Summer reading program bridges gaps

BY SHEA VANCE SVANCE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

With schools quiet for the summer, Littleton’s Bemis Library kicks o its busiest months of the year.

Between May and July, the library’s annual Summer Reading Program encourages children, teens, and adults to keep their minds active, hosting story time, trivia, book sales, performances.

“It’s just encouraging families to read together, to do activities together, just to provide a sense of community,” said Val Fetters, the Bemis children’s division supervisor.

Fetters has managed the Summer Reading Program at Bemis for 17 years.

One of the program’s events is the “Books and Blankets Story Time,” which runs four times each week on Wednesdays and ursdays. On the lawn in front of the library, families enjoy sunshine (weather permitting) while the kids hear stories, dance, sing, and play.

Donna Stephenson, a children’s librarian at Bemis, runs Books and Blankets, and appreciates the program not just for the community it fosters, but for the educational bene ts it provides to kids on sum- mer break.

“It keeps them reading throughout the summer so they don’t have what’s called the ‘summer slide,’ where they lose all the things that they learned without doing reading over those months,” Stephenson said. “I think it also helps families that have young children, because there’s lots of things they can do that are pre-reading skills that get them ready for school.”

During a Books and Blankets session on June 21, Stephenson made sure to engage the kids beyond simply reading to them, tying props and music into the stories.

Although some of the kids are still too young to pick up their own books, several Books and Blankets attendees rushed into the library after story time was nished, hoping to redeem their summer reading logs for prizes, browse the kids section, or hang out with their library friends.

Katy Johnson has been bringing her kids to Books and Blankets since her oldest, who is now 6, was a baby. Her oldest son can read, but she thinks the program is important for her younger kids, too.

“For the little ones, it’s important to learn how to follow directions and be with other kids,” Johnson said. “And then as they’ve gotten older, I see how it’s built some of their literacy skills.”

Fetters thinks the program — even for the younger children — is good for families and communities.

“For the younger kids, they don’t have to read on their own, they can