By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Five-year-old Cormac Ery likes books about polar bears.
“They live on ice,” he explains.
Sol Campbell-Jacobs, 2, likes books with dragons, his mother Blaze Campbell-Jacobs said.
And one-year-old June Adams likes any kind of interactive books with different textures she can feel, said her parents Peyton and Caleb Adams. She is also a fan of Eric Carle’s classic “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See.”
Cormac, Sol, and June and family members were among those who gathered at the Wood County District Public Library for a celebration of the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Reading Challenge.
The goal is, said Children’s Services librarian Maria Simon, to engrain a love of books and reading, or being read to, early.
The participants get sheets to keep track of the books they’ve “read.”
It doesn’t matter if it’s at home with a parent or relative, or are taker, or at the library. It doesn’t matter if it’s a favorite book that they want to hear over and over and over.
They all count.
The youngsters get a free book when they sign up, and then another when they hit the halfway point, Simon said.
When they become “Royal Readers” they are crowned and get their photos taken in the castle in the Children’s Place un the library.
They also get to pick a book, and their name is printed on a book plate and put in the book for all future readers to see.
Simon said that after reading so much with their kids, parents have a sure sense of what kind of book would be fitting as a tribute to their child’s achievement.
The program was launched in 2017, and1,675 readers have participated with 167 earning Royal Readers status.. That tally includes 26 in the past year.
Even little June has achieved that status. She loves books, her father Caleb Adams said. Her father and mother, Peyton Adams, read to her at home, and they attend the story times at the library.
On hand for Saturday’s celebration was Beverly Meyer, a Michigan entertainer known as Beverly: the Music Lady.
She shared stories and songs, and had adults and kids marching and swirling around the library atrium.
After the concert, the fun continued in the Children’s Place where the volunteens and library trustee Ken Frisch turned the castle into a workshop to create balloon cats and dogs for all comers.
Frisch and his wife, Pam, provide the funding for the program.
Blaze Campbell-Jacobs, who brought Sol and his 10-month-old sister Marley, said she loves the program. “I love that it celebrates literacy.”
She reads a lot and that’s something she wants to pass that along to her children. “I want them to get excited about reading.”
The reading challenge and all the associated with it bolster that effort, she said.
Emily Ery who was there with Cormac, a Royal Reader, and his 3-year-old sister Jaclin, said that the challenge helps set a goal.
Cormac already has his preferences. He loves wild life and is a fa of the PBS program “Daniel Tiger” and “Wild Kratts.”
The tattoos applied after Beverly Meyer’s performance were a special treat. Both Jaclin and Cormac got triceratops tattoos, and were thrilled to discover that they smelled like chocolate.
Just another surprise that comes with being active readers.
