A new way to reach new readers
By Michael Johnson
Editor
Imagine if you could start teaching your child about reading as soon as they are born. Actually you can, and experts say you should. It’s no news that children are growing up with a little different view on reading than years ago. Many are likely introduced to the feel of an electronic tablet before they open a book for the first time. As Washburn School librarian Jill Grumbo sees, many children enter school without knowing how to properly hold a book open. Grumbo is spearheading the effort in the Washburn School to raise the literacy of students and open the doors of the imagination that books are so good at doing. She’s doing it with the organization Imagination Library. The Imagination Library was started by Dolly Parton in 1996. Parton started the program in her home county in Tennessee with the plan to deliver preschool age children a book a month in order to get them interested in books as well as get parents involved by reading the books to the children.
