Ithaca Guys Read will be held every Saturday until April 4 in the library’s Thaler/Howell Children’s Program Room. It brings in a male role model from the Ithaca community to read aloud to children a book of his choice. The goal is that when boys see someone they respect in the community reading and they will do the same, developing a habit of reading.
Alan Blankstein, author of the award-winning book Failure is Not an Option, was the first to come up with the idea of Ithaca Guys Read. He approached the library wanting to start a story time similar to the mother-daughter book club program at the library, in which young girls and their mothers read and discuss a book each month.
“I’ve been a single dad for a long time and I have two daughters, so when I saw the mother-daughter reading program at the library, I was interested in creating a father-daughter or father-son reading program,” Blankstein said.
The library collaborated with Blankstein to create Ithaca Guys Read, which is open to all children ages three – 10, but puts emphasis on boys by bringing in male role models in the community to spark their interest in reading.
“There’s a certain point where reading or coming to the library for story time may not be seen as cool. So as a result, we’re trying to promote more reading for boys and make it cool again,” Currie said.
This new reading initiative at the library may well do that because according to children’s book publisher Scholastic’s 2014 Kids & Family Reading Report, reading aloud to children increases the likelihood that they’ll grow up to be frequent readers.
The research showed that 40 percent of children ages six to 11 who are frequent readers (those who read five to seven books a week for fun) had parents who read aloud to them, compared to only 13 percent of children who were infrequent readers (those who read less than one book a week).
The study also found that reading decreases significantly among infrequent readers as they get older. Infrequent readers age six to 11 read on average of 21.1 book a year, but it drastically drops to 4.7 books a year when they’re 12-17. However, for frequent readers the number only drops from 43.4 books to 39.6 in the same age groups.
In response to the decreasing reading rates in the nation, the Ithaca Guys Read initiative is one of many children-oriented programs the library has to encourage reading. As a result, Sarah Glogowski, head of the youth department, said reading rates among children, especially boys, in Ithaca have been higher than the national average.
“A lot of times you’ll hear that boys are reluctant readers. We are lucky enough that we don’t see that here because we do a lot in our library to prevent that,” Glogowski said. “We have reading lists to encourage boys and girls to read something fun. We also offer a lot of different programs, like the summer and winter reading programs so kids can get in the habit of reading every single day.”
TCPL’s latest annual report showed that the library houses more than 68,000 children’s books, and nearly 7,000 children attended a youth reading program in 2012. In addition, 794 children were registered for the summer reading program in that year alone.
The pilot of Ithaca Guys Read only brought in six families, but youth services librarian Adelle Leise said she’s optimistic that the audience will grow.
“I think we had a little bit of a competition because of the chili cook-off, but I think the event went well and the kids seemed to enjoy it,” Leise said. “This is going to run for two months and as words spread, hopefully our number will pick up.”
The parents who attended the event said they enjoyed it and that they’ll be returning for Ithaca Guys Read sessions.
Yaara Pick came with her five-year old son Yishai and her eight-month old daughter, Shira. “I believe in the power of reading so I read to [my children] everyday,” Pick said. She added that they’ll be coming next week, too.
Dr. Brown said he enjoyed being the guest and that he’ll come back to speak to the children again.
“My kids love the library so we’ll be here often and I’ll read another story so I’ll definitely be back,” Brown said.
The next Ithaca Guys Read will be held on Saturday, February 14 at 2 p.m. in the library’s Thaler/Howell Children’s Program Room. The guest will be Micah Martorell, business lending assistant for Alternatives Federal Credit Union and president of the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County.
