For Busy Libraries, Check Out January
December was a quiet month in the children’s room of most libraries, a month of book returns. But come the New Year, watch out.
“January tends to be one of our absolute busiest months. What gets brought back in December totally disappears off the shelf in January.” said Eva Lusk, director of children’s books for the Spokane County Library District.
In the waning days of December, Lusk found time to talk about books and reading. In particular, she talked about ways that parents who aren’t big readers can become more comfortable reading to their children.
One way, Lusk said, is to attend storytime at the Valley’s library branches. A new session of story hours for pre-schoolers will start up in January.
“If we run them through the holiday period, we’ve discovered they’re empty rooms. People just don’t bring their kids,” Lusk said.
“I think that’s not necessarily because they’ve lost interest in reading. They do check out our Christmas collection, our Kwanzaa collection, our New Year’s collection. Those books are out there somewhere in houses, being read to kids and by kids.”
Another way to promote more parent-child reading is for schools to offer evening reading programs.
Lusk pointed out that parents who never had the experience of being read to as children themselves, can learn simple things from such events: how to hold a book so that four or five children can see the pictures. Even choosing a book that’s enjoyable to read out loud.
A lot of folk tales are fairly simple, have repetitive phrases and are good for beginning parent readers to work on with their kids, Lusk said.
Earlier this month, children’s librarians held a workshop for the newer members of their staff, helping them hone their read-aloud skills. Here are a few books that were mentioned in that workshop, as well as a few of Lusk’s favorite read-aloud books:
“Six Snowy Sheep,” by Judith and Ross Enderle. This is a little bit of a tricky one, bit of a tongue-twister, Lusk said, “but it’s really fun, with fun sound effects. The sheep go smoosh into a snowbank.”
“King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub,” by Audrey and Don Wood. Also by the Woods, “The Napping House.”
“Spinky Sulks,” by William Steig. “He is one of my absolute favorite authors. He’s in his 90s and still turning out wonderful picture books for kids. He’s meant to be read out loud. He really doesn’t make much of a concession to kids’ knowledge of vocabulary … but he makes very clear from the context what the word is.”
“The Wednesday Surprise,” by Eve Bunting. This is about a grandmother who doesn’t know how to read. Every Wednesday, the granddaughter stays with her and you think that the granddaughter is learning to read. “But guess what? It’s the other way around and one Wednesday the grandmother reads to the family.”
“Tell Me a Story, Mama,” by Angela Johnson. This book is about a young African American girl whose mother tells her stories from childhood. Hearing those stories is one way kids have of finding out what life was like for their parents, Lusk said.
STORY TIMES Storytime sessions will start next week at all Valley branches of the Spokane County Library District. Here are days and times: Argonne branch: Preschool story time is Thursdays at 10 a.m.; toddlers at 11 a.m. Otis Orchards branch: Family storytime on Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; pre-school story time at 10:30 a.m. Thursdays. Valley branch: Family storytime on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Also, preschool story times will be on Wednesdays at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. On Thursdays, a toddler story time starts at 10:15 a.m. Fairfield: Storytimes on Tues, 11 a.m. include toddlers and preschoolers. (Preschool story times are for 3- to 5-year-olds; sessions last a half hour. Toddler story times are for children 18 to 36 months old. Sessions last 20 minutes.)