The book club provides a wide range of literary programming for the children, including book readings from local authors, story time run by professional story tellers, poetry, theater, and writing workshops. All participants receive lunch and a copy of the book/work discussed that day.
January’s book club featured From A to Z: The Real DC, a book written by teen authors who participated in the Reach reading program. Reach works with students at several high schools in the Washington, DC, including Eastern, Ballou, Anacostia and Dunbar. Reach hires students to help tutor elementary school kids in reading; many of the high school kids struggle with reading themselves, but Reach has found that the high schoolers improve their reading when they work with younger students. Several of the Reach participants have written their own books, largely based on life in DC.
From A to Z: The Real DC is an alphabet/picture book; each letter represents a different location or feature of Washington (e.g., A is for Anacostia, E is for Eastern Market, G is for Go-Go, etc.). Two of the book’s authors/photographers read the book to the kids. The kids then had the chance to call out other places or things about DC related to each letter. Among the responses: Gallery Place for G, Metro for M.
Several WC Smith and BBAR employees and family members volunteered to help make the inaugural event a success.
Saturday Story Time will be held the second Saturday of each month. If you’d like more information about the book club, would like to volunteer or have ideas about possible programs/content, please contact storytime@wcsmith.com.
