February is “I Love to Read” month

Last week, I put on my library hat and hit up the Grygla School. Visiting the 3rd and 4th grade classrooms, we talked about all the reasons we love our libraries. We also read some fun books and had some great conversations. Not only do we have the Grygla School Library for them, which is so great, full, big and beautiful…we also have a tinier and cozier library just down the road. How lucky are we!? I got the kids to agree…

At our little Northwest Regional Library in town, we’re open every Wednesday from 2-6pm. We offer a variety of books, DVD’s, CD’s, audio books…we also have computers for your use and an iPad for the youngsters. It’s a small space, yes, and it doesn’t have adequate room to lounge with a good book for a few hours, but it’s there and it’s open and full of many treasures that you can take home.

(As the librarian and also an avid reader, I often think about what it would be like if Grygla had a bigger building in town. Let me take you on my journey...in my own mind, I picture this building along the main street in town. It’s large and full of skylights and windows. In the back half is a beautiful new community center with a garden/patio area out back. In the front of the building, one side is filled with a spacious meeting room (available for rent to clubs, organizations, businesses, etc.) and houses the city offices and the newspaper office. On the other side of this is a beautiful library filled with large windows. Inside would be a welcoming area full of beautiful shelving, various computer stations, cozy reading areas with side tables and lamps, a children’s area that is bright and colorful…I’ve even went so far as to imagine the colors of it or how the garden/patio area in the back could be a great space for a community garden or the Grygla Garden Club to maintain and take pride in. Wouldn’t that be AMAZING? Ok, time to stop dreaming. But it never hurts to think outside of the box and imagine all of the possibilities, right? It would be so great if one day that was a reality and we had a space like that that could be open into the evening hours for kids and adults to come and make use of. Also, when talking to our NWRL director, she was saying that if the building had the NWRL logo on it and houses the library, they could come up with as much as 50% of the funding for it. So maybe it’s NOT too farfetched!? Time will tell, I suppose.)

Anyway, big dreams, but fun to think about! 

Back to “I Love to Read” month….the schools in the area all plan fun activities for the kids during this month. When I visited the Grygla School last week, the hallways were adorned with bright bulletin boards honoring the month, they also have decorated numerous classroom doors and have different class projects hanging outside the rooms. It’s exciting to see the kids recognize the month and get excited about books!

Coming up in March is the birthday of Dr. Seuss. That day is also dubbed as “Read Across America” Day. At the Grygla School, they invite the kids to wear their pajamas, bring blankets and spend the whole day engulfed in books. Whether they are listening to guest readers, or their teacher, or off by themselves in a little classroom nook, the kids get an entire day full of reading; it doesn’t get much better than that.

After my visit with the elementary students last week, I passed little cards out and asked the kids to fill them out on why they loved their library and explained to them that I’ll be mailing them all down to the State Capitol Office in St. Paul. (With the hopes to encourage them to increase state funding for MN public libraries!) Anyway, I was just going to pick a few out of the stack, but decided to share them all with you because they are each so sweet and fun to read. If you can’t tell, I LOVE MY LIBRARY! And after reading these…I think our kids love it, too.

Grygla Elementary 3rd Graders (in their own words)

Robbie Mosher: I love my library because it has so much books I love loads of books it makes me crazy.

Seth Kaczor: I love my library because it gives me books to make me smart. It helps me take A/R tests.

Janessa Torgerson: I love my library because librarys inspire me by reading cool and diffent books that I never knew about.

Lucy Mickelson: I love my library because I love to read it is great for your brain and a great way to waste time.

Raymond Moe: I love my library because it gives me books to read so I’m not bored when I get my stuff done. And it’s a good place to hang out and get away.

Mollie Lunsetter: I love my library because I love to read in bed at a house in a car on a chair I like my library and it is as mutch as a 100% at the library.

Lila Alten: I love my library because they got good books and they make you smarter.

Alivia Bourman: I love my library because they make me smarter. They have cool movies. They have cool books.

Grygla Elementary 4th Graders (in their own words)

Brody Saurdiff: I love my library because it is awesome because it has good books.

Samantha Nordby: I love my library because it gives me information about stuff and I love to read so much because reading is fun.

Lakylie Brobst: I love my library because I like Kari the librarian she is nice and I like books and it teaches you a lot of things I mostly love Kari.

Anna Sundberg: I love my library because my mom works there and I love to read. The library has all my favorite books.

Rease Stratton: I love my library because it has my favorit books in it including lots of other good books.

Addison Severts: I love my library because I like to read in a peaceful place without noises. I like to read to my siblings in a library because it has their favorite books there.

Kinsley Oslund: I love my library because Kerry is the librarian and it is fun and I live in town so I can walk there and the library is colorfull.

Payton Dougherty: I love my library because you learn about cool stuff.

Emily Johnson: I love my library because the library has my favorite books, and I love reading! The kind librarians will help you find books! The library also teaches responsibilities. 

Ava Sorvig: I love my library because they have fun stuff to do and you can get some awsome books and movies and see your friends.

Gavin Aune: I love my library because it has good books and it has good movies and have games on ipads with headphones. Libraries are awesome.

Kian Ahlbeck: I love my library because it’s fun it gives you responsibilities and you read fun books it is aweome to read I love libraries. And you are having fun.

Chey Mickelson: I love my library because I can take tests on the books I realy love. And I can be in my favirate liabrary and be with my favirate librarian.