Bethel Park kids pick favorite books in public-school library collaboration

Today’s Bethel Park first-graders won’t be eligible to vote for another dozen years or so.

But thanks to a guest hosted by Washington Elementary School librarian Becky Minella, a class full of youngsters knows what the word “ballot” means.

“You’re going to circle your favorite one, and then you’re going to turn it in to Mrs. Minella,” Elaine Volpe informed the children during her April 3 visit. “She’s going to count them all up, and she’s going to report back to me.”

Miss Elaine, as she is known throughout the community, heads the youth services department at Bethel Park Public Library. And through a collaborative effort between the library and Bethel Park School District, students have the opportunity to select books they like most.

The local Kids Pick program is based on the Children’s Choice Awards presented annually by the Allegheny County Library Association for preferred reading material among third- through sixth-graders.

“We wanted to do the same idea, but do it with younger kids,” Volpe said. “They are empowered at the end of the year to vote. Teachers don’t vote. Librarians don’t vote. It’s the kids who choose the best book of that given year.”

Throughout the current academic year, public library staff members have been visiting Bethel Park elementary schools to read stories to kindergartners, first-graders and second-graders.

“The idea was to get kids talking about the books, ones that would have a lot of kid appeal but that also teach a lesson,” Volpe explained. “Get them excited so they’d go home and talk to their families about what they’d read.”

Six titles were selected, wrapping up with “Scrap Metal Swan: A River Clean-Up Story,” written by Joanne Linden and illustrated by Estrellita Caracol.

“This book kind of reads like a poem. You’ll see that it rhymes,” Volpe told the youngsters. “I especially like this book as our final story, because I’m reading it to you in April, and April happens to be National Poetry Month. And April also happens to be the month in which we celebrate Earth Day.”

The premise is that an artist and her child use found materials to create a metal sculpture of a certain gracefully long-necked waterfowl, providing a message that Volpe related:

“You can see that it’s really important that we clean up the water when we can, we clean up our neighborhoods, we pick up trash whenever we see it. And we help keep our earth clean and healthy. It’s where we live.”

To further emphasize the message, she led the youngsters — the school librarian, too — in singing “This Pretty Planet” by Tom Chapin and John Forster.

Volpe also emphasized the link between the public and school libraries.

“We could hold this on our own at the library and have a Saturday morning storytime. But the idea was that we wanted to partner again with the schools. We’ve already had a strong partnership throughout the years,” she said. “And this was just a way to strengthen that collaboration.”

Coincidentally, Washington Elementary hosted a late-March fundraiser inviting people to drop off their scrap to benefit the school, in an event with a theme similar to that of the Linden-Caracol book. As Minella said:

“We should have been reading that at the metal drive.”