It's children's book week in San Mateo, an annual celebration aimed at encouraging our nation's youngest readers to turn the page of their literary future. "It's a nationwide celebration, showing children's books are exciting and fun," said Virginia Soletti, a children's librarian in San Mateo. "We believe everything we do will have a positive influence, so if the library is positive and fun, the children will associate reading with a comfortable warm place."
This year two San Mateo libraries have been outfitted with cardboard trains constructed by teenage volunteers to reflect book week's theme, "Fuel your mind."
As part of the activities with the children, the library has been making bookmarks out of brightly colored construction paper. "We only do bright colors," Soletti said. "We have an Ellison machine which cuts out the bookmarks, so kids don't have to use scissors." This year's bookmarks are worms and stars.
Soletti said that one of this year's books read to the children is Wolf!, by British author Becky Bloom. Soletti said the book is about a wolf that goes to a farm and sees a cow and a pig. The wolf, hungry, is thinking of eating the barnyard animals, and when he approaches them and expresses his desire to eat them, they ignore the wolf because they're so involved in reading. Thinking the animals obnoxious for ignoring him, the wolf goes to school and learns to read, then the library, and finally the bookstore where he buys a book. The action so impresses all the farm animals that they become the wolf's friends.
Soletti didn't know whether the wolf then became a vegetarian because of the wolf's friendship with the other animals, but she did say the wolf could go back to the library and learn about being a vegetarian.
Although children's book week ends Nov. 19, there is a bilingual story time with Spanish and English every Monday at 7 p.m., and a toddler's story time on Thursdays at 11a.m.
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