Photo by Skip Lawrence Megan Etter and daughter Havyn Love, 2, enjoy the new children's area Thursday at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center.

Hard to believe?

It's true, for children whose parents are incarcerated.

An area formerly used for coats now contains nearly 100 children's books stacked on shelves. The reading nook is in a corner of the visitors waiting room of the Frederick County Adult Detention Center.

The books include Harry Potter, the Goosebumps series, the classic "Heidi" and Planet Earth information books.

Detention center administrative specialist Shirley White, who spearheaded the room's conversion over the last several months, opened the children's area Thursday.

This is more than a library.

Visiting can be stressful for families, White said. She wants children to read the books, get attached to them and keep them. The children can take the books home with them. There are plenty more, she said. Boxes of donated books wait to be opened in a nearby office.

The books offer more than a reading experience. Time spent with a loved one in the waiting room can make a lasting impression, said Maj. Vic DeLauter, assistant corrections bureau chief.

Incarcerated parents are not allowed any physical contact with their children, he said. Relatives see the inmates behind a glass pane. They speak on a telephone.

"It is intimidating to a child," DeLauter said. "The books soften the memory. We want to give them a better memory."

Many children come to visit parents in jail, he said. He recalls a grandmother, mother and granddaughter, three generations, who were all incarcerated at the same time.

More mothers are being incarcerated, said Shari Ostrow Scher, who helped White realize her vision of binding families with books.

As co-founder of Children of Incarcerated Parents and a member of Congregation Kol Ami, Ostrow Scher grasped the need and so does the community, she said.

"I get calls every day from people interested in donating books."

She glanced at a colorful mural on one wall of the detention center's new children's library. The mural, painted by Kol Ami's confirmation class, shows cartoonish birds walking on a circle of quotes from Dr. Seuss books.

"Did kids do a great job on the mural or what?" she asked Rabbi Dan Sikowitz of Kol Ami. He nodded in agreement and put a stack of books on the floor.

The books were donated during a book drive Kol Ami held this fall to help keep the visiting room stocked.

"In Judaism, one of the highest ethical principles is 'Tikkun olam,' which translates to 'repair the world,'" Sikowitz said.

A child whose parent is in jail has had his or her world torn apart, he said.

"We try to help repair it the best we can."