Encouraging kids to open books and their minds

The eighth annual Reading Celebration Day will roll into Conifer on Feb. 6, and author Joe Wheeler believes that kids who read will own their imaginations instead of borrowing them from the media.

The Conifer Kiwanis Club is sponsoring the event, to be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Beaver Ranch, located a mile south of U.S. 285 on Foxton Road.

The event is partly a celebration of reading and also a chance for the Kiwanis to present four elementary schools with checks for $1,000 toward purchase of library books. The schools are Marshdale, Elk Creek, West Jefferson and Deer Creek.

The event targets third-graders an effort to get them excited about the magic of books. It is free for all third-graders, third-grade teachers, librarians and principals of the four schools.

“Unless a child falls in love with reading by third grade, they won’t ever develop it,” Wheeler said.

With parental permission, each third-grader who attends the event will receive one of six books compiled and edited by Wheeler. Children may have their book personally inscribed by him.

The books, donated by Wheeler, are stories about a variety of fun and inspiring animals. A prolific writer, Wheeler practices what he preaches and keeps approximately 30,000 books in his personal library, and he reads everything from the classics to comic strips.

Wheeler, who has authored 71 books, believes that children today are suffering from a lack of the social and imaginative benefits of reading and/or being read to.

“The child is so electronically over-connected and overexposed they no longer have the ability to imagine,” Wheeler said. “Children need to create their own mental pictures.”

Wheeler said a lack of access to printed media such as books, magazines and newspapers leaves children with a critical lack of imagination, problem-solving skills and writing skills, and leaves them open to problems such as cheating in school.

“If a child comes from a home where electronic media is everything and there’s little print media around, then the child has little chance to develop,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler is a member of the Kiwanis Club and coordinator of the reading program. He has donated books, time and money to get more new books in schools.

The average age of an elementary-school library book is 12 years old, said Wheeler.

Half of the money given to schools by Kiwanis will target third-grade readers, and the other half will be spent on other grades, kindergarten through fifth. Wheeler said that $1,000 is virtually nothing for the cost of books, but that fund-raising is tougher this year.

Wheeler plans to continue spreading the word about reading. Children can find themselves and their futures in the pages of a book, he said.

“This is a way to get families to read again,” Wheeler said. “Children will become their favorite stories.”

From the High Timber Times, February 2010