Published: November 03, 2009 12:52 pm      

Meet LaDean the storyhour queen

When Storyhour begins, Cooke County Public Library (CCPL) Children’s Coordinator LaDean Atwell is at the helm, with a big smile on her face for the kids.

She leads them in the theme song, “The More We Get Together the Happier We’ll Be,” and brings bright and happy news to the attentive children.

“I love it,” Atwell said of her role in the weekly Storyhour. “It’s the joy of my life. It’s an excellent thing to do and it brings a smile to your face.”

She also oversees the children’s area of the library and creates monthly displays for their bulletin board and coordinates the art gallery where children from schools throughout the county show their artwork.

Atwell is at home in the library’s children’s room and remarked, “The room is cheerful. It’s peaceful and it has to do with children.”

Her work also involves helping the kids read and find books and helping parents find books for their kids.

Atwell’s story about how she came to live in Texas is this. Her mother lived in a small town named Gainesville for 20 years and when Atwell came to visit, she decided to save up to purchase a home here and move here herself.

On the road to coming here she drove through the eye of the terrible storm of 2005 in Nocona. She kept on going until she pulled in the driveway of her new home.

Atwell came to work at the library after meeting with the director, Jennifer Johnson-Spence, and sharing with her the ideas and experiences that 35 years as a teacher brought her and how it would all fit in with what was needed at the CCPL.

Speaking of people she has met in Gainesville Atwell said, “The people that I have met are my friends, and they’re very nice.”

“It’s interesting how everyone meets each other,” Atwell said. She was referring to people even at the library who lived off somewhere in some big city or other state and how they end up in Gainesville.

Atwell was born in Chickasha, Okla. and also lived in Kansas. At 12 years of age she moved with her family to Anaheim, Calif.

“My father helped build Disneyland,” Atwell said. Consequently, she spent many hours enjoying the theme park.

For fun, she likes to ride her beach cruiser bike while exercising her black lab, Toby. This is a hobby they have enjoyed even before they became Gainesvillian’s. She recalled good memories of also exercising and enjoying the outdoors on the sand stretch from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach along Pacific Coast Highway while in California.

Gardening is also a hobby and she grew over 1,500 sunflowers of various sizes this season.

Regarding reading, she likes children’s books and novels written by Nicholas Sparks, especially, “The Notebook.”

Atwell gets excited when she talks about the firemen coming to Storyhour today to see the kids, and that next Tuesday, Ryan from the Frank Buck Zoo will be bringing a small animal with him to share with the kids.

That she loves and cares about kids is more than evident. “They bring a smile to my face,” she said again, “and you never want to stop reading stories to children.”