Children listen to one of the volunteers for Ready Readers.

As the St. Louis County Library and Ready Readers prepare for their first book sale this Friday and Saturday (see previous post), Ready Readers’ Lisa Greening, is gearing up for her first school year as the nonprofit organization’s executive director.

Ready Readers organizes volunteers to go to Head Start and other preschool programs and read to young children. This simple task can make a difference in the child’s entire school career, Greening says. 

Greening, a former co-owner of Left Bank Books and longtime volunteer for the Big Read book festival and Read MOre, began her new job in July. She recently responded to some basic questions about the organization and divulged the favorite titles among the preschool set:

Q: What are some of your goals for Ready Readers? 

A: My goals for Ready Readers include setting up policies and procedures for the organization so
that we can have 750 volunteers read weekly to 10,000 preschool children living in low income neighborhoods by 2012.

Q: Do volunteers who go to schools see a lot of improvement in kids’ literacy? 

A: Volunteers do see a lot of improvement.  At the beginning of the year, most children do not know how to hold a book, how to open it, how to turn the pages right to left, follow the pictures during the story, or even how to sit for 20 minutes to listen.  By the end of the year, the preschool children expect the reader, get ready for the reader by getting on their nametag, sit in the reading area, and show the reading  readiness skills discussed above.

Q: What are some of the best books to read out loud?
A: My favorite predictable read-aloud books for 2-5 years old include:

        1.      Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
        2.      Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
        3.      Owl Babies
        4.      The Very Hungry Caterpillar
        5.      We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

        My favorite storybooks include:
        1.      There is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems
        2.      Where’s My Teddy? by Jex Alborough
        3.      Best Friends
        4.      The Snowy Day
        5.      How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

I also like all nursery tales and Mother Goose rhymes.  I really enjoy classic tales.

Q: What do the kids like?

A:  The kids love the classics that I wrote above, and they love books with fun characters like Froggy, Curious George, and TV characters like Diego, Max and Ruby.  In fact, at this age (2-5), the children love it all!

Q:  What’s the biggest obstacle for some of the young children?

A: Their biggest obstacle is not living in and going to school in a literary/book rich environment.  When they are introduced to books at a young age, they are engaged, inspired, pleasured, and wanting more.  If they are not read to, then by kindergarten many will not want to read and therefore never read well.