By Tammy Levesque-Holyk
Do you ever wonder what happens to the beloved children’s books that our kids outgrow as their reading skills develop?
The Bright Red Bookshelf (BRB) is a program that recirculates gently used children’s books back into the community. These books are set out on bookshelves around 100 Mile House and Williams Lake for families to access for free. The books are sorted and cleaned and labelled by volunteers and set out on bookshelves in our community.
This program is aimed to increase book ownership by families in our community. Families are encouraged to pick books from the bookshelf for their children and encourages family-child interaction with books. We want to keep books circulating in our community so “no children’s book is ever lonely.”
Book ownership is important in fostering an interest in reading and a love for books. Children develop confidence and pride in reading when books are easily within reach and can be read again and again. Books can be donated back or kept for as long as the child wants. The BRB concept emerged from the Family Reading Partnership. The local non-profit society CCPL has been a champion of literacy in our community and is pleased to offer this service to families.
Shelves are located around our community. These areas include the South Cariboo Recreation Centre, Cariboo Family Enrichment Centre, Ministry of Children and Families and many local schools. CCPL is thankful for support and donations from the community and encourage families to use this service. This is a great introduction for families to start using the local libraries in our communities and schools.
Come check out what the BRB has to offer and please take a book home so that no children’s book is ever lonely. If you’d like more information regarding this program you can contact Tammy Levesque-Holyk at tammy@caribooliteracy.com or 250-395-5321.
Tammy Levesque-Holyk is a Family Literacy Coordinator with CCPL
:
newsroom@100milefreepress.net
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