Ready to Read encourages parents to read aloud to their children, beginning at birth, to help prepare them for learning to read. KPL leads this community collaboration of medical practices, human services agencies, preschool classrooms, and nonprofit organizations.
My first placement as a Ready to Read Volunteer was in a Head Start classroom at Eastside Community Center this spring. I loved the experience and plan on being back at Ms. Janet’s class in the fall. One thing I learned is 2 to 5 year olds never get tired of Ed Emberley’s “Go Away, Big Green Monster!”
On the last day of school I was surprised when one of the children announced she wanted to read to me because she’d been particularly shy, rarely raising her voice above a whisper.
As children often do, she looked at a book and made up her own story. “Once there was a boy who wanted a cat,” she said in a very confident voice. As she turned the pages, I realized there was no cat in any illustration. Her entire tale was of a boy who wanted a cat but never got one. What a wonderful storyteller she was, making up a story about something not seen on any page!
Gay Guard-Chamberlin
Kalamazoo Public Library
Volunteer Reader
Book
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I am the coordinator of the Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (W.I.C.) at the Family Health Center in Kalamazoo. As a Ready to Read program site, we give gift books to families with children from birth to five years of age and encourage parents to read aloud. Earlier this week I had an opportunity to model for a mother, the power of a book. I was working in my office and heard a child whining in the next room. I went to see if I could help. I asked the 3 year old, who was squirming in his mother’s lap, if he wanted to read a book with me, and he said yes. I went to retrieve an oversized copy of “The Snowy Day” and I began to read the story aloud to him. The boy was intrigued by the pictures of the snow and fascinated by the fact that he could not see the boy’s feet because they were covered by snow. We continued a wonderful conversation about the story. Before they left the office, the child’s mother told me that she was amazed by the amount of time that this book held his interest!
Irene Allgaier, MA RD
WIC Coordinator, Family Health Center
I first became involved with childhood literacy two years ago through Rotary, when Ann Rohrbaugh suggested I read with local elementary school kids through “Books and Bagels.” I apparently passed, because KPL next asked me to read to preschoolers at Party in the Park 2008. And, apparently none of the kids evaluated me too harshly, because I was invited back again to Party in the Park 2009.
Though having little experience reading to children, especially preschoolers, I've found my participation to be extremely rewarding. The kids have short attention spans and are easily distracted if a storybook character should happen to wander by while you’re reading your book. But, if you’re fortunate enough to have a “good” book, and if you're prepared to make your delivery a little “over the top,” the kids are, during those few short moments, eager, attentive and utterly captivated. This year I was lucky enough to read a book with “pop ups,” and it was precious to see the kids’ faces momentarily “light up” when the page was turned and the story literally “popped” off the page at them.
This is a unique and special event for preschoolers in our community; for hopefully getting kids excited about books so that we might increase childhood literacy in our community and, in turn, open up a world of opportunities. I hope there will be continued support for this event and, should you be offered the opportunity to participate as a reader, I would encourage you to accept.
Kurt Sherwood
Miller Canfield
Book
Volunteer reader, 2009 Party in the Park
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What a great time I had at the "Party in the Park". I loved playing a chicken and clucking my way through the park to the various groups to read them "Chickens to the Rescue!" I even got the children to cluck with me throughout the story. And could the weather have treated us any better! Can't wait to do this again next year. I do have a banana costume and could possibly read a banana story....I don't know...it was so much fun as the chicken.
Kim Elliott
Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce
Book
Party in the Park 2009
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalamazoopubliclibrary/sets/72157618973564660/I had a WONDERFUL time reading to the kids at the Party in the Park. The goose was a great prop. I changed my voice to have "Gander" read to the kids and ask them questions about the pictures or the rhymes. They were fascinated by him, some even wanting him to bite their hands. I let them stroke his neck. One little child asked me if he was real. I'd love to read to the kids again at next year's Party.
Mary Lou Fleckenstein
Kalamazoo Public Library Volunteer Reader
Two months ago I became a volunteer reader with Ready to Read. Each week I spend two hours in a medical office waiting room and delight in the company of children who are eager to hear books read. Older children sometimes like to prove their own proficiency in reading, but easily succumb to that primal urge to listen to a good story, or join in a rhythmic rendering from Mother Goose.
Imagine my surprise when I encountered a child of three, who, I believe, had little or no experience with books. At first I watched her wander the children’s area, aimlessly active, but with no concentration, really quite physical. Finally she approached me and sat down, and I selected a short book to read to her. She seemed not to know which page to look at first or how to follow my lead in pointing to picture clues to the story, and she would not be engaged in trying to predict future action. She fidgeted, then walked away from the story and continued to move around the waiting room, swinging her arms full circle. I asked her mother if the child liked books, and was told that, no, she didn’t, that they didn’t read at home.
I have been haunted by her since, and saddened. I feel sad for a child without books to stimulate her imagination and for a teacher who will someday try to ignite the curiosity for learning which young readers bring. She has missed the joy of shared pleasure in the pages of favorite books, of lovely pictures and delicious words, of giggles and rhymes and satisfaction in simple things. The good news is that Ready to Read works in our community to ensure that all children are exposed to books early in life. As a volunteer reader, I had the opportunity to introduce that child to books. Next time she visits the doctor, a volunteer will be waiting to read another story. Reading together is an act of love. Share the love.
Martha Beverly
Kalamazoo Public Library Volunteer Reader
One of my biggest challenges, as a volunteer reader, is a child's initial shyness. Not being afraid of looking silly goes a long way in overcoming another person's shyness. I get most of my inspiration from the books I select from the library.
One of my favorites is Baghead by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, which features a child going through his day with a brown paper bag on his head because... well, I don't want to spoil the surprise ending.
I've taken to keeping a couple of brown grocery bags in my Ready to Read tote just in case a bout of shyness keeps the kids close to the parent urging them to, "Go ahead, listen to a story."
I stand the bag, complete with holes cut out for eyes and a mouth, right next to the book and, yes, if it comes down to it, I'll even put it over my head. Luckily, someone can usually be counted on to wear the bag over his or her head while I read. Then we pass the bag around so the children can share what they would do today with a bag on their head.
When I've earned their attention, I still thrive to keep it once the bag has served its purpose.
Two other books the children enjoy are Max Found Two Sticks by Brian Pinkney and The Big Yawn by Keith Faulkner.
Max finds two sticks and proceeds to tap out rhythms he hears out on the street. I encourage the kids to use their fingers as two sticks and tap along with Max.
In The Big Yawn, we yawn along with all the animals "Opening their mouths' to yawn," as darkness overtakes the jungle. Use caution with this one, though, as it tends to make everyone, including the reader, rather sleepy.
The first step to volunteer reader strategizing starts at the grocery store when asked, "Paper, or Plastic?"
Go paper.
Beth Carter
Kalamazoo Public Library Volunteer Reader