RIF promotes reading

By Deborah Goodwin
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 12:18 AM CDT

The Selma Times-Journal

Selma’s youth could get lost in a book this summer.

To help them open up their imaginations, hundreds of free books will be given away during Reading is Fun Days. The free, four-day event will kick off at 10 a.m. Monday at the Carl C. Morgan Convention Center.

There will also be puppet shows, a fun house and giveaways. Parents, teachers and members of the community are encouraged to bring a child.

AKA member and retired librarian media specialist Nancy Sewell knows first hand the importance of the event.

“We’re trying to motivate reading and to teach children reading actually is fundamental and reading is fun,” said Sewell. “It just opens doors and broadens their little horizons and takes them to another level.”

The mobile event will make stops at the Selma-Dallas County YMCA, Brown YMCA, Rangedale Neighborhood Center and Selma Youth Development Center. More than 500 books will go to pre-K to 12th grade students.

The local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha is sponsoring the event through a partnership with AmeriCorps, a community service organization, and city and county officials.

Eight-year-old Kinsley Mott needs little motivation to make it to the library. She and her mother, Amy Mott Johnston, come to the Selma-Dallas County Public Library every Tuesday. One of the books they chose this week was “Granddad’s Prayer of the Earth” by Douglas Wood — one she can get her grandfather to read to her.

“I like to read,” said Mott. “I like adventure.”

Some special guests will help facilitate the event — cartoon and book characters Franklin, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George and the Big Green Monster.

Prize-winning children’s author Emmett H. Wood, who wrote “The Black Frog,” will also be there. After he gives a short lecture, copies of his book will be given away.

Illustrator Phyllis Parks will give a lecture on illustration.

Becky Nichols, library director, thinks the RIF event is a wonderful thing. She believes books are everything.

“How precious it is to have a book of your own to keep,” she said. She pointed to a poem on wall in the children’s department: “The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the more you grow.”

Nivory Gordon, like Mott, likes adventurous books and books about cooking. He loves books so much, he volunteers at the public library. It’s his “most favorite place in all of Selma to come.”

Schedule or Reading is Fun Days: