Imagination library launches

NEW CUMBERLAND - "Why did the dinosaur cross the road?" Professor Thymble asked puzzled children at the Swaney Memorial Library on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Sunshyne greeted children, asking them their ages.

"I'm two," one boy said.

"Glad ta meet ya, Mr. Two!" Sunshyne enthusiastically shook the boy's hand. "I'm Sunshyne!"

Professor Thymble waited for an answer to the dinosaur joke, busily pumping up a balloon "with a very expensive $8 pump I paid $12.95 for."

Beginning to twist the balloon into some as-yet-unknown shape, he countered, "Because chickens weren't invented yet!"

Without missing a beat, he pumped up a heart-shaped balloon and then squeakily twisted it into a helicopter.

Squeamish adults fearing the balloons would burst during the contortions backed away and squinted.

"Don't worry, these are professional balloons, made from the best latex," Professor Thymble said. "They don't break - they explode!"

Professor Thymble and Sunshyne clowned around with children at the library Thursday to help launch Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. They will also be at Lynn Memorial Library in Chester today from 9 a.m. to noon.

At Swaney Memorial Library, staff and board members helped children decorate cookies, shared stories and songs and coloring pages.

Through the Imagination Library library staffs and sponsors are stressing the importance of reading to very young children. Each of the three public libraries in Hancock County are introducing the program this week, enabling any Hancock County child from birth to age 5 to receive an age-appropriate book each month at no charge.

The Imagination Library coordinators helped launch the program Thursday at Swaney Memorial Library and at the Mary H. Weir Public Library in Weirton.

Swaney Library Director Anna Raines said any adults unable to attend the launches may register at any of the libraries during regular hours. Parents can register children at the Chester library Saturday as well from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

At Thursday's event, Christina Schlatter brought her son, Ty, 5; and daughter Emileigh, 2. She said she thought the Imagination Library is a good way to help children develop reading skills.

"Emileigh will get a book now every month until she's 5," Schlatter said. "We come to the library every couple of weeks to get books. Ty did the summer reading program last year."

"We're getting ready to start coming to story hour," said Nancy Watkins, who brought two-year-old daughter Gabriella. "Coming here today helps her interact and be around other kids."

Each child received a registration packet with the children's classic "The Little Engine That Could," by Watty Piper. Children will then receive an age-appropriate book at no charge each month until their fifth birthdays. The final book in the collection is "Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!" by Nancy Carlson.

Making the program available to Hancock County children is a joint effort of Hancock County libraries and the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, Raines said.

Foundation officials said Parton knows educators have identified reading to be the most important joint activity between an adult and child to prepare the child for school. The legendary entertainer started the program in her Smoky Mountain homeland, beginning with her town, Sevier, Tenn., in 1996. In 1999, Parton expanded the program to other communities nationally and internationally, foundation members said.

Cindy Myers of Kids Corner preschool at New Cumberland Church of the Nazarene set up a table at the event for the preschool and registered her nephew, Trystan Easton, 15 months.

"It's important to teach young children the alphabet and numbers in a learning environment," she said. "Doing events like this with them gets them to interact with other children and learn the importance of books and reading," she said.

Professor Thymble shared an experience of reading to the children in his own family.

"They were so smart, they had all the books memorized," he said. "So then I read them to them backwards, which is fun. Try it sometime: 'After ever happily lived they and . . . !'"