Reading is all the rage at F.S. Library

Arbor Day Foundation and Long Island Splash, which helps keep Long Island waters clean.

During the reading buddies program, teens help the younger children with pronunciation, definitions and learning techniques like chunking. In chunking, readers break down words into sounds they’re familiar with and put them together.

“My favorite moment is when I say something wrong and they always fix my words,” said Lyla McGrade, 6, who participates in both programs. “When I say the word and I don’t know what it means, they tell me what it means.”

The reading buddies program is organized with drop-in participation, because the same teens and children aren’t there every week.

“Children have different speeds of how they learn,” said 15-year-old Fiona Lin, one of the teens participating in the program. “You have to pace yourself for each child and help them.”

The teens were recommended to the program by Bridget Catapano, the school counselor at H. Frank Carey High School. The teens all need a certain number of community service hours for the National Honor Society. Catapano said it’s difficult for teens to find enough service opportunities in the area.

“I’ve reached out to all the places I could possibly reach out to,” Daphne Levy, the teen services librarian, said about the search for service hours for teens. “It’s making me have anxiety when I go to work.”

“Daphne has been wonderful,” Meghan McGrade, Lyla’s mother, said. “She is always making sure the children are paired up with a student they are comfortable with and reading the books that interest them.”

Other teens who help the youngsters heard about the program from friends and relatives.

“I love doing it because you’re influencing them, helping them to read,” 16-year-old Jamie Moncy said. “It’s a very nice thing and (the kids are) the future.”

Prizes are given out in raffle and competition style as part of the reading challenges. For the raffle, a child can read any number of books in a week and get a raffle ticket. Those tickets stay in the same jar until the end of the summer when all the weekly raffles are over.

When a child finishes a book, they have to make a report on it. Some speak just a few sentences, some speak for 10 minutes.

For competitions, the little ones that range from 18 months to 4 years old usually have to color a page. The older children in kindergarten through sixth grade usually have to answer a riddle. Winners are always chosen at random from those who accomplish the challenge. Gregory chooses their prizes based on which child wins the competition or raffle, because she knows all of them personally.