Prime Time reading program returns to Grand Island

Prime Time Family Reading Time will return to Grand Island with opportunities for Spanish- and English-speaking parents and their children.

The Nebraska Humanities Council family literacy program is designed to help strengthen participants' interest and skills in reading.

The Grand Island Public Library, 211 N. Washington St., will host the bilingual series on six consecutive Wednesday evenings from Oct. 15 through Nov. 19. Each program will begin with a light dinner and continue with storytelling and discussion based on award-winning children's books. The program is free and open to the public.

The six-week series is offered to families with children ages 6 to 10. It includes sessions on fairness, greed, courage, ingenuity and family. All books are read and discussed in both English and Spanish.

Discussion leader Lisa Brown-Olsen and storyteller Joan Gardner will introduce parents to the benefits and pleasures of reading and discussing stories with their children. Families will also learn about library resources and services. Separate pre-reading activities will be available for younger siblings.

"It's so important for children to learn the joys of reading early in life, especially when it involves reading and discussing books with their families," said Erika Hamilton, Nebraska Humanities Council senior program officer and state coordinator of Prime Time. "A love for learning through reading has a positive impact on how well a child does in school."

In a survey of Grand Island families who participated in Prime Time in fall 2007, 100 percent said the program changed the way they read and discussed books together, 89 percent improved their attitude toward the library, and 94 percent showed interest in participating again in Prime Time or similar family reading and educational programs.

One participant said that, after attending Prime Time, "the children want to read, whereas before they didn't like to."

This will be Grand Island's fourth bilingual Prime Time, having held the first in spring 2006.

Prime Time programs are sponsored in Nebraska by the Nebraska Humanities Council with major funding from the state of Nebraska, Nebraska Library Commission, Nebraska Cultural Endowment and the Gilbert M. and Martha H. Hitchcock Foundation. Local funders for Prime Time in Grand Island include the Principal Financial Group Foundation.

For more details, call Merry von Seggern or Kathleen Nonneman at 385-5333.