Elementary students 'ROAR' with excitement over reading

Date: 11/18/2008

By Katelyn Gendron

Reminder Assistant Editor



WESTFIELD Last Wednesday, Boy's and Girl's Library Director Daniel Paquette walked into Kim Pulley's first grade classroom at Juniper Park Elementary School with a wide smile and a brand new library book in hand.

Paquette was one of over 85 volunteers who participated in the 10th annual Reach Out and Read (ROAR) in 105 classrooms throughout the city's eight elementary schools and early childhood center. ROAR invites volunteers into the classrooms of those in pre-kindergarten through third grade with brand new books donated to the library from a two-year grant from the Berkshire Bank Foundation Pioneer Valley.

Barbara Trant, volunteer coordinator for Westfield Public Schools, explained that this program helps to supplement library budgets in the wake of extensive budget cuts as well as provide the students with role models who emphasize the importance of reading.

Many of the 17 wide-eyed boys and girls in Pulley's class sat on their multicolored pieces of carpet enthralled by Paquette's telling of "Bats at the Library" and giggled at his additional commentary.

"You can't do anything in life without reading," Paquette said of the importance of such a skill. He noted that picture books allow children to be stimulated by their detail, especially those that may be hidden at first glance. Paquette said such illustrations keep youthful minds intrigued and willing to return to the same books to find more details that they may have missed.

Pulley explained that she reads many books to her students but that ROAR allows them to hear "a new book they've never seen before and [a level of] excitement of a new person reading to them."

She said the visual stimulation prompted by picture books generate an "enjoyment of reading before they have to read [chapter] books without pictures."

Trant explained that ROAR is a two-part program, first for the pre-kindergarten through third grades in the fall and for fourth and fifth grades in March. She noted that $2,500 worth of new books have been donated to libraries during the fall program and $2,500 worth will be donated in March.

Those wishing to be volunteers within the Westfield Public School system can contact Trant at 572-6345 or vips@schoolsofwestfield.org.