Children read 476 library books

By Mike Marino
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Summer is over and schoolchildren everywhere are hitting the books.

As pupils load up their backpacks and head back to school, the Mother Whiteside Memorial Library is one step ahead and already holding graduation exercises for the Summer Reading Program.

The annual reading program provides young readers with incentives to read books, and each year the program has a different theme. This year’s theme was “Get a Clue at Your Library.”

Library employee Nita Ford is excited about the turnout this year.

“We had a lot of response and altogether this year — which is designed for kids to 12 years old — we enrolled 71 kids. The kids had to read four books, and when they completed the assignment, and their parents signed off and verified the reading, the young readers got a prize for every four books they read,” she said. There were numerous prizes this year and they included everything from iron-on transfers of the Library Mystery Hound Dawg logo, magnifying glasses, bookmarks, and assorted alien stickers and toys.

The library reading program started June 5 and ended Aug. 11. All books had to be appropriate and geared to the individual child’s reading level. The reading program was broken up into two categories, the first being fourth- through sixth-graders had to read from the juvenile section, and the younger kids kindergarten through third grade read from the early readers offerings.

The books chosen could be read at home, and in the case of youngsters that aren’t quite old enough to read yet, their parents were allowed to read to them in order to qualify for the prizes, not to mention spending some quality literary time with their children. All books had to be from the library, as they were the sponsor of the program.

Altogether it was a good year as 476 books were read.
and out of the 71 original enrollees, there are 37 graduates.