Naperville library hopes kids 'Go Bananas for Books'

Crack open a book and it's like transporting yourself to another place and time with no plane, no boat, no car.

Last year, 1,767 kids spent a total of 18,186 hours diving into books and authors' fantasylands with no secret code, no key, no portal more magical than pages of print during Naperville Public Library's Winter Reading Program.

Library staff is hoping to attract similar or even larger numbers this year with its "Go Bananas for Books" theme.

The Winter Reading Program encourages the littlest library patrons to accompany their parents and older siblings to the library to stock up on books to savor and snuggle up with this winter.

"It's for birth to fifth grade," said Rashmi Mehrotra, children's services supervisor at the downtown Nichols Library. "We strongly believe in early literacy. Anything read to the child is helpful to them."

Mehrotra said preschool children can tackle early literacy skills by learning about language and sounds.

"They're better ready to read when they start school," she said. "This is what we are trying to promote."

She said parents can give young children a running start by teaching them the names of objects, letting them hold books and turn pages, telling them stories with rhymes, playing games with syllables and sounds and helping them identify the first letters of words.

The winter reading program also is aimed at older book-lovers, Mehrotra said.

"They can read whatever they care to read - or listen to," she said. "Basically we are encouraging reading here in any format."

Readers and listeners, or their parents, keep a log of hours spent on books and tapes from Jan. 5 through Feb. 15. All participants are given welcoming prizes when they register and all are eligible to win bigger prizes, such as family tickets to a Chicago Wolves hockey game.

A player from the Wolves, the winter reading program's biggest sponsor, will greet reading program participants at 4 p.m. Feb. 3 in the 95th Street Library, Mehrotra said.

Children will have an opportunity to ask questions, get signed autographs and try on an authentic Chicago Wolves uniform, she said.

Registration, reading logs and welcoming prizes are available at all three Naperville Public Library locations at the children's services desks.

If you go

What: "Go Bananas for Books," Naperville Public Library's Winter Reading Program

Who: Library card-holders, through fifth grade

When: Through Feb. 15

Cost: Free

Info: (630) 961-4100 or www.naperville-lib.org