when you give out a book, how it may influence a child,” she said. ”But there`s always a chance you may influence a life. That`s always been one of the biggest joys of this job.”
The joys, and the job, would seem to be addictive. When she retired recently at 76, Bunny New had mixed feelings about no longer being a children`s librarian for the Chicago Public Library.
”Fifty-eight years-I`m amazed at how they have rolled by. It`s a whole lifetime, and at just one job. I go out still loving it. I need more leisure time for myself and Walter, my husband. We have no children ourselves but enjoy a large extended family of many brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. We`ve very close, and they`ve all been urging me to retire.”
At her retirement party, New`s admiring colleagues threatened to give her every volume of Dr. Seuss ever printed. The notion made her giggle. Instead, they presented her with a gold library card, and she thought that was very nice. In a profession that takes longevity for granted, she seems to inspire awe as well as affection.
”Bunny is incredibly good with children,” said Liz Huntoon, director of children`s services for the library. ”Bunny is an incredible `book pusher.`
Bunny is an incredible storyteller.”
New has worked everywhere in the Chicago system, from libraries in housing projects to branches to regional libraries. By taking night school courses and competitive exams, she slowly rose through the ranks to direct the downtown flagship-the Thomas Hughes Children`s Library in the Cultural Center- for 30 years (from 1955 to 1985). Since then, she has served as a traveling storyteller for the library. But her heart never really left Hughes.
”We developed that collection from 10,000 volumes to 75,000,” she said proudly. ”We added nonbook materials-cassettes, films and filmstrips, recordings. We also initiated an important and unusual reference collection of children`s books, and we included materials for parents and teachers on how to guide children`s reading. Librarians don`t teach kids to read, of course, we coach them in what to read. Adults have always used the downtown room a great deal.”
Taking the kids down to the Central Library on a Saturday morning to hear Bunny New tell stories has been a Chicago tradition for three generations. But don`t let her quaint nickname fool you. New typifies the tough, vibrant, magnetic storytelling librarian whose mission is to bring children and good books together. Such librarians are the Jesuits of literature, the shock troops inflamed with zeal who inspire the young and convert them to a lifetime of reading.
”You`ve got to be good and know your stuff, because kids will spot a phony right away,” New said. ”In my day, reading was the big entertainment for children. Publications were few during the Depression. Budgets were nonexistent. Whatever libraries had, kids would read.
”I remember when I was at the Douglas branch, at 13th and Homan, the kids would stand in line outside the library. Shelves were practically bare. Each youngster would snatch any book the kid in front of him had returned. Sometimes, we`d have to run in the back and mend the books with paste. The children would wait patiently.”
They read what kids always have read-”Yes, the classics like `Tom Sawyer,` `Winnie the Pooh,` the Grimm and Andersen fairy tales, `Treasure Island.` Each generation finds them anew. There always are new voices-years ago it was Anne of Green Gables, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins; now it`s the stories of Judy Blume, Lois Lowry and Beverly Cleary. Today the presentations are so beautiful, so artistic, but the subjects haven`t changed dramatically.”
As a young woman armed only with a newly minted diploma from Marshall High School, New had accompanied a nervous girlfriend who was to take the written test for a job with the public library. While she was there, New decided to take the exam, as well. Both friends passed, and New won a job as a $75-a-month clerk at the Eckhart Park branch, Chicago and Ashland Avenues. That was Nov. 18, 1929.
”I had wanted to go to college and become a gym teacher,” she recalled. ”But I needed a job, and I got caught up in it immediately. We were very much dedicated to getting the right book to the right child at the right time. Everything we did-beginning with the book collection and all our reachout activities to the community-were aimed at serving the child.”
New`s friends recall how she used to roller-skate through cavernous library basements, seeking a special book for a youngster. She once gave a boy named Robert Gruenberg a new adventure story about a newspaper reporter. Gruenberg, who grew to be a Washington correspondent for the Chicago Daily News, told New that he credited his career dreams to the book she had given him.
Nor were her duties limited to the library. For many years New regularly told stories to youngsters at Children`s Memorial Hospital. In the 1940s she was the first Chicago librarian to hitch a trailer filled with books to a little Ford and head for the neighborhoods, a daring adventure for a young librarian in those days. Her boss always made her call back to make sure she`d gotten there okay.
”I had wanted a bullhorn to summon the kids,” she said, laughing, ”but we didn`t need it. The kids came a-running. We`d go out to the parks and playgrounds and circulate books. Then we`d sit down and tell stories. The idea of the Bookmobile arose from trailers like ours. But our treks also often defined the places where the children gathered. Those often proved to be good sites upon which to build branch libraries.
”Chicago is unique in that it has so many branches (84). The goal of the profession has always been to have some sort of library service within a mile`s walking distance of every child.”
Television in the 1950s nearly killed reading.
”Reading stopped,” New said. ”It just stopped. The child was glued to the set, and that was that.”
Rather than sulk, New went on TV. In fact, in September, 1955, hers was the first-and only-program on Chicago`s infant educational channel, WTTW. That way, children as far as 60 miles away could watch Bunny New tell the story of Ferdinand the Bull, although Loop skyscrapers tended to obliterate the station`s weak signal.
”Our program was called `Story Time,` and I was Miss Bunny, the Story Lady. Back then, Channel 11 had only one camera. They would turn it on, and I would read stories to a group of children. The show was broadcast to the schools, of course. When I was done, they`d turn off the camera and the station. I was supposed to only be an experiment for six weeks. I ended up staying for three years.”
Despite TV, kids gradually started coming back to the library, New said. Readers aren`t born, she believes; they are made.
”Parents really must start early. Mother and father read the rhymes and sing lullabies. You know, you can read the Congressional Record to an infant- the words don`t matter. It`s the voice and the rhythm that count.
”Then come the Mother Goose rhymes and other nursery tales, all introduced before age 3. From 3 to 5, they`re ready for a longer story, for newer concepts, such as Margaret Wise Brown`s `Good-Night Moon` and Maurice Sendak`s `Where the Wild Things Are,` two of my favorites. At 5, there is another transition-the kids are wanting to read for themselves. So the youngsters invariably will start to pick up words, match pictures, start to read. Then, through the first three primary grades, they do a lot of independent reading.
”From 4th through 6th grade are the peak reading years for children. That`s when they`re really on their own. Social life and sports don`t quite interfere yet, and if the kids make the time they become good readers. It`s then that it happens-that`s the crucial time-it`s then or never. After that they develop other interests.
”But if you`ve pumped reading in early, it returns later. I`ve seen it countless times-they will turn to books as a habit. It`s instilled in them. If you learn early to read and to enjoy books, it will carry through for the rest of your life.”
New said she never has recommended a book she didn`t like. Nor has she ever had a parent chew her out.
”I used to read every book that came in, but with 2,500 new children`s books published each year now, we can only skim. All children`s librarians want the same things we`d want in a book for adults-an interesting beginning, proper character development, and a strong ending-a good story.”
During her long Chicago tenure, she never has encountered censorship.
”Books can be controversial, certainly. Today the trend is toward problems-a mother who is an alcoholic, a father who beats up his wife, a grandparent with Alzheimer`s. All the problems in the adult world are being brought down to the children. That`s fine with me-I don`t believe in sugar-coating life-so long as the situation is handled sensibly and well.
”Children`s books today tackle any and all subjects-stepbrothers and stepsisters, adoption, siblings who are learning-disabled. Sex still makes parents nervous, and we always tell them that they should know what books their children are reading. We are supplying the shelves with what we consider to be worthwhile books. If parents have questions, we encourage them to read the books before allowing their children to.”
She worries about children who refuse to read.
”Maybe they just don`t want to. Maybe they`re just not inspired. Children must be led to books. Reading really starts in the home,” she said. ”From what librarians see, more kids seem to be reading today than they used to. The parents are better educated, more knowledgeable, than they were 50 years ago. They know the importance of reading, of using a public library. They bring in the children in early. They make it a habit.”
And they leave the rest to pros like Bunny New.
