photo by: John Young

Library storyteller Michael Bradley plays the guitar while leading a group of children through a dance during Stories

A chapter in the (recent) history of the Lawrence Public Library ended last Thursday when Michael Bradley, the singing, dancing, guitar-strumming youth services assistant who twice-weekly held court over Lawrence’s littlest bookworms, led his final Toddler Storytime at the library.

Bradley, who had hosted the library’s popular Storytime every Monday and Thursday since 2014, left Lawrence to accept a full-time position at the Ruby M. Sisson Memorial Library in Pagosa Springs, Colo. His wife, local artist and sometimes musical collaborator Rachael Perry, will be working alongside him.

The Lawrence Public Library is currently searching for his replacement as youth services assistant, with a background in music and/or theatrical arts a strong preference, said Karen Allen, the library’s youth services coordinator.

“He just has a special way with kids,” she said of Bradley, himself a father of two.

“The stories changed every week, but the things he did were always the same,” Allen said, citing storytime traditions such as Morris the Monkey and Bradley’s renditions of ring-around-the-rosy. “When you’re 2, the routine is really important.”

Bradley developed something of a following among Lawrence kids and parents during his years on the storytime beat — signature guitar and fun-loving nature always in hand. Aside from the toddler program, he also hosted Stories and Songs on Sundays as well as frequent kid-centric performance gigs at libraries across the state.

The Lawrence Public Library had already acquired the small, brown puppet that would eventually be known as Morris the Monkey when Bradley arrived there in 2013, but Bradley was the staffer responsible for “crafting” the persona beloved by storytime fans today, Allen said.

The shy, clever little “monket” — half monkey, half puppet — scored a two-page spread of a Q & A in a Sunflower Publications magazine commemorating the new library facilities in 2014. Perhaps even more telling, there have been at least a few kiddos to purchase their own Morris look-alikes from downtown’s The Toy Store, Allen said, to create their own versions of storytime at home.

Every Monday and Thursday, toddlers — some presumably in the throes of the so-called “terrible twos” — would sit quietly and pay attention, she recalled of Bradley’s Storytime.

“Every time he would get Morris the Monkey out of his little house, he would say, ‘You have to be silent before he comes out of his house,’ and the room would go silent,” Allen said. Under Bradley’s spell, “they were just really enthralled.”

The library has already closed applications for Bradley’s replacement as youth services assistant, Allen said. His vacated storytime slots will remain on hiatus for the time being as part of the library’s normal programming schedule, with youth services veteran Lauren Taylor taking over Toddler Storytime starting at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. Aug. 25.

Sunday storytime won’t resume until October, and could be hosted by a new person, a current library staffer or some combination of the two, Allen said.