Viewpoints

Story time in the Park

In a world filled with iPods, iPads and laptops, seeing enjoying books is a rare site. But last Thursday, several dozen young children could be seen enjoying books in Union Square Park.

The gathering was part of the “Summer in the Square” series of events held in New York’s Union Square. This year the Strand bookstore partnered with series organizers to sponsor the story time event for kids.

From June 18th to August 13th, every Thursday at 2:30 p.m., storytellers from Strand bookstore read books to children. Claire Demarais and Myllicent Felder are booksellers in Strand’s children and art department, who alternate leading the readings each week.

On Thursday, July 16th they introduced themselves by asking the kids what they wanted to read that day. The children in attendance on this day ranged in ages from two to seven years old.

Demarais said she believes early childhood education is important. “If you get a good variety of books and good quality of books it exposes them to vocabulary and sentence structure and concepts and ideas. Sometimes a kid, if you get the right book and the right child, they identify with it so much  and suddenly they feel not alone,” Demarais said.

Felder say she believes the “Story time with Strand” program greatly benefits the children, “I think that having something to do during the summer is extremely important because they’re off of school they have something to look forward to, you get to read some stories and have some fun outside. I think it is really a great experience for everyone,” Felder said.

According to the Daily News, the performance of students in reading have decreased, in New York City. Only about one-third of students from grades 3-8 passed the new reading proficiency tests, down from nearly a two-thirds in 2012. Organizers say the “Story Time in the Park” event allows children to be exposed to literature even when they are out of school.
A mother who did not want to give her name believed that, “The Story Time is very helpful because she [her daughter] is reading during the summer.”