What is an Adopted Book
Center?
Adopted
Book Centers are the little green bookshelves located in area
laundromats and the offices of agencies and organizations throughout
Batavia. Preschool children are encouraged to select a book from the
Center to adopt and take home every time they visit. Parents are urged
to read aloud to their children from these and other books on a daily
basis.
The program was created through a
Parent and Child Library Services Grant from the NYS Library and NYS
Education Department to the
Richmond Memorial Library.
It was inspired by the Bright Red Bookshelf program from
Family Reading
Partnership in Ithaca, New York. Local churches,
schools and service organizations support the program by collecting
gently used books to fill the bookshelves, and by furnishing volunteers
to sort and deliver them.
The program allows children who might
not have ready access to age-appropriate books the opportunity to
develop their own home libraries and establish the love of reading from
an early age. It reinforces to parents the important role they play in
the development of their child’s academic success before they reach
school age.
