Real readers
Readers enjoy Picture Day at the library
ABOVE: Evan McCully, 7, reads a book at Mother Whiteside Library in Grants on Thursday afternoon. McCully was one of about 75 children who participated in the summer reading program at the library. Readers received a prize for every four books they read. BELOW: Roman Martinez looks over the slips of paper on the wall that show how much kids in the summer reading program read over the summer.— © 2008 GallupIndependent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Young readers in Grants did not exactly sweat and slave over the summer, but they applied themselves steadily and had a good time doing it. Yesterday, they got a reward.

Local youngsters, “from birth to 12 years old,” who were members of the summer reading club sponsored by the Mother Whiteside Memorial Library gathered after school Wednesday for the annual Riverwalk Park photo to wind up the club’s summer.

Getting pictures taken at the end of the summer every year is the big windup for school vacation club, but there are small rewards along the way.

During the summer, participating readers earned small prizes like stickers, pencil toppers, zipper tabs doo-dads and so forth for each reading slip they turned in to put on the back wall at the library. To earn a slip, youngsters had to read four books, at their reading level or above. Jae Luree King, library director, said the club members were not permitted to take out a bunch of books below their reading level, read four over night and turn them in the next day for a slip and a prize.

Because the club is designed to be fun and not competitive, the library staff did not keep track of the highest and lowest readers, so King did not know who read the most books or how many books made up the most.

“At least one person read 56 books,” she said, because it caught her attention, but the director wouldn’t guess at the top number.

“We make it fun; we don’t want to make it a competition,” she continued. “What parents love is that kids don’t lose their vocabularies over the summer, they don’t lose their skills.”

The library, located across from City Hall and from the County Complex, offers an Early Reader room for children from infants — who can look at books or listen to someone reading to them — to a third grade reading level, and a juvenile section for readers from fourth to sixth-grade reading levels, with the middle school-level readers usually pulling books from the young adults collection.

After passing the middle school level, King explained, readers are ready for the adult section of the library. She stressed that the guidelines for appropriate difficulty and content are based on a child’s reading level and not age or actual grade level. Reading levels are usually established by testing in the schools. Children often read above or below their grade level.

This year’s final event attracted a good crowd of children and parents to take part in the event and prowl the stacks, but King said there were not so many “that you couldn’t turn around.” It happened one year, she said. No one took a head count, but King said Wednesday was a very busy day
Information: Mother Whiteside Memorial Library, 525 West High Street, Grants. Phone 287-4793.