STORYTIME: LIBRARIES USE READING TO SPARK CHILDREN'S INTERESTS

Eric Heubel is learning about reading by example. Eric, 2 1/2, and his grandmother, Margaret Huebel, were at Cape Girardeau Public Library's story time to hear about lions, bears and moose.

For Eric it was only his second or third time at the story time, but he and his grandmother visit the library often -- about twice a week -- as grandmother picks out books to read. She reads between 12 and 20 books every three weeks.

Huebel baby-sits Eric, whose parents, Randy and Kaye Huebel, work. Randy works for the city parks department; Kaye is a nurse at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

While Eric is relatively new to the story time at the Cape Girardeau library, Margaret isn't. She had taken Eric's sister, Rachel, now 9, during Rachel's preschool years. Now Rachel brings home library books for Eric, which grandmother reads to him.

Margaret Huebel has had her children involved in the library for years -- bringing her three sons, Russell, Bruce and Randy, when they were young.

The Cape Girardeau library ran two story times during the fall -- one for children 18 months to 2 years old and one for 3- , 4- and 5-year-olds. The library also holds story times for day-care centers on Mondays and Tuesdays. A new story time season will begin Jan. 13 and run through April 15.

Ann Randolph, youth services coordinator at the library, said the story time program helps introduce literacy to the children, helps teach them to use the library and helps them meet children their age.

There were between 15 and 25 children registered in the preschool story time in the fall and between seven and 12 in the younger toddler sessions. The ongoing registration is free and is used for record keeping.

Randolph says day-care story times have larger crowds -- often from 40 to 50 children.

Story times consist of finger plays, story reading, a short movie and some movement activities, such as songs and crafts, Randolph said.

Besides the usual story times, there are special programs for preschoolers, school-aged and young adult readers. A monthly program is planned for each group. The Wednesday programs consist of movies, crafts, readings and speakers. Once a month there is a program for all the groups.

There are three other staffers who work with Randolph in the library's story time programs. Two are full time and one is part time.

The library also sponsors a summer reading program in which children set reading goals and earn prizes and coupons. That program will be planned early next year.

The library posts its activities on its website:

www.showme.net/cgpl/

Cape library storyteller Brenda Renner said story time opens lines of communication for children. If they have fears, they often can talk about those fears during story time. In a book about going on a bear hunt, the 10 children at the story time talked of their fear of bears and other animals. The story was about the sounds of going on a bear hunt and their fear once they found the bear.

Renner, who has worked at the library for about 10 years, picks the number of books to be read according to the age of the children. She was the Tuesday storyteller for preschool children in the fall.

During story time for Eric's group, Renner showed a movie and then gave them a take-home art project.

Because of his grandmother, Eric has become quite accustomed to coming to the library and even has a special room in the library where he likes to go to play.

He has also become quite accustomed to books, and just as his grandmother had for Eric's sister, Rachel, Margaret spends a lot of time reading to Eric.

In fact, Margaret says she knows Eric's favorite book, "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister, by heart. She has read it so much. Eric is also fond of the "Barney and Baby Bop" books, Margaret says.

Through Margaret, Eric is developing a respect for books as most of his books are those with thicker pages. That's so he doesn't tear the pages while he plays with the books.

Reading is a big part of Margaret's life, and she's passing on her love of books to her grandson.