Kids catch reading bug at Westside health center

The Reach Out and Read program at the Westside Family Health Center shows how a small idea for improving little ones’ literacy can have a big effect.

Each tiny exam room in the center’s 1,585-square-foot clinic on Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica contains a plastic bin filled with books featuring Winnie the Pooh, Cookie Monster and other characters dear to youngsters’ hearts. Every child 6 months to 8 years old who comes in for a sick- or well-child visit receives a new or gently used, age-appropriate book.

The program received a $10,000 grant this year from The Times Holiday Campaign.

With the extra funds, the center has been able to expand the number of books it can buy.

“The children get very excited,” said Marcy Medina, the center’s community health worker, who specializes in pediatrics and runs the reading program. “Sometimes, if we don’t give them the book as they walk in, they ask, ‘Where’s my book?’ ”

Six-year-old Valerie Ayala can rattle off every detail of the wacky dream adventures in “Let’s Go Swimming With Mr. Sillypants,” a cherished book that a clinic worker chose for her. The first-grader has it memorized, thanks to repeated readings by her mother.

“Mr. Sillypants dreams he’s in the desert,” Valerie said in an animated telephone conversation. “He finds a street with a sign that says ‘Danger.’ He falls down to the ocean. He doesn’t know how to swim.” Eventually, he wakes up, brushes his teeth and happily goes off to his swimming class.

Valerie’s mother, Eduina Guerra, who left school in Guatemala after the eighth grade to work full time, credits the Reach Out and Read program with helping to inspire a love of reading in her daughter.

“Giving a book is an excellent idea,” she said. “It’s better than giving a lollipop.”

Since 1993, the Westside Family Health Center has provided comprehensive pediatric care for mostly low-income, uninsured families on the Westside.

Funded by grants, foundations and private donations, it serves roughly 7,500 patients who make about 22,000 visits a year.

Reach Out and Read, part of a national program started in 1989, also provides handouts for parents that discuss the importance of reading to their children. For parents who don’t know how to read, the information suggests making up stories about the illustrations found in books.

The center buys most of its books but also accepts donated books in good condition.

Originally launched in collaboration with the Venice Family Clinic, the Westside Family Health Center’s Reach Out and Read program is a component of its larger Pediatric Literacy Program. It is based on the notion that a child’s attitude toward reading grows out of parents’ or caregivers’ attitudes toward reading.

If parents read aloud to their children and encourage library visits and book ownership, chances are that children will begin to look forward to reading.

At age 8, Quinny Baker of Santa Monica is an avid reader who has zipped through many books from the center. “He likes the variety,” said Matt Baker, Quinny’s father. If Quinny wasn’t entirely pleased with a book offered at the center, “he used to stand at the counter and ask if they had something else,” Baker added.

Quinny started walking at 6 months and reading at a young age, his father said. An ice hockey prodigy, Quinny plans to travel in December to Russia to play in a tournament.

The trip will be sponsored by Igor Larionov, a retired Russian hockey star who played on several National Hockey League teams.

Baker, who will accompany his son, said Quinny would be taking along plenty of books.

“He’ll read on the airplane,” he said. “We don’t have to ask him to read. He just reads.”

The annual Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match every dollar raised at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make credit card donations, visit www.latimes.com/ holidaycampaign. To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash. Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more are acknowledged in The Times.

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martha.groves@latimes.com