Read for the Record

by Krista Dawson, Director of Education

As an educator who spent a decade supporting early literacy efforts with the Richmond Public Library, I love any opportunity to gather a group of kids and their grown-ups to share a great book. The annual Read for the Record event is a chance to do just that and this year we are partnering with my old friends from RPL as well as some new friends from Read to Them to share the book, Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon by Kat Zhang.

There are several ways to be a part of this fun event:

• join us in person at the Downtown Children’s Museum at 10:30 am, where the library mascot, Ripple and the CMoR mascot, Seymour will join in the read aloud fun.
• join us on Facebook for a Facebook Live reading at 10:30 am
• Join us on Zoom- go to Rvalibrary.org. Sign up under Virtual Events in the “What’s Happening” tab.
• Read the book yourself and go to the Jumpstart site to pledge to read and be counted! (Last year over 2.2 million participants read the same book on the same day!)

At CMoR we understand the importance of early literacy. In fact, it is a cornerstone of our Education Framework and informs our field trip and museum programming.

Raising Readers outlines the importance of early literacy this way:

• Children introduced to reading early on tend to read earlier and excel in school compared to children who are not exposed to language and books at a young age (American Academy of Pediatrics).
• Reading, rhyming, singing, and talking — beginning from birth — profoundly influence literacy and language development, the foundations for all other learning (www.healthychildren.org).
• More than 1 in 3 American children start Kindergarten without the skills they need to learn to read (American Academy of Pediatrics).
• Developing early literacy skills makes it easier for children to learn to read. Children who enter school with these skills have an advantage that carries with them throughout their school years. However, more than 1 in 3 American children enter Kindergarten without the skills they need to learn to read (American Academy of Pediatrics). Reading is an essential skill for success in school and later in life.

If you value literacy too, one way you can make a concrete contribution is to donate new or “like-new” books to the Children’s Book Bank. As we head into the holiday season, we are going to need a lot of books to support the requests to help children in underserved areas have their own books. We also have a new book bank donation button where you can donate directly. I recommend this option as it saves you from a shopping trip and your donation dollars go much further. I am able to purchase at a significant discount through a membership with First Book (about half the price of retail).

If you know a school or program that serves children that do not have access to books, please share the link to our Request Books page so they can get books for their students/children.