SALT LAKE CITY — It's no secret that books can change a child’s life. That's why the Salt Lake City Public Library has different ways to help kids and families grow into strong readers.
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"We love to come here to the library to read, almost every day," said Cristina Holzer.
Holzer, a mom, has been reading to her almost-two-year-son, Cohen, since he was born.
"It helps their imagination, it helps them to be able to academically perform well, and they also feel connected to their caregivers too from spending time reading together," she said.
"If a child can hold a book in their hand, it makes them feel empowered to have that,” explained Hannah Henrikson, childrens services coordinator at the library. “And as they’re reading books, the world is opened up to them. We like to think of books as windows and mirrors."
The library helps equip families with the tools to help children build a good reading habit — they have reading challenges, story time events, literacy kits that can be checked out and read at home, and give families a free space to learn, read and play together.
"It is the best feeling ever to see the joy of a child when they find a book and when they come back and tell you how much they loved they book,” added Henrikson.
"We read every day, he's a really big fan of reading and starting to learn which letters make which sounds,” said Olivia Cvetko about her son. “I think stories have formed a really big part of my life, I’m a big reader. So I’ve been trying to pass that down to my kid."
Reading is used as a way to build skills and character.
"Reading even to older kids so that even they can learn that vocabulary is very important, and to see not only themselves, but to also see different worlds, maybe people or cultures that don’t look like them, that builds empathy and that’s so important," said Jessie Muhler, children's librarian at library.
"In order for them to be well versed in what’s happening in the world and for them to be able to communicate and really share with the world what their thoughts are, I think it starts with reading,” said Geraldine Russom, who brought her two little girls to read with her and pick out books at the library.
The Main library, Marmalade and Sprague branches are all hosting preschool story time events. CLICK HERE to find a full list of each day's and location’s events here:
