Area Story Times Avoid Sad Ending : Libraries: Attendance at summer reading programs has dropped, but one activity has managed to stay alive--but barely.

Despite three years of cutbacks, Ventura County libraries from Simi Valley to Port Hueneme are still offering story times and other summer programs to get children interested in reading.

But it’s nothing like it used to be.

Just ask Christine Culver, senior children’s librarian for the Ventura County system.

Culver is the only staff person left in the 15-branch county system whose job is to present story time for children. This summer she will be able to visit each of the county’s 15 libraries only once a month, she said.

And she worries that attendance at the programs may dwindle to an all-time low because libraries were not able to hold puppet shows promoting their programs unless they managed to scrape up outside donations.

Last summer, Culver said, all but five of the county’s libraries had their own children’s librarian to read stories aloud to their young patrons--some as often as three times a week. Also, she said, 28 puppet shows were held countywide last June to kick off story time and the summer reading program for preschoolers and elementary schoolchildren. This month, one puppet show was performed at the Simi Valley Library, which gathered outside money to pay for the show.

And attendance at library summer programs has been dropping, said Julie Albright of the county library system’s children’s division. In fiscal year 1993, the total attendance for the programs was 42,429; in the nearly completed 1994 fiscal year, attendance is 9,070.

“My personal opinion is that all the children are at risk,” lamented Culver, dressed in a black-and-yellow pirate costume after leading the story time at the Ray D. Prueter branch in Port Hueneme.

“By reading to them, they have a better chance of being lifelong readers. . . . But by coming just once a month you just don’t build that consistency.”

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Culver typically reads a few stories, then leads songs and a dance or two before ending the 45-minute programs with some sort of craft period.

At the Prueter Library, she read the colorful children’s book “The Rainbow Fish,” shifting the tone and intensity of her voice to make the story of an ostracized fish come alive. With 19 children ranging in age from 2 to 8 seated around her on the floor, Culver constantly hoisted pictures to illustrate the tale.

During one emotional moment, the storyline turned sad, and expressions quickly turned glum.

“From then on, no one would have anything to do with the Rainbow Fish,” Culver read aloud. “They turned away when he swam by.”

The story ends happily, however, when the rainbow fish learns the importance of sharing his brightly colored scales.

Culver wrapped up the program by having the children sing songs and wave streamers.

“We have music and movement, and I try to incorporate poetry,” she said later, adding that it’s important to have “up and down” time for the often restless children.

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Albright and Culver are not the only ones upset about the summer reading cutbacks. Parents and their children--from 2 years of age to the early teen-age years--seem equally dismayed.

“Everyone is always ranting and raving about the school system going down the tubes and illiteracy being a problem, and it just seems to be that the first thing (county government) cuts is the libraries,” said Mary McCool, 34, of Silver Strand, who brought her 4-year-old daughter to the Prueter story time.

“It makes me angry,” she said. “I had my own library card since I was 6 years old, and I have gotten so much from books in my life. To see the budget cut in this area surprises me.”

The Ventura County system’s summertime cutbacks have been more severe than those at other libraries. Although Thousand Oaks had to cut a small amount of programming a few years ago at its libraries and Oxnard had to slightly limit its reading materials, their programs remain for the most part healthy and intact, officials said.

In Simi Valley this week, librarians, parents and children expressed relief their branch is well supplemented by donations from an active Simi Valley Friends of the Library.

As her 21-month-year-old son’s attention swung from an awe-struck gaze at an elaborate puppet show to fidgeting restlessly in her arms, Kimberly Barron, 29, of Simi Valley, said: “I feel very fortunate, very blessed that they are still doing (most activities) here. People in this community want it, so they’re going to get it. They’re not going to let the state get in their way.”

Grace Lee, a Moorpark 6-year-old, said she would miss the summer programs.

“I would feel lonely ‘cause sometimes no one comes to my house, because they can’t play,” Grace said sheepishly.