Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 3, 1995 TAG: 9501030003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Anne Greene urged them to take a deep breath, relax and "turn on your listening ears."
On cue, the 16 tykes, arrayed in a semicircle, twisted their hands beside their ears and made clicking sounds to do just that. Greene launched into a new tale.
While being read to is standard fare for many youngsters, for some of Greene's pint-sized charges it's a rare treat.
"A lot of kids are away from home during the day now and it helps that they're read to," Greene said.
Concerned that not enough young children were being exposed to books and reading at an early age, the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library last year started the Library Connection Outreach Project.
Greene, a former social worker, came on board in the summer of 1993 and organized bimonthly visits to about 15 spots, including licensed day-care centers, federal Head Start programs, a preschool and subsidized housing developments.
"The whole thing about outreach is if kids can't get to the library, we do our best to get the library to them," Greene said.
Last year, a federal grant of $27,200 paid for Greene's 30 hours a week of pay, books and other materials. With the grant expired, this year library officials scaled back the program to 11 locations and 20 hours a week after unsuccessfully seeking $16,800 from the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. To compensate, the Library Board reallocated some hours and funds to keep Greene on as a member of the library's staff. "We made it a high priority to keep this going because of the success," said Karen Dillon, regional director for Montgomery/Floyd Regional Libraries. Little money had to be spent for the materials, because they were already in hand. The main expense is time, and the library hopes to get Greene some help soon. "So far we're doing well and we're just hoping for adequate funding next year to keep everything going," Dillon said.
The outreach project is straightforward: Greene reads to the children and uses a puppet, a storyboard and other props to draw and keep their attention. The library's bookmobile also makes a stop, though not usually timed to her visit, allowing the children to check out books of their own. And, as part of the program, the library has put together story-time kits for adults who care for children. The kits include books and a videotape covering techniques for successful readings to little would-be literati.
Greene and a partner previously sold children's books at home parties across the New River Valley. But she found it somewhat frustrating that the parents who bought the books already knew the importance of developing good reading habits.
Part of the initial outreach project was to contact parents who have little reading experience and almost never visit the library. That part of the project was a flop in '93, however. Greene and other library employees simply had too much other work to devote the time to attracting parents. The few times they did try, the results were discouraging.
But with the children, it was another matter.
Assistant library director Jo Brown wrote the original grant proposal for the project and in a follow-up report noted that Greene read to 3,851 children last year while conducting 304 story times.
"The library reached out to underserved children and touched them with the power of fine literature," Brown wrote. "Statistics cannot show the welcoming, smiling faces of children happy and excited to see the storyteller. Statistics cannot begin to explain the thrill of reading to children who drink up every word and ask for more."
Indeed, during a recent visit to the Christiansburg-area Head Start class, held at Belview Elementary School on Peppers Ferry Road, the children seemed overjoyed to see Greene and "Miss Lillian," her puppet.
Greene used the puppet to draw the children into her reading of the first book, "The Napping House" by Audrey Wood, a tale of cumulative rhymes about a snoring granny and other characters asleep on a bed. She then played a tape-recorded song matched to the book so the children could sing along. Finally, she reconstructed the tale with a storyboard and cut-out characters, asking questions that helped the children build their vocabularies by matching the words with images.
"That book has wonderful language," Greene said. "It's poetry."
The children got an extra bonus for being good listeners: Greene stamped the image of a rainbow onto their hands in strawberry-scented ink. After a reading a second book, Miss Lillian the puppet bid the kids adieu with farewell "kisses."
As Greene packed up to leave, three little boys stared at each other's faces and discussed among themselves how it was that Miss Lillian didn't leave any lipstick behind.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***