Storybook trail combines reading, exercise
A new storybook trail at Samuel M. Peretz Park at Bridebrook in Niantic allows children and families to read — all while walking outdoors.
The trail features about a dozen wooden posts with book pages, staged about 300 yards apart, along a walking path on the park’s perimeter.
The trail’s first book, “Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC,” written by June Sobel and illustrated by Henry Cole, asks readers to search for letters of the alphabet within colorful pages showing a group of animals on an adventure at sea.
The storybook trail, a collaboration between the East Lyme Public Library and East Lyme Parks and Recreation Department, is intended to promote healthy minds and healthy bodies, as well as family togetherness, said Rebecca Scotka, children’s and young adult librarian at East Lyme Public Library.
The librarians said they hope the storybook trail, located in a park visited by families and children of all ages, will bring reading to life.
“I think it’s getting out and seeing you don’t have to just sit on someone’s lap to read,” said Jean Bull, assistant children’s librarian. “You can get out and be in the fresh air and be silly and not be told to be quiet and still.”
Scotka said the library’s programs are geared towards having fun, whether it’s incorporating singing or dressing up in costumes. And there’s an educational component to the good times.
“We tend to be good at things we find fun,” she said.
“Our goal is to grow the next generation of library users and readers,” she added.
“... and librarians,” Bull said.
In addition to the trail, the library offers story time events, Wednesday movie nights based on books, and after-school programs.
The town’s Parks and Recreation Department offers pre-school programs, on topics from arts and crafts to science, and youth activities, according to its brochure.
Bull and Scotka, dressed in pirate costumes, and Lisa Timothy, the library’s director, Holly Cheeseman, president of the library’s Board of Trustees, and board member Tricia Carey gathered on Sept. 27 for a grand opening celebration of the storybook trail.
The trail’s books will rotate quarterly, the librarians said. “Shiver Me Letters” will be on display through the early fall, followed by “Sir Ryan’s Quest” by local author, Jason Deeble.
Timothy, the library’s director, said the storybook trail gives people a different perception of the library. While literacy-building may traditionally be associated with books, it is particularly potent when partnered with exercise and getting outdoors, she said.
“The library is about community,” Timothy said. “This enhances our presence in the community.”
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.
