E. Assata Wright

Why are 4,000 kids calling library hotline each year to hear bedtime stories from Jersey City officials?
Overworked parents employ many strategies to occupy their kids. The Jersey City Free Public Library has offered an option, for nine years, of letting parents and kids call in to hear stories read by city officials ? even one former mayor who has passed away ? before they go to bed. And the kids are taking them up on it.

In 2004 Priscilla Gardner, director of the Jersey City Free Public Library, came up with the idea for Dial-a-Story, a free service that allows people to dial a city number and select pre-recorded children?s stories ready by library staffers and city ?celebrities.?

The offerings are unique. ?The Adventures of Mayor-Man,? read by the late Mayor Glenn Cunningham, has had a total of 3,981 callers since 2004. Cunningham died suddenly of a heart attack the next year, but his story was kept on rotation on the Dial-a-Story service. (An excerpt from the story, written by former council aide Greg Malave: ?It was the end of a long, rainy day in Jersey City. There was still one man working at City Hall. Mayor Glenn Cunningham was at his desk trying to keep the taxes low for the people.?)

During the month of October, Cunningham?s reading of The Adventures of Mayor-Man elicited 23 callers.

But it was not outdone: Mayor Steve Fulop got 256 calls that month for his rendition of Rodrigo Folgueira?s book ?Ribbit!?
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A number of parents said they are grateful for any child-oriented entertainment that isn?t TV.


Read more: Hudson Reporter - GOODNIGHT MAYOR Why are 4 000 kids calling library hotline each year to hear bedtime stories from Jersey City officials