A few numbers to start this week’s column:
25,913: Number of books in the Morton-James Public Library
20,000: Number of books presented to pre-K through second grade Nebraska City students by EDGE Nebraska City since 2016.
28: The size of a student’s personal library from EDGE Nebraska City when he or she begins third grade (starting from pre-K).
Northside Elementary hosted author Deanne Flessner-Beebe on Tuesday, May 7. Flessner-Beebe told the second-grade students at Northside how she became interested in writing books, and she encouraged them to make their own books by stapling sheets of paper together to make a blank book.
Flessner-Beebe read the students her book, “Barnyard Blues,” about a musical group of farm animals: a drumming cow, a fiddle-playing cat, a tambourine-shaking sheep, a trombone-playing goat, a trumpet-playing duck, a banjo-picking pig, a harmonica-playing chicken, and a saxophone-playing horse.
Flessner-Beebe said she wanted the book to pay tribute to her parents, who were raised on farms and who left her and her siblings with many boxes of quarters to cash in at the bank after they passed away.
Now, for some more EDGE Nebraska City numbers:
Seventy-seven Book Bestie volunteers visit classrooms monthly to read a book to the students and participate in activities with them. Students each receive a copy of the book they heard during the reading.
In the 2023-2024 school year, the volunteers set records for classroom visits (225) and books distributed in a single year (4,504). Six hundred seventy-two students were able to be part of the Book Besties program.
To celebrate the 20,000th book milestone, EDGE Nebraska City partnered with Arbor Day Farm Tree Adventure to insert a Golden Ticket good for a family day pass at the Tree Adventure for one lucky student.
Rahsta Leslie-Boone in Jodie Jones’ room was the student who found the Golden Ticket in his book during the afternoon author visit.
Perhaps Flessner-Beebe said it best in the autographed note she wrote in each student’s book: “Keep Reading!”
The Morton-James Public Library’s summer reading program, “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” begins Monday, June 3, with Mr. Oakley’s Summer Reading Kickoff Party at 10 a.m. Registration is not required, and all programs are free to attend.
Summer reading program participants will log their reading during June and July to be entered into a prize drawing in August. Reading logs will be available at the Library beginning May 28, and the logs begin on June 1.
Call 402-873-5609 or visit the Library at 923 1st Corso for more information.
Read the original article here.
