Well, being Scottish and all I am naturally drawn to the
Highlands. What do we have there in our Highlands suburb? A lovely old building
filled wall to wall with books!
On Friday, I got a text from Rose Simango at Highlands Branch Library (there she is in
the picture) to say there were children for storytelling and was
there a reader free? Fantastic!
However, I was stuck at the side of the road with a
policeman trying to extract a $20 spot fine. Really? Are spot fines still on?
‘If you can’t pay you
will have to go to court tomorrow. Better call someone’ he said. So
I did, I called Rosa and said I would do my best to be there as I did not have
the contact details of other Highlands readers on me.
But, I said, I was a bit
held up.
The uniformed chap walked off and left me sitting.
Should I stay? Should I go? Children were waiting. Eventually he came back
after about 10 minutes of my not budging.
'Did you give me
anything?' he said.
'Nope'
said I. ’I am waiting for the summons paper, I shall just have to go to court as I still do not have the cash.’ He
began scribbling on the paper and I reached out to receive it.
‘What cash do you have?’ he mumbled
without looking up.
‘No cash’ I said firmly. More writing
on the paper. Must be an essay on un-compliant motorists.
'Well then you can go' he stated, waving his hand skyward.
Back to books. Jeanette covered Mount
Pleasant this week and so I was able to head across to Highlands at
2.30pm where 15 eager faces were listening to Rosa retelling a bible
story in Shona. Little eyes widened even more when I appeared. Wow!
‘They like you’ said Rosa afterwards. I had read ‘Cockadoodle
Doo, Mr Sultana’ again. This is so telling of how open the hearts of children
really are to an interested soul. They just know when you like them. And guess
what, all but one were BOYS. Can you believe it! Mostly Grade 4 and 5. Boys,
reading and listening to stories! At least 3 young men from grade 7 too. Our
only girl was very possessive of me and was a bold Grade 1 (she volunteered to
read, plonked herself on my story teller chair then went awfully quiet). We all
looked at each other until the penny dropped, her reading level was not quite
there. She was all confidence. So, I shared the chair with her and she held the
pages of Ntsiki’s Surprise (another little reader..no surprise..) as I read
that aloud. She proudly displayed the pictures page by page. I always make the point of having a
readers/story tellers chair for me. Not sure why. I think it settles them and
provides a focal point. I then ask them to sit in this chair when they read to
us. As we all get bolder, we can move around and tell the story with our whole
bodies.
We then had a bookshelf sprint and Tonderai chose a
fun story about a birthday cake and a magician which he was then suddenly too
shy to read so his colleague in a big fluffy red jumper did the deed, and very
well too for a grade 4. I was impressed.
Now, this is not the first reading session they
have had at the library. Last week my friend Justine and her mate Taryn pitched
up for a reading session. Justine is my super fit and gorgeous Body and Soul
gym class teacher. She arrived about 3pm. They had a look around and found some old but enjoyable books, then proceeded to do a little reading to 7 lovely children. The little ones could not sit still despite enjoying the story of a laughing elephant called Elsie (this book was from the library). The next story was called 'Possum Magic' by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas.
Justine tells me it is a cure little story about a possum that is invisible and needs to travel all over Australia to find people food to make her visible again. Dan aged 9 actually read this one out loud. Well done! The last story for the day was in Shona and read by Ngoni. He is aged 7 and read the WHOLE book by himself too. He even translated it for other in English along the way, very smart cookie. It was about 10 yellow soccer shirts that got blown all over the place by the wind. Justines' son found a great book on how to make things, which was taken home after becoming a library member. Good on you Scholtz family! Every membership counts. Ever thought of taking your children to the library of an afternoon to read? One of the cheaper have fun options around. They can draw whilst you read (bring their crayons and scribble books too) or you can all read together.
So go and visit Highlands Branch Library. The grounds
need a little TLC as you can see from the picture below, but inside you will
find a friendly face and a whole lot of good books to read. Come on, let’s help
put the highlight back into Highlands Branch
Library.
I am told reading aloud is the
foundation for literacy development. Some say it is the single most important
activity for reading success because it provides children with a demonstration
of how to read!
Another awesome fact is that children can listen on
a higher language level than they can read. So, reading aloud to children helps
make them even smarter. New words, longer words, words never used before. When
you read children a story, there is a possibility that you are helping a less
able readers to the same rich and engaging books that really good and fluent readers
read on their own. 
ANY AGE benefit from hearing an
experienced reading of a wonderful book. 
When was the last time someone read to you? Go on,
dare you. Read to a friend, and have them read to you this weekend. 
