VOLUNTEERS BECOME BOOK BUDDIES PEOPLE OF ALL AGES SIGN UP TO READ TO KIDS AT LOCAL LIBRARIES.

Byline: Mark Kellam

If you're looking for volunteer opportunities this year, you may want to consider signing up to read to children at your nearby public library.

When the Los Angeles Public Library launched its volunteer reading program in 1989, it was designed to appeal to grandparents and was called Grandparents and Books, or GAB.

However, over the years, the program has attracted active professionals who take a break from their busy work schedules to read to children for an hour or so. Therefore, the acronym GAB is still used in the name, but it doesn't necessarily stand for grandparents anymore.

Lucille Schwartz has been reading to children at the Sherman Oaks Branch Library for several years. She was a teacher on the East Coast for 15 years.

When she moved to California, her desire to help enhance the education of children drew her to the GAB reading program at her local library.

``I just love working with children,'' she said with a big smile.

She also likes to get children involved in the storytelling. She often picks out a phrase that's repeated several times in the book and the children get to say it at the appropriate time.

In the book Charlie, the Caterpillar, children get say ``Get outta here'' several times. The book, written by comic actor Dom DeLuise, is about a caterpillar who is ostracized for being ugly. However, he then becomes a beautiful butterfly and discovers the real value of friendship.

For more information about volunteering with the GAB program, call either your local library or the central library office at [phone] or go to www.lapl.org.

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Lucille Schwartz, right, of Sherman Oaks has been volunteering with the GAB program for several years. She recently read the book ``Charlie, the Caterpillar'' to 5-year-old Mason Malina of Van Nuys at the Sherman Oaks Branch Library.

Mark Kellam valleynews.com