Some weeks the participation at storytime has
been above 30 children, and Wagner recently
showed a hat-related demonstration on a
flannel board. A bit later, she led children in a
song with a familiar refrain: “The more we read
together, together, together, the more we read
together, the happier we’ll be.”
“I love it,” Schutt told the Sioux City Journal. “I
really feel reading is so important. I couldn’t
recommend the library higher.”
However, Schutt fears such programs, designed
by librarians and supported in concept by
teachers to reduce a summer slide of knowledge
over weeks away from school, are dropping
in participation by young people in an age of
rampant technology options.
“Sometimes I worry about the library. I worry
about the kids with iPads. I would like to see
kids with less of the hand-helds. Kids want to be
entertained. They don’t want to finish books,”
Schutt said.
Throughout Siouxland, libraries in most towns
operate some sort of summer reading program.
Adrienne Dunn, the youth services manager for
the Sioux City Public Library since 2015, said the
fare presented in the summer reading program
is continually re-evaluated. Dunn said there are
pieces related to various ages and interests.
For instance, the city program draws on an
art-trained teacher to teach painting. For
older Sioux City participants, there is a Teen
Book Club for 90 minutes each Thursday at
the downtown library, plus a Teen After Hours
option, which one day drew 50 kids for an activity
modeled on the “Amazing Race” television show.