Nyla and Mariana seem appear to be pleased with the books by author Mo Willems, all featuring animal characters, that they will be able to take home.
Mark Guydish | For Sunday Dispatch
Children at the Head Start Center in Edwardville page through their new books Wednesday morning.
Mark Guydish | For Sunday Dispatch
Book in hand, Lily Kasa from Wyoming Area Secondary Center, smiles Wednesday morning as she gets acquainted with a classroom of children at the Luzerne County Head Start Center on Meyers Street in Edwardsville.
Mark Guydish | For Sunday Dispatch
When cute little Piggie agrees with his bigger, bespectacled friend, Gerald the elephant, that “someone is looking at us,” the elephant appears worried at first.
“Who is looking at us?” he frets. “A monster?”
No, the piggie assures him in this children’s book by award-winning author Mo Willems. It’s not a monster, but a reader who is able to read about the two characters because they’re in a book.
“That is so cool!” the elephant says. And he says it in big capital letters, so you know he’s saying it loudly, perhaps even trumpeting through his trunk as he speaks.
On Wednesday morning Lily Kasa, a student from Wyoming Area Secondary Center who also serves as Pennsylvania Key Club Governor, read the book, titled simply “We Are In A Book,” to a group of 3- to 5-year old preschoolers at a Luzerne County Head Start center in Edwardsville.
When storytime was over, Kasa and her Key Club team had a boxful of books from the same series, one for each of the 44 children at the center to take home.
The event marked the official launch of a statewide collaboration between PA Key Clubs and the West Virginia-based LiTEArary Society, described in a news release as “the world’ largest youth-led nonprofit … with a mission to provide high-quality, new books for children in need” and bring an end to “book deserts.”
Luzerne County Head Start Executive Director Beth White said she was grateful for the Key Club visit, noting that the more words and communication children are exposed to, the better.
