READING IS FUN FOR ALL RICH OR POOR, CHILDREN LOVE A TRIP TO THE LIBRARY.

Byline: RICK COCA Valley News Writer

With the goal of inspiring lifelong reading and studying skills, the Reading is Fun program at the Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library has issued library cards and given away free books to youngsters for about 30 years.

The program was started by former children's librarian Phyllis Shumberger, the late Friends of the Library president Sarah Lombard and JoAnne Schaack, a former third-grade teacher at Plainview Elementary School in Tujunga.

Today, the program is run by children's librarian Joanna Watkyns<NO1>cq<NO>, and serves six local elementary schools and about 580 third-graders annually. It is completely funded by the Friends of the Library, a volunteer-based organization devoted to promoting library services. Without the Friends of the Library, led by President Laura Fest and a small group of dedicated volunteers, there would be no program. The Friends of the Library operate a bookstore inside the library.

``They sell these books for a quarter and then they give me $4,000 a year (from the sale of those books),'' Watkyns said. ``That's a lot of books.''

Watkyns recounted the conditions under which the program originated.

In the 1970s, while most Sunland-Tujunga residents enjoyed a comfortable standard of living, there were others who weren't so well off, she said. A good number of the area's poor were Dust Bowl descendants, relatives of the desperate Americans who fled drought conditions in the Midwest in the 1930s, Watkyns said.

``Some of the Dust Bowl descendants were as poorly equipped to do well as their grandparents had been,'' Watkyns said.

To this day, income inequality remains in the community, though not to the same extent, Watkyns said.

``We have from really rich to really poor (in Sunland-Tujunga),'' Watkyns said.

Some of the area's poor today are immigrants. Watkyns said some of the children of immigrants have never entered a public library before and are initially a bit perplexed by the experience. But once they've visited three or four times, they have their library cards, know how to check out books and how to do research.

``By the time they get to middle school, they know how to do their reports,'' Watkyns said.

Kim Scibetta grew up in Sunland-Tujunga, and for the past eight years has been the librarian at Plainview Elementary School. She is a big fan of the Reading is Fun program. Her son participated as a child.

``At the end of that program, they're allowed to pick out any paperback book and they love it,'' Scibetta said. ``Even my 16-year-old son still has his paperback book (that he selected as a child).''

Plainview Elementary is a Title I school, which means a majority of its students qualify for federal aid and other benefits due to low-economic status under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. But that has not deterred the school or the students from excelling academically.

For four years in a row, Plainview Elementary has won a Title I Academic Achievement Award from the Department of Education.

``Reading's important and they know that,'' Scibetta said.

She said beyond the obvious benefits of participating in a program like Reading is Fun, there are others that the children understand.

``It shows them that someone other than their parents and schools care about them,'' Scibetta said. ``I know they feel that, that the community cares.''

For more information on the Reading is Fun program or to support the Friends of the Library bookstore, call [phone]. The library is at 7771 Foothill Blvd., Sunland.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) Pinewood Elementary School third-grade teacher Heather York and students Jose Guerrero and Louie Valke look at books as part of the Reading is Fun program.

(2) Students Oscar Gonzalez, Jose Guerrero and Cesar Gallegos like what they read at the Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library.