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Summer reading

Little Libraries for young students popping up in city

PHOTO PROVIDED Pictured, from left, are A’Niyla Brown, Molly Griesemer and Gabe Campbell-Whitehead.

Summer vacation: it’s all about reading, right?

For Williamsport Area School District students in kindergarten through third grade at Stevens Primary School, why not?

Principal Jim Ellis saw the thirst that his young students have for reading and asked, “How do we get more books into their hands?

He considered the related question with summer break on the horizon. “How can we get books into their neighborhoods?

Puzzling over the logistics on his way to school one day, he noticed an unusual box sitting in a yard in the east end of Williamsport. It was a small, weather-protected lending library where anyone could take a book or leave a book for someone else. On a subsequent beach vacation Ellis saw the small boxes everywhere. Could libraries like that work for his students to gain access to age-appropriate books whenever they wanted?

During the school year, Ellis saw that students would help themselves to grade-level books placed on long tables in the main lobby and knew they would have an appetite for finding books in their own neighborhoods.

The Williamsport Area School District Education Foundation (WASDEF) granted Ellis $841 to purchase the basic structures. School district maintenance worker Bill Beck then used his talents to add shelves so the books could be divided by grade level, the principal noted.

Cartons and cartons of books from discontinued reading programs provide inventory for the boxes at no cost. Students are encouraged to return the books when they are finished with them, but it is not a requirement. If a child wants to keep a book, Ellis is happy to let him have it.

The principal recently placed three boxes in the community: one in front of the school on Louisa Street, one at the YMCA on High Street and one at Firetree Place, a non-profit, licensed child-care community center at 600 Campbell St.

A fourth box needs a home in the western boundary area of the Stevens school, Ellis said.

“I love the program,” said Darnell Hayes, branch executive director at the YMCA. He has been pleased so far with the response to the Little Book Box located inside the facility’s vestibule. While it has only been in place about a week, the box is attracting a good amount of attention from kids who stop to see what’s there and browse through the shelves.

“Now everybody’s starting to take a book,” he said. “That’s the purpose and it’s great to see.”

With The “Y” offering early childhood care, pre-school, summer camps and child watch services for members using the facilities, a multitude of young readers have access to books they can take home in one easy stop. That’s convenient for parents who don’t need to make another stop before going home, Hayes said.

Reading is an important part of a child’s day at the “Y,” he added. Children are read to in their classroom programs and also enjoy visits from the Storymobile. “Nourishing that potential” in different ways can turn them into strong readers, the executive director noted.

Hayes mentioned other schools joining the conversation about providing books through the Little library venue and suggested that “if it’s not happening in other places now, it probably will be soon.”

“The education foundation was happy to award funding for this particular project through our Teacher Mini-Grant Program this past school year,” said Greg Hayes, executive director of the WASDEF and the school district’s public relations director. “It provides a great connection to the neighborhoods, strengthens partnerships with organizations like the YMCA and Firetree Place, all while increasing students’ accessibility to books when school’s not in session.”

In 2009 Todd Bol, of Hudson, Wisconsin, was the first to come up with the concept of “Take a book, Leave a book” in small structures that looked like little red schoolhouses in order to “build community, spark creativity, and inspire readers.”

Bol was inspired by his mother, a teacher who loved reading. He and co-founder Rick Brook established “Little Free Library,” their brand name, as a non-profit organization supporting readers across the country and the world, according to their website.

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