Cinda Nofziger - Reading The Room

Cinda Nofziger, Homer Library’s Youth Service Librarian

Things are pretty good for Cinda Nofziger these days because she gets to live in Homer, Alaska - a place she loved visiting as a kid, and the place she chooses to live as an adult. And, Cinda says, life is good because, as the Youth Service Librarian at the Homer Public Library, hers is just “the best job!”

Cinda offers a wide, irrepressible smile when talking about her job. “I get to come to work each day,” she says with gusto, “and feel all this good kid energy.” Cinda has the next generation of readers, of library patrons, in her hands. She feels the weight of the job, the import and anticipated effects of her work: “I get to teach them the tools of research and finding things out,” she offers. She also relishes the benefits of this particular role in the lives of Homer’s littlest learners, adding, “I encourage them to read, but I don’t have to teach them how to read. I get all the positives of interacting with children and only a touch of dealing with the hard stuff of children.”

The Joy griffin Children’s Library is an integral part of Homer’s Library

On this morning, Cinda has 18 toddlers and their adults joining her for a weekly Story Hour in the Joy Griffin Children’s Library section of the Homer Public Library. The space is large and well-lit, specifically and imaginatively designed for children. This room is no after-thought, but a primary space, significantly sized and prominently placed at the very front of the library, with glass walls so everyone can see the excitement happening within. A birch tree forest sprouts from floor to ceiling where, this morning, the toddlers – sprites, all – gather on springy pods of blue and green. Cinda and her assistant – a jaunty golden octopus (stuffed and plush, not slithering) – accompanies her on a toadstool up front.

children are rapt as cinda reads to them

As the children settle in, Cinda greets each child by name. Two new children, siblings, are here today and she welcomes their adult and asks their names – she calls to each of them by name later in story time, asks each a question about the story she reads. Another little boy points to a book on the shelf near where Cinda sits. The child says “booo” to his adult, trying to say “book.” He gets to hold it while he sits on his pod listening to Cinda read.

During the first story’s reading, the toddlers are still restless and wiggly, and a few late-comers straggle in. A few children wander up and stand in front of the book Cinda has chosen to read, looking closely at the illustrations and blocking the others’ view. Their behavior is fine; Cinda is patient and uses a gentle voice as she redirects the little ones back to their pods. Then, in a quick shift back to being active, it’s time for a song and everybody is up. “Bananas Unite!” Cinda exclaims, and her singing bananas wave their arms along their bodies: “Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas!” Then they all chop their arms wildly: “Chop bananas, chop, chop bananas!” It seems the kiddos know every word by heart. Loud! Then louder (thank goodness for the thick glass walls – the rest of the library hardly notices the mahem). By the final cheer of “Goooooooo, bananas!” the children flop into their pods, wiggled-out and ready for two more stories.

reading is an all body, all group experience during story time

One mother, Soniyae, is here with her son, Rex, who is a year and a half old. Rex is the youngest of her three children, and Soniyae says she that today is feeling sentimental about story time. When she was a first-time mom, story time with Cinda was a great chance to meet other first-time moms. “Those moms were in the same boat as me,” she offers, and adds that her older two children easily made friends in the group. Soniyae describes how important Story Hour is for Rex: “It’s instrumental, especially at Rex’s age, to be in a different setting [from home], for socializing, reading, singing, seeing other babies and toddlers.” It’s good for Soniyae, too: “Honestly,” the mother adds, “this group saved me, many times. One: I had something to do with my kids; and two: being here is a safe zone for me. It’s definitely community-driven.” And, she adds, Cinda isn’t just good with the kids, she connects strongly and authentically with the parents: “It’s incredible what Cinda does! She can read the room!”

Reading the room might be a tad more difficult with reticent teens, but Cinda makes that work, too. One Monday evening a month, Cinda convenes her Teen Advisory Board to offer a youth voice to the library board, to plan events for young readers in Homer, and to goof around together. On a recent Monday, 6 teens gather to make props and a set for a short play they are working on to incite younger kids to join in the Summer Reading Program at the library. This year’s Reading Program theme is “Plant A Seed, Read!” The group has chosen a scene from Frog and Toad and are crafting a giant seed packet out of cardboard to serve as the backdrop for their interpretative invitation.

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The teens enter the activity room in the library in their hoodies and sneakers, one or two with blue hair or pink hair, in sunglasses or funky suspenders. One student has brought an electric guitar and promises improvised accompaniment as the others draw and debate. “Who can make a cardboard violin?” one of the teens asks. “Are we doing ‘wildflowers’ or ‘Wild Flowers’?” another posits. Between designing the lettering and prepping to paint, students pair off and run lines for the show that is just a couple of weeks away. “Is Toad a younger sibling?” one line-runner asks, loudly, over the chitter-chatter of the scene painters. Cinda responds, “I don’t know. Why?” “He kind of has the attitude,” the teen observes.

The energy and the attitudes of the teens, like the curiosity of the toddlers earlier, is reflected back in equal measure by Cinda. She is vibrant and talkative. Her buoyancy seems constant, even when discussing a recent controversy involving a small group of parents who wanted certain books removed from the library shelves. Cinda acknowledged that book challenges are happening all over the country now and expressed relief and appreciation for her fellow Homer-ites and their support. “Overwhelmingly,” she notes, “the town of Homer has stood behind the library and its mission. It’s our job, as librarians, to provide accurate information, good information. We represent a variety of voices; all voices are available in the library.” As for heeding censorship and caving to pressure? Cinda is resolute: “Parents are responsible for their own children and not other people’s children.”

young adult novels on display at homer public library

That level of intellectual freedom and curiosity was evident in Cinda even when she was learning how to be a reader herself. Lotta Crabtree: Girl of the Gold Rush, a 1958 children’s book by Marian T. Place, was a book that captured Cinda’s childhood imagination and proved pivotal to her life’s work connecting literature and books to community. Lotta was a book Cinda read every summer as a girl when she came to visit her grandparents in Homer; returning to it was part of the magic of coming to Homer. “It was history,” Cinda recalls, “It was about a girl who was a dancer. She moved to California during the Gold Rush and lived in the worker’s camps with her family. She was strong, determined. I loved her. I thought she was just amazing.”

Cinda laughs when asked about the very best thing about being the youth service librarian in Homer. “Well, I AM like a celebrity in town!” she says with mock humility. “It’s undeserved celebrity, but the kids love to see me in public.” Her real power? “I want the kids who come to my programs to feel seen and heard by grownups who want them to be successful and whole human beings…. Whether it’s a book about volcanoes, or whatever, I want books to give kids some insight into what they are interested in, some context for the world, and to help them to become who they want to be.”