Sarah Johnson, above, wears many hats at Left Bank Books, and she, unlike everyone else who works at the neighborhood bookstore, sports a nickname as well. Johnson is the shop's card and "sidelines" buyer, she coordinates reading group titles, and trains new hires. Her favorite assignment, however, takes place on Saturday mornings at 10:30 when she plays Miss Jonesey, a nickname that grew out of a misunderstanding of her real last name. Wearing that hat, she is part actress, part teacher, entertainer and bookseller.
Johnson began playing Miss Jonesey at Left Bank Book's downtown store and moved to the CWE when that location closed in May, 2014. Of those former days she says there are a lot of families that live downtown and that Storytime events were always well attended.
Her Storytime audience may come up to her knees (a slight exaggeration), but toddlers up to age 3 are her toughest challenge. She isn't a parent or trained as an educator, but has learned on the fly to switch gears and grab a different book after sizing up the interest and attention span of the 7 or so kids who arrive each Saturday morning.
Once a month Johnson holds an author event for Storytime. One morning when I attended with my niece Emily and her 3 year-old son Sam, author John Hendrix, above, was there to "discuss" Drawing is Magic. The reading was absolutely hysterical to this observer, as most of the kids were still in the scribbling stage. Hendricks' demonstration and instructions on drawing something specific were completely lost in translation. The author, one of LBB's favorites, was a good sport, Miss Jonesey was unflappable, and some parents bought the book anyway.
Speaking of the parents a happy byproduct of the Storytime experience for Miss Jonesey is to see the parents, who may not have known each other before, interact.
Another author event featured St. Louis-based author Bill Perry, above, shown with his wife, who introduced the Storytime audience to Road Trip, a 35' long fold-out book originally created for his son. This book was perfectly suited to the young audience who were handed toy cars and asked to take a road trip, above and below.
Miss Jonesey, above, fell in love with children's literature when she worked at B.Dalton in Wichita, Kansas in 1993. Currently her favorite author is Oliver Jeffers who wrote Stuck; and one of her favorite books of all time is Animalium, a gorgeous book that was mentioned in this blog's 2014 holiday shopping guide. Both are currently on the shelf at LBB.
Storytime at Left Bank Books, 10:30 a.m. Saturdays, 399 N. Euclid.