Montauk Pioneer - August 22, 2008

When I moved to Montauk in 1990 with my husband Ed, I had just retired from teaching, a career I loved. Teaching second graders and third graders, the classroom gave me the sense of accomplishment on a daily basis. No wonder I volunteered the following year to read to the pre-K children of the St. Therese School. Who'd of thought I would read to them for ten years?

Back in the classroom felt so good even though the children were only four years of age, much younger than my seven and eight year olds. We were together for only one hour each time, but I anxiously anticipated our weekly exciting get-together.

Eager to learn the children's names as quickly as possible, I greeted them each session the way I took attendance in my regular classroom by saying, "Good Afternoon, (Bobby or Melissa)" and the children replied "Good Afternoon Mrs. Bartell"; a gracious, special way in which to recognize each child I thought.

Soon during one of our greeting moments, I happened to remark, "Wow, Jenny, what a pretty outfit you have on. Why don't you come up here so we can all see you." When Jenny got up from her spot on the rug and came to stand beside me, I continued, "What a pretty skirt you have on and I love your ruffled shirt and your polka dot socks and those beautiful sneakers."

Thus began our custom where each child after our salutations would come up and I would describe their outfit. Sometimes the girls would twirl around like ballerinas in their full, fancy dresses, and the boys would show off their jeans or maybe their fancy work boots. And so our reading session prelude became a time where each child was a star.

Starting in 1995 I chose "The Tub People" as the first book of the year. It has won numerous coveted awards. As I read in "my stage voice" and paused to show the illustrations. My audience was a changing panorama of wide-eyes, grins, laughter, nods, burrowed frowns and little mouths drawn up almost like a bow to form the word "uh-oh" At times it was so quiet that you could have heard Hansel dropping breadcrumbs on the forest floor.

What a book. We giggled and shivered afterwards when we wondered if we would slip down the drains in our bathtubs that night. After acting out the story several times, a wonderful way to "stretch" and reinforce a tale that would soon become an all time favorite, the children returned to their perches and sat quietly awaiting the sweet treat to be taken home after they were dismissed.

The three year olds had joined our group the second year we were together and adapted to our organized routine where wonder, surprises and all sorts of emotions were felt through the wonderful books we read. The classes I read to where the students of the amazing lead teacher Virginia Veltri, and her assistants Barbara "Chooch" Freidman and Tricha Erb Cusimano, all of whom who gave so much to so many youngsters.

Every time I meet one of the children or their parents or buy a children's book as a gift, I am reminded of that decade and how important and exciting the reading time was for the hundreds of children who were a part of the world of literature.

Kids can watch too much TV, can eat too much candy, can go to bed too late but they can never read, or be read to, too much. All good children's literature is a vehicle to help children understand their homes, their communities and the world. At their best, children's books invite children to use their imagination, expand their vocabularies and gain a better understanding of themselves and others.

One of the first steps parents can take towards introducing their children to a lifelong love of reading is to read from the book, The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury, an anthology of forty-four of the most memorable and beloved children's books including the original illustrations.