On Young Children

Probably seems an odd topic for a hot – scalding hot day actually – summer day in New England, but it’s related. I went to the opening of a new little room in our town’s public library called the “PictureBook Room” last night. Our library is in a very old Victorian home, and even with opening the main spaces; there are some odd little side rooms. They were able to move a librarian’s office and put in a space specifically for the young child. It has its own bathroom awash in a cute mural done by a local artisan volunteer. There are little chairs and tables and places to read and be read to. What’s the relationship to a hot summer day? It was an unusually hot June day – 102 degrees and high humidity. In a small town (pop. 17,000) with a large population who live at or below the poverty line; it was joyfully clear to me that many families had come for after dinner book readings in a place that was not only new and crisply clean, but really cool as well (in more ways than one if you were three and trying out the new little rockers just your size). I oohed and ahhed of course; but mainly left being reminded how important libraries really are to access to not only information and the written word, but shared experiences with other readers of all ages. Libaries very well could be the best community center there is for young children and those who care for them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 8:13 pm and is filed under literacy, thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.