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• Introduce your child to the Birmingham
Public Library and register your child for his or her own library
card. Make sure to visit one of the twenty Birmingham Public Library
locations on a regular basis. Attend programs and storytimes together.
• Check out the local bookstores, A book or gift certificate always
makes a terrific gift.
• Let your child see you reading, whether it is the newspaper, a
magazine, or the latest bestseller.
• Encourage older children to read to their younger brothers and
sisters. Or have the whole family set aside time to read together.
• Show your child how people use reading all the time. Read aloud street
and store signs, maps, billboards, menus. and labels on packages.
• Create a library for your child with new or used books. Look for
affordable books at yard sales, secondhand book stores, and the Library
Book Store located on the second floor of the Central Library.
• Set up an area in your home where a variety of reading materials are
within easy reach. Encourage writing by including paper, crayons, pens.
and pencils.
• Subscribe to a children's magazine. Read it with your child every
month.
• Carry books to read to your child wherever you go — at the doctor's
office, in line at the store, or on a long car ride. (Recordings of
books are available for checkout from the library.)
• Encourage a love of words by playing rhyming and word games, singing
silly songs, or writing poems and stories together.
• Talk about daily activities or tell stories about your family or
culture to help children develop their language skills.
Kids of all ages are invited to visit their local Birmingham Public
Library branch to sign up for "Catch The Reading Bug."All that is
necessary to participate is to sign up and check out books to read (or
be read to) at home. Research shows that children who read during the
summer months retain what they have learned from the past school year.
The goal of "Catch the Reading Bug" is to encourage children to read for
pleasure. Children of all ages, from infants to teens are invited to
read what they enjoy and to read often. Parents, grandparents and other
caregivers are also welcome to participate and to help pre-readers enjoy
books and develop a love of reading.
To make visiting the library even more exciting, the Library offers
incentives such as stickers, reading logs and certificates. Special
guest performers, magicians, puppet shows, live animals, and storytimes
are scheduled throughout the summer. These programs are designed to
bring stories alive for children and teens. Often the program will spark
an interest and motivate a child to find a book to further explore the
topic. Librarians are happy and ready to find such books. When children
and teens are encouraged to pursue their own interests they are much
more likely to read for their own enjoyment which translates to success
in school.
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