Paul A. Smith Elementary School benefits from book grant

FRANKLIN — The Paul A. Smith Elementary School in Franklin, are recipients of the Children’s Literacy Foundation Year of the Book Grant for 2022-2023. On Thursday, Nov. 3, storyteller/author Simon Brooks visited the school to help with the library visit. Both the public and school library received books through the grant to promote literacy in our community.

Simon told many stories depending on the age level. Stories included a ghost who inhabited the house and needed a light to finish his book before leaving this “world.” It showed a family working together and helping someone in need. Another story included a crab called a ghost crab. He told the story of how the crab’s eyes popped out and could see around the ocean floor. A jaguar wanted eyes like this and the ghost crab made it possible for the jaguar to remove his eyes and look around the ocean floor. A shark came along and gobbled up his eyes. The jaguar needed new eyes and a condor made him new eyes from sap which to this day jaguars have orangish color eyes.

The stories all had messages leading the children to think more about topics. Leaving the library, children were talking about how wonderful and amazing Simon Brooks was. One student told a second grader on his way out, “You are going to have the best time! He is a great storyteller!” They loved his stories and were excited about the many books that were sent to borrow from both libraries.

During the week of Nov. 14, Paul Smith third-graders will have writer Marek Bennett come and teach about graphic novels and they will work on writing their own piece. On Nov. 22, the children in grades 1 to 3 will be choosing another book from CLiF to take home and keep. Throughout the year more books will be given away and additional fun activities will be provided.

Jennifer Weaver,

Title 1 reading teacher