Storyland and Mother Goose

Storyland, where fairy tales come to life, has been in the news of late due to the planned closing of the Playland amusement park, which is next to Storyland in Roeding Park. Roeding Park is the oldest park in Fresno County having been established in 1903 through a gift from Frederick and Marianne Roeding.

The Playland amusement park opened in 1955, six weeks before Disneyland. It would have turned 70 in 2025 but was scheduled to close on March 30. Storyland opened in 1962.

At Storyland, children could see a storybook full of “Three Little Pigs,” a castle, queens, cottages, a pirate ship and more. Magic keys would open a story that would be read to the visitor. The keys sold in the 1960s still work.

Due to funding and maintenance issues, both Playland and Storyland closed in March 2014. Only through a tremendous community effort that raised nearly $500,000, along with almost 13,000 volunteer hours, were Storyland and Playland able to be refurbished and reopened.

Storyland reopened in September 2015 and Playland in 2016. Both closed in March 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Cindy Lee, executive director of Storyland, Inc., the Storyland theme park reopened in March 2021 and has been flourishing ever since.

Storyland’s educational mission, with a focus on literacy and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering—like building castles—Arts and Math), helped it secure significant grants from private individuals and institutions to maintain the park. 

Although Storyland is now doing well financially, Playland’s future is unclear. After the pandemic ended, Helm and Sons Amusements assumed operation of Playland and reopened the park in 2023 but were unable to generate a profit to keep it open. The company decided to end its contract in February and permanently close Playland at the end of March.

Mother Goose

Joan Casper plays the role of Mother Goose at Storyland. Casper is a delightful, energetic woman with a positive outlook on life.

In her role as Mother Goose, she reads books to schoolchildren ages 5 to 8. On weekdays, schools bring students to Storyland for field trips. Parents also bring their children to Storyland during the week and on weekends. During the summer months, Mother Goose spends one weekend a month reading to children in the shade of a tree.

For 35 years, Casper was the Grass Valley School District librarian in Grass Valley, about 60 miles north of Sacramento. While working as the librarian, she would dress up in costumes and decorate the library based on the book of the week.

Eventually, she began to dress up as Mother Goose when she would read the book of the week. On occasion, she also worked in Oakdale, between Stockton and Modesto, dressing in a different costume (e.g., cowboy, pilgrim, ballerina, dinosaur) depending on the book she was reading.

After retiring, she moved to Fresno in 2022 to be near her son. Shortly after arriving in Fresno, she heard about an opening at Storyland. She applied for the job in one of the five Mother Goose costumes her daughter-in-law had made for her. She was hired that day and has been Storyland’s Mother Goose ever since.

As Storyland’s Mother Goose, Casper reads stories, does magic tricks and throws fairy dust around the park. She says, “I just do my thing.” She sees her role as encouraging children to read whatever they want to read without censorship.

She feels that children need to “learn to read to be respectable citizens.” She tries to make the reading experience positive and happy.

Mother Goose is now booked for about 48 school field trips from February through June. She sees about 3,000 students during those four months. Each presentation takes about 20 minutes. She can see up to 40–50 kids at a time and might have three or four shows a day. Kids ask her many questions like, “Where do you live?” The kids clap and cheer, often hugging her afterward.

In the summer, Storyland is open on weekends, but Mother Goose only visits Storyland on the fourth Saturday of each month in June, July, August and September.