READ AROUND THE
WORLD
(Pete Porter - RSVP)
Television, Cartoons, Cinema and Video Games! These media have
one thing in common. They all supply the visual content to the
participant and do not require the brain to conjure up any form
of image to flesh out the story line. Audio books tend to travel
some distance along this path less traveled, but they still
depend somewhat on the interpretation of the story teller.
Hearing a story from a living person is logical step up from this
format and most of us joyfully remember the many times we sat and
listened as our parents read us a bed time story when we were too
young to read them ourselves. If we were lucky, this early
introduction to the imaginative realm of stories led us to become
interested enough to pick up those same books and supply our own
interpretations of the events we saw on those pages. However, if
you are the same age as myself, we certainly didn't have the easy
distraction of those items mentioned at the beginning of this
report and so the act of reading has always been as natural as
breathing to us.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for many of
the children growing up in today's environment. Consequently, as
part of the "Read Around the World" project this summer, RSVP all
over the world decided to call attention to the public how
important it was for children to be read to. The concept was to
gain excitement in the stories we read to children so they will
wish to continue to become readers for pleasure. Our branch
choose Del Amo Mall as our site and set up a story time area with
the help of the management from the mall. We were on the marque
outside as well as inside. Parents took time out to stop with
their children while RSVP volunteers read them a story. We
collaborated with the Torrance Library who selected a wide range
of books to use. Lillian Sharon is the volunteer in the
picture.
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| Volunteer Lillian Sharon and RSVP Director, Hope
Witkowsky at the event. |
[The advent of the "Harry Potter" books has certainly come
at an opportune time. Children all over the world suddenly
discovered how wonderful it is to flesh out the scenes that they
find in these books from within the depths of their own
imagination. It is definitely hoped that his embryonic spark will
lead to a resurgence in reading skills amongst this new
generation. Based on the current popularity of the series, this
definitely appears to be the case.]
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