After eating breakfast with their families, preschoolers at the Campus Child Care Center waited anxiously for Barbara Peters to read to them.

Chris Herrmann, director of the center, said President John Peters’ wife was invited to come as part of the activities to celebrate Week of the Young Child.

“Mrs. Peters donated money to a book fair we had and she’ll read one of the books purchased in the sale,” Herrmann said.

The children’s book was highly requested by teachers, said Lisa Schmidt, assistant director of the center.

“One of the reasons I picked this was that it was on the wish list of teachers,” Schmidt said.

About 12 three- to five-year-olds sat in a semi-circle around Peters while she read “The Leaf Man” by Lois Ehlert.

Having warned the class she hadn’t read a book to children in quite some time, Peters said, “I hope someday I’m a grandmother, so you guys are giving me some practice.”

After reading the first page, Peters showed the picture depicting leaves in the shape of turkeys and asked, “Isn’t there something that comes in the early months of spring when you eat turkey?”

The young voices shouted unanimously, “Easter!”

The book, which tested the children’s imagination by searching for a leaf man among different piles of leaves, evoked several outbursts from the young crowd.

After Peters described one of the piles as looking like a squash, three-year-old Jarvin exclaimed, “That’s a potato.”