TV Goes Off as Kids Tune In to Reading

Six-year-old Jennifer Rivera was home watching a video Saturday, but when her mom asked her if she wanted to go to the library the girl eagerly said yes.

“She prefers reading to watching TV,” said Carmen Rivera, 28, of Van Nuys.

If that’s not enough to make educators smile, consider that Jennifer was joined by about 200 other children and parents at the Van Nuys branch library to hear volunteers read books.

Each child also received a free new book at the second annual event, which seeks to encourage students in kindergarten through third grade to read, said Jeffrey Scott, spokesman for the Volunteer Center, the event organizer.

“It’s been proven by surveys and test scores that many children are leaving third grade without basic reading skills,” Scott said.

The reading event was also meant to teach children about Martin Luther King Jr., in commemoration of his birthday, organizers said. Several posters featuring photos of the civil rights leader hung in the library’s storytelling room.

Maureen Wiecks, a third-grade teacher at Coldwater Canyon Avenue Elementary School in North Hollywood, was pleased that parents brought their children to the event.

“It’s a really good way to encourage kids to use the library,” Wiecks said. “You really have to get them when they’re younger just to develop those lifelong habits.”

What kids chose to read, however, can be unpredictable.

“I like books about rats,” Jennifer Rivera said. “They’re pretty.”

Yes, Jennifer’s mom confirmed, her daughter loves rat tales.

“She likes a book about rats whose teeth are falling out. She makes me read it to her all the time,” Carmen Rivera said.

Christine Williams, who came with her 6-year-old son, Kristopher, said kids like a variety of people to read to them.

“Sometimes they get tired of listening to their parents read to them and they want to hear a new person,” said Williams, 45, of Van Nuys.

One such reader is volunteer Nicole Hernandez, who said she enjoys seeing the look in children’s eyes when they are riveted by good stories.

“Imagination is so incredible,” said Hernandez, 27, of Studio City. “When you’re able to spark that, it’s a great thing.”