It was a little overcast overhead, but there was nothing but sunshine in the Ferny Coombe Pool when librarian Terrill Scott opened one of her books for a special, and wet, storytime.
On Friday, June 14, eight kids and their families joined Scott and her “best bird friend” Crackle for the annual Reading in the Pool event. Organized each year by the Agassiz Library, and held for free in the Ferny Coombe Pool, the event gives kids a chance to listen to stories in a bit of a different setting.
“Libraries have to be a little bit different,” Scott said. “First of all, we have to take it to the families and to the children, and they’re in the pool.”
She also noted that is was important for libraries to be creative and diverse in its programming.
“When (kids are) doing another thing that’s fun, they associate books and reading with fun, and it just builds on that whole fun pillar,” she added.
“I like to do things that are a little different with reading, so that it attaches.”
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Reading in the Pool was certainly that. Scott had brought several waterproof books to the pool — the kind that are generally read during bath-time and can handle a dunking — and read aloud from them during the event, sometimes even letting them float away while she acted out the scenes.
Scott also brought a bit of music into the afternoon, letting the kids swim and sing along to songs like “You are my sunshine” and the popular “Baby Shark.”
At the end of the event, each kid got the opportunity to take a waterproof book home, so they could continue their own splashing literary adventures.
The one-time event finished around 12:30 p.m. on Friday, and it won’t be back until next summer.
“I wish I could do lots,” Scott said. “But, us libraries, we have to get everywhere. We have to get to all the fun places.”
grace.kennedy@ahobserver.com
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