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Barnes and Noble hosts story time for kids
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Krysten and Jasmine Helewa (left), of Boardman, and Wendy and Ryan Coy, of New Middletown, enjoyed the Little Listeners with Laura story time at Barnes and Noble Aug. 26.
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Laura Frey read three stories to the children who attended the Little Listeners with Laura story time at Barnes and Noble Aug. 26.
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Zerek Krukowski, 2, concentrated on his school bus coloring page after the Little Listeners with Laura story time at Barnes and Noble, while his mom, Lluvia, of Austintown, looked on.
By ABBY SLANKER
Twenty children of varying ages attended the Little Listeners with Laura story time in the Children’s Department at Barnes and Noble in Boardman Aug. 26.
Laura Frey held the little listeners’ attention while reading three books, including “I’m Gonna Like Me” by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell, “Dog Loves Books” by Louise Yates and “Waking Up is Hard to Do,” which features the book on CD, performed by Neil Sedaka.
After reading “I’m Gonna Like Me,” Frey asked her audience to sing the ABCs and count to 20, just like the characters in the book. She also engaged the children in singing and doing hand motions and movements to the songs “I’m a Little Teapot,” “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Five Little Monkeys” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”
At the end of story time, the children were given a school bus coloring page and crayons and a snack was provided.
“My main focus of story time is for the children to have fun. I want the children to have a good time while experiencing good literature,” said Frey.
In the 16 years the store has been in operation, Frey has been presenting story time for 14 of those years.
“I have seen families with five children go through years of the story time and have watched them grow from infancy. This really is a nice tradition,” said Frey.
Many of the children and their parents stay after story time is over to look at books and play in the children’s area.
According to Frey, the story time also offers mothers a chance to network and the children a chance to socialize.
“Many of the families make a day of it by either going to the park or to lunch after the story time,” Frey said.
She also said that, through her story time, she has had the opportunity to introduce families new to the area who attend the story time to families she knows live in their area or neighborhood.
The story time consists of three stories, singing and movement, which Frey ties together with a theme. She also coordinates the coloring page and stamp for the childrens’ hands with the subjects of the books and the theme of the day.
For example, in the fall, Frey uses an apple theme and incorporates stories about apples and offers small apples as the snack. Around Halloween, the stories center on the holiday and children can dress up in costume and join a parade through the store.
Little Listeners with Laura story time is held at 10:30 a.m. every Thursday at Barnes and Noble. The story time is held year-round, with the exception of the month of December, and is free and open to children of all ages.