By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — “I found it!” Kristin Barth exclaimed as she turned to tell her two young sons, who had wandered off to another part of Lake Memorial Park with their grandfather.
What the young Somers Point mother found was an image hidden on one of the illustrations in “Snowmen at Night,” a children’s book posted page by page on large displays around the park and lit by small white Christmas lights. She couldn’t wait to share the find with her sons, Connor, 8, and Cameron, 4, and their grandfather, Rich Garland of Ocean City.
They were at the park at a perfect time, just as dusk was falling and the little Christmas lights were illuminating the pages.
“We really enjoy this,” said Barth, who grew up in Ocean City. “We called it ‘Gruffalo Park’ when ‘The Gruffalo’ was (the StoryWalk©). We really enjoyed it. It was a really fun activity and we couldn’t wait to see what the new story was and the new scavenger hunt.
“This is just a really nice activity and we’re really glad the public library did this for the community of Ocean City and everybody else,” she said.
Part of the fun of this book, “Snowmen at Night,” written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by her husband, Mark Buehner, is that the illustrator hides things inside his illustrations, such as Santa’s face, a rabbit and a Tyrannosaurus rex. Not only were the kids enjoying finding the hidden images, so were the adults.
“Yes, I was,” Barth laughed. “We found all the scavenger hunt (items) and now we’re trying to find all of the characters hidden in the story itself.”
She noted they found the first three and were now working on finding the cat.
Connor Barth, a second-grader at St. Joseph’s Regional School in Somers Point, was enjoying himself.
“I like the story and the lights and how there’s actually two kinds of scavenger hunts,” he said. “One kind is in the book and the other is outside.”
His younger brother nodded in agreement. Connor explained Cameron was not yet ready for school.
“We still have to teach him a lot more before he can go,” Connor said, drawing laughter from his mother.
Connor noted he also enjoys making his brother laugh.
“And he makes me laugh, too, when he does things like hide behind a tree,” Connor said as he watched Cameron hide behind a tree to observe a Linwood family reading a page from the book.
The Ocean City Free Public Library, which is sponsoring its second StoryWalk©, not only has the pages posted along the walkway in the small, pretty park at 407 Wesley Ave., but has set up a scavenger hunt as well. The first StoryWalk© featured the children’s book “The Gruffalo.”
Children’s librarian Taimi Kelley, who organized the StoryWalk©, said “Snowmen at Night” is a popular, well-loved book.
“We wanted to choose a book that hit a broad range of children,” she explained, “so that preschoolers through school-aged children would enjoy the story.”
One aspect that drew the library to the book is the illustrations — and the illustrations within the illustrations.
“They’re difficult to find, so that is something the older kids might enjoy,” she said. “I’m still looking for a few of them.”
That may also draw families to return to the park to look for more hidden pictures in the book, she said.
The book also was chosen because it’s perfect for the time of year. This StoryWalk© is going to be at Lake Memorial Park until Jan. 31.
The StoryWalk© is open during the day and evenings, and Kelley said a perfect time to go is between 3:30 and 5 p.m. — “before it gets really, really dark.” The lights come on a little after 3 p.m. and stay on until about 9 p.m.
“You can still see the book but you can also enjoy the lights,” she said.
After finishing the walk, families can use a QR code on the final sign or a website link to take a survey and enter to win a prize.
If they access it there, there are hints about where to find items in the scavenger hunt scattered throughout Lake Memorial Park.
And if they stop at the children’s desk at the library, they will get a “snowy craft” they can complete.
Kelley said it is difficult to know exactly how many people went to “The Gruffalo” StoryWalk© because the library doesn’t monitor the park, but more than 300 people returned the survey form.
“We thought that was very successful and a lot of people shared positive comments with us as well, which was nice to hear,” she said.
Lake Memorial Park “really is the perfect setting for a StoryWalk©.”
For families who would like to take an evening walk, the library has flashlights they can use to navigate the park and read the pages and do the scavenger hunt. Of course, families can bring their own flashlights, but if they stop by the library first, they also can pick up the “snowy craft.”
As dusk continued to fall across the park last week, Erika White of Linwood and her two children, Mazzy, almost 6, and Kodiak, 3, were studiously studying each of the pages, trying find the hidden images.
“We go to the library — well, we used to go to the library a lot,” White said, referencing the pandemic restrictions. “And we still go to get books and we saw the StoryWalk© and thought, ‘This is really cool.’ We missed ‘The Gruffalo’ one, so now we’re getting the snowman one in.”
The Ocean City Free Public Library is at 1735 Simpson Ave., inside the Ocean City Community Center.
