Reading is in the bag for students

Molly Shore

Kindergartner Adrian Weakland is excited about taking a school

library book home to read each week.

“Mom, can I sign up?” the Roosevelt Elementary School student

asked Thursday when district Librarian Paula Paggi came to Linda

Walmsley’s afternoon kindergarten class to initiate the new

kindergarten bag of books library program.

Every Thursday, the children, whose parents have signed them up to

take home books, will receive a numbered bag with a book assigned to

that bag.

When they return the bag the next week, they will receive another

numbered bag with a different book in it, Paggi said.

“I think it’s just great because we read and do book reports

already,” Adrian’s mother, Misti Weakland, said.

The program, launched last year at Stevenson, Miller and Bret

Harte elementary schools, has been a success, Paggi said. She would

like to see the program utilized in every Burbank kindergarten class,

but said it is up to each teacher.

The program was started because kindergartners, who attend school

for half-days, do not get to use the school libraries, Paggi said.

By putting books in bags and letting parents read to their

children, Paggi said she hopes children will adopt the love of

reading for pleasure. Both fiction and nonfiction books will be

included in the bags, she said.

Adrian, who likes animal stories, said he hoped to take home a

book about a pig.

“It’s fantastic,” parent Armond Badkerhanian said. “I’m a teacher

myself and the problem we have is our students don’t read. They can’t

make it in the world if they don’t read.”

Badkerhanian’s son Zareh already loves to read, he said.

“Books on shelves look lovely,” Walmsley said. “Books in hand

contribute to a literate society.”