Kids finding rich treasures in small packages

Rebecca Malone

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002 | 4:41 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Donations Gently used and new books can be donated at:

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Henderson Home News and Boulder City News

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On the second day back from the holiday break at Paradise Elementary School, kindergarten students stream into the library with their eyes darting back and forth, looking at all of the books.

They barely are able to keep their arms folded. They have to reach out and touch one.

Librarian Julie Doyle ushers all but one into a special reading area before helping the new student get his bag and five books.

Phillip Fresco Jr. wanders around the tables, eyeing the books. He cautiously chooses his five as the other students trickle in one by one to pick their books.

Doyle's school since December has been participating in a program through Spread the Word, called Kids to Kids. The program allows children, pre-kindergarten to third grade, to create their own at-home libraries with recycled books.

The program is designed to help children who otherwise could not afford their own books and may have only limited access to a library, said Laurie Porter, a retired elementary school librarian who started the Spread The Word organization with her husband, state Sen. Jon Porter.

"Kids need to be exposed to the written language with as many sources as possible in order for them to be able to learn to read," Laurie Porter said. "Their lives need to be engulfed in the written language."

Having an at-home library is important for young children because they can read the books over and over so the sentence structure and stories become familiar to them, Porter said.

"Statistics have proven that the earlier you can catch kids, the easier it is for them to learn and want to read," Porter said.

The Porters started the program after reading about a similar organization in Boston. They spoke with Lynn Boston, head of the Massachusetts Spread the Word program, learned what they needed to start the program and then adapted it to fit the Las Vegas community.

The original program allows each child in the chosen school to pick up five free books to take home with them in donated paper bags.

In Las Vegas, additions were made to help children at at-risk schools. First, they have a continued library building program that not only gives the children the five free books at the start, but also allows them to get an additional free book each month, Porter said. As long as the student stays at that school they will receive one free book per month.

Second, Kids to Kids provides students with black canvas tote bags to keep their books.

"The bags are so critical," Porter said. "So many of our children will be moving from home to home or location to location, so having a storage spot for their library is very important."

"Just seeing the children, their looks and reactions looking in their bags to see what they got, makes this program worth it," Boston said. "They are lining up to get books like they are lining up to see Santa Claus."

That enthusiasm was evident in Doyle's classes as students read to each other and explained why they picked their books. One kindergartner, Donivan Waters, said he picked out a Teletubby book to give to his little sister for her third birthday.

"Kids here don't have the same opportunity to have books in their homes," Doyle said. "Many of their parents don't have the time or transportation to take them to a public library. We don't have a society that stresses the importance of reading and reading at home for at least 20 minutes a day."

Since the program began in February 2001 five elementary schools have been adopted and more than 50,000 books have been collected, said Lisa Habighorst of Spread the Word.

"There is something magical about the ownership of a book," Porter said. "There is a connection --when a cover is opened -- between that book and the child."