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Program at Youngstown school unites kids, toys and books
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Aaronay Agee, 6, leafed through the pages of the children’s book, “The Great Seal of the United States,” with a stuffed Benjamin Franklin doll propped on the table next to her.
Aaronay, a first-grader at Kirkmere Elementary School, said it’s a good book.
Regina Rees, a Youngstown State University professor and a member of the Youngstown Doll Study Club, brought books and 32 “traveling book friends” to the school at the request of Wendy Lyden, Kirkmere’s literacy coach.
“We wanted to do something for the children,” Rees said of the doll study club.
The program marries books with dolls, puppets or stuffed animals of the characters featured in them. It’s geared to students in kindergarten through third grade and encourages reading while adding the visual image of a character.
Rees bought some of the book friends and made some others.
Fourth-graders at the school read to first-graders Friday morning while the first-graders played with the characters. Some of the younger children read themselves.
First-grader Alyssa Harris, 6, read “Max and Ruby’s Show and Tell.”
“It’s about Max’s first day of school,” she said.
Max and Ruby are bunnies.
First-grader Ga’Mior Jackson, 8, read “Caps for Sale,” a book he’s read three times. It’s about a hat salesman whose wares are stolen by monkeys.
Tinya McCullough, 6, also a first-grader, picked “George and Martha Rise and Shine.” It’s a collection of stories about two hippopotami.
It’s a good book, she said, as she played with the stuffed hippos, one dressed in a skirt and one in pants.
Other titles that were part of the program included “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “Corduroy,” “The Country Bunny” and “Germs.”
The program is available to any area school. Any school that’s interested should contact Rees at YSU.
“What could be more fun than kids and books?” Rees said.