By Jan Pease
A very large tree has sprouted near the children’s
desk. It is a book display celebrating
the summer reading theme, “Dig Into Reading,” one of the largest and most
dramatic displays ever seen at the Litchfield library. A giant flag on the east wall of the
children’s department is titled “Where Do You Read?” If you give us a picture of yourself reading
in your favorite spot, we will put it up on the wall. Digger the mole is hiding here and there in
the children’s department, and children are guessing how many gummy worms are
in the jar. Summer things are already
happening here, even if our patrons come in wearing hoodies and jackets. Come in, get your children signed up for
summer reading, and help them avoid summer reading loss. Math worksheets are also available at the
children’s desk, because children lose even more of their math skills over the
summer break.
As a younger mom, I didn’t understand how much students
lost over the summer. We always tried to
get out daughter outside and doing. She
seemed to do all right in school, and usually tested right at grade level. Now that I know that students usually lose
about 2.6 months of math advancement over the summer, I know that I should have
been very diligent about that during the summer. Reading wasn’t as much of an issue at our
house, because when our daughter discovered our treasure trove of history books, she read at a
college level without knowing it.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Please give your children the gift of experiences this
summer. Visits to the library, to
museums, to parks, to plays or musicals, talking to older people in your family
all provide rich memories that will stay in the hearts of your children
forever.
Classes visited the library the final weeks of May and
first week of June. I visited Ripley
School to make up for a visit cancelled by the weather, and also had the
privilege of visiting the Kindergarten classes.
We enjoyed reading Mo Willems’ new book, “That is NOT a Good Idea.” Students read the book aloud with me,
especially as my voice became weary. The
anticipated ending of the book is that the goose becomes a key ingredient in soup,
but Mr. Willems gives it a twist. The
goose shoves the fox into the pot and serves her children fox soup. Perhaps it was a little too twisted for the
youngest students, but they laughed and laughed.
On a personal note, I’m enjoying rehearsals for a
reader’s theater presentation of “Steel Magnolias,” which will be presented
June 22nd at 7 and June 23rd at 3 at the Litchfield Opera House. I am honored to be among a circle of friends
gathered together by Carole Wendt. I
love to act, but have trouble learning lines and songs these days. To be honest, moving around onstage is also a
problem for me. So reader’s theater is
perfect. The challenge of finding a
character’s voice and becoming that person, without makeup and costumes, can be
difficult, but it’s rewarding. Ya’ll
come over to the opera house and see us, y’hear?
