Since early 2024, the Library Foundation has been funding a program called Storytime Enhancement to complement the Shute Park and Brookwood Libraries’ Toddler Time storytime. Once a month, a copy of the story that is presented by wonderful library staff members to a room full of enthusiastic toddlers and their caretakers is handed out for the children to take home, one copy per family. On average, fifty toddlers attend each library storytime!
So far, two Storytime Enhancement books have been gifted to families attending storytime. These families can use the Storytime Enhancement books to build or expand their own homes’ libraries, which parents and children can return to daily to develop their linguistic and imaginative worlds.
At the Shute Park Storytime Enhancement storytime, the books that are read and gifted have been bilingual – English and Spanish. Whether or not children come from a bilingual home, they all experience the dynamism of linguistic diversity when they participate. One parent, after storytime ended, commented that she is so grateful to live in Hillsboro and have access to these types of events that she even encourages her friends to move to the area because the community, and especially the library, is such a wonderful and welcoming place for her family.
In March, children were treated to an interactive reading of Please, Mr. Panda / Por Favor, Sr. Panda, and afterward enjoyed looking at their very own copy of the book with parents, grandparents, and caretakers. Artemio López, library staff member who led the storytime, expressed “It is so awesome to be able to do this [give the book to the children to take home]. I have thought about being able to do this for a while!”
Storytime Enhancement is an ongoing initiative that we hope to continue as long as funding exists. The book giveaway started thanks to a $2,000 grant from the Cultural Coalition of Washington County that launched this project. An additional $1,000 was raised in 2024, and the Library Foundation hopes to again raise $1,000 in 2025, in order to continue providing quality picture books to young children and their families.
