In honor of Family Literacy Month, the Wareham Free Library participated in National StoryWalk Day Nov. 7.

A StoryWalk is a physical trail of book pages, laminated and attached to boards, so that visitors may read the book as they follow the trail. The library’s StoryWalk featured the book, “Otto the Book Bear," about a bear who leaves his book and ends up in a city’s public library to live with other book creatures.

Librarian Marcia Hickey said the day began in Montpelier, Vermont, after a woman in the Health Department saw how unhealthy the town's kids were.

“The ... kids were getting obese and not going outside, so she came up with the StoryWalk,” Hickey said.

Hickey said she purposefully ended the trail at the playground, in case any kids reading the book would like to play afterwards.

But the library’s playground is in bad shape, and few kids showed up to do the walk. Due to a dramatic cut in town funding for the library, the library staff has had to focus strictly on keeping the library going.

“Most of the moms won’t let the kids climb [the playground] anymore, because it’s broken,” Hickey said. “There are nails coming up, and you can see the boards falling off. It isn’t safe anymore. We’ve even asked Municipal Maintenance to take it away, but … there’s no time and money.”

Hickey said she and the rest of the library staff were not able to do more this month to celebrate Family Literacy Month, because they were simply “overwhelmed.”

“We don’t have enough hours, or time in the day,” Hickey said.

Hickey also said the library had wanted to create a permanent nature discovery area for children in the library’s backyard, but that idea had to be put on hold, because the library can only afford to stay open for a few days per week.

“We got a [Community Preservation Committee] grant a few years ago, and we’ve got the design already done out and plotted,” Hickey said. “Ours was going to be based on StoryWalk … and have a more permanent structure.”

Hickey said the plans for the library’s expanse of backyard property include a music center and a stage, as well as areas for more parking.

But despite few kids showing up to the StoryWalk – and the greater implications of that – Hickey said if even one child and only family got something out of it, “it’s worth it.”