Counting sheep? At the Maryland State Fair, kids read them bedtime stories.

Kathy Benton has one strict rule when her kids visit the Maryland State Fair: no rides.

Benton takes her kids straight to the aptly named Cow Palace, where they learn from farmers and see barnyard animals up close. And, on weekend nights, kids like hers get to lull those sheep, piglets and cows to sleep.

As kids enter the U-Learn Farm & Barn, volunteers hand them library books. Kids then plop down into tiny red chairs stationed in front of animal pens, tasked with reading bedtime stories to animals as large as heifers and as tiny as ducks. More than 700 children were rewarded with a bag, bookmark, candy and a new book over the first two weekends of the fair’s Cow Tales Barnyard Bedtime Stories program.

Benton quieted her 4-year-old son, Jacob, as he finished a bedtime story for two dozing goats Friday at the fair, assuring him they’d find the same book at the library so he could read it again. His 6-year-old sister, Caroline, went next, reading to kids (the furry kind) Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker.

Benton, 43, thought the alpaca-focused book was a smart choice for goats: “They have to learn about other cultures, right?”

The smallest participants eye the animals suspiciously from strollers. Sometimes, they get a show, like when piglets Nibbles, Chompa and Charlotte chased each other around their pen in a case of the bedtime zoomies.

Trinity Johnson, 9, was careful to hold up each page she read for alpacas Stella and Ilene, while her 2-year-old sister, Lacy, handed her book to her mother so she could stick her face up to the animals’ gate.

“You can see who’s serious about their bedtime stories and who’s not,” their mom, Larice Johnson, quipped.

Maryland State Fair Board Chair Mary Amoss started the program four years ago. She was already bringing animals to local libraries to promote the fair. Why not bring reading to the Timonium fairgrounds?

The International Association of Fairs and Expositions awarded the program for its innovation. Six other states have repeated the experiment, Amoss said, though she added it’s against state fair code to reveal which others are following her lead.

Part of the mission is to educate kids about farming and how it impacts their daily life, which is why all books are vetted for agricultural accuracy, Amoss said.

The program is sponsored by Goetze’s Candy Co., the Baltimore-based maker of Cow Tales, chewy caramel sticks with cream centers. Each night, a Goetze family member hands out goodie bags to kids. Sometimes they dress as mascot Duke the Cow.

Emily Goetze said her family believes in educating kids early and promoting agriculture, because the brand’s products are made with dairy milk and wheat flour. She thinks it’s especially important to get kids outside in the digital age.

“Most of the children that come to the fair are here for the rides,” Amoss said. “But, if we can bring them into our area and they get some literacy out of it, they get some education about animals, about where your food comes from ... we feel that is a win-win.”

The final Cow Tales bedtime stories of this year’s fair are Friday and Saturday from 7-8 p.m.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.