Fontana Regional Library serving Jackson, Macon and Swain counties with six public libraries in Western North Carolina

Reading Rover
33 Fryemont Street
Bryson City, NC 28713

828-488-2382
Fax: 828-488-2638

Technical & Outreach Services: Joan Lackey

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©2005-11 Fontana Regional Library. All rights reserved

The Reading Rover Bookmobile
Bringing the library to area child care centers since 1999

The Reading Rover, a cooperative project with Smart Start / Region A
Partnership for Children, is a mobile unit serving preschoolers and child care providers throughout Jackson, Macon and Swain counties and the Qualla Boundary with story times, teacher and parent workshops, teaching aids and parenting and family resources. The Rover is funded by Smart Start as well as by local library funds. Additional support comes from area Friends of the Library and civic groups, North Carolina Community Foundations and private donations. To learn more, download our brochure (pdf).
 

See below for this month's schedule

Storyteller Peggy Gibby enthralls young readers.

While storyteller Margaret "Peggy" Gibby reads stories to preschoolers and leads them in learning songs/rhymes, the Rover driver, Joan Lackey, assists teachers in selecting library materials for their classrooms. At some centers the children select their own library books from the Rover. Books, puzzles, music, puppets, and storytelling kits from the Rover help teachers of young children make learning fun.

Anyone with a FRL library card can check out materials from the Reading Rover. Items from the Rover can be returned to the Rover or to any FRL location.

Rover driver Joan Lackey helps children select just the right book.

In addition, Outreach Services Librarian, Carol Grise, offers training classes to childcare teachers, giving tips on selecting age-appropriate books for the classroom and offering assistance in using the variety of Rover puppets, storytelling kits and books for teaching pre-reading skills. Training classes are also offered to parents for teaching skills on using library materials to develop pre-reading skills at home.

The Reading Rover Bookmobile visits 26 childcare centers in our service area, bringing storytime and library materials "to the door" with the purpose of strengthening pre-reading skills.

The Rover is off-road in January and July.

Summer Reading Program
Since the Rover is "off the road" in July, Joan and Peggy run the Rover Summer Reading Program in May and June. All classrooms visited by the Reading Rover are encouraged to participate by keeping a classroom reading record and by checking out many Rover books to meet their reading goal.

A record-setting 42 preschool classrooms completed the 2011 Summer Reading Program. A total of 2,657 books were read by childcare center classrooms completing the program. That's 755 more than in 2010!

February 2012 Rover Schedule
 

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
		1 9:00 Bright Adventures 10:30 Bryson City HS	2 9:15 Blue Ridge 9:45 MMO Jackson 10:30 Cashiers Valley 11:00 Hampton School	3 8:30 Just LIke Home 9:30 Log Cabin 11:00 Kaleidoscope
6 Off Road	7 9:30 New Horizons	8 9:00 Children's Discovery 10:00 Great Beginnings 10:45 Pruitt House	9 9:00 Dora Reed 10:00 Agelink CC 12:00 Big Cove	10 9:00 Early Learning Ctr 10:00 Webster 10:30 Webster Ent.
13 Off Road	14 9:00 Cullowhee Kids 10:00 WCU	15 8:30 Kidz Playhouse 9:30 Fairview A & B 10:30 Pam's Childcare	16 9:00 Little Hands	17 Off Road
20 Off Road	21 9:00 Trimont 10:30 Pam's Preschool	22 9:00 Bright Adventures 10:30 Bryson City HS	23 9:15 Blue Ridge 9:45 MMO Jackson 10:30 Cashiers Valley 10:45 Hampton School	24 Off Road
37 Off Road	28 9:30 New Horizons	29 9:00 Children's Discovery 10:00 Great Beginnings 10:30 Pruitt House

What do teachers and children think about the Reading Rover?

"Kids love story time! They look forward to having stories read to them by someone new."

 "Story time promotes the love of reading, increases vocabulary, and improves language skills."

The Reading Rover "supplies materials to go along with weekly themes."

We like the "convenience of getting all books and materials needed on topics that we are covering that month."
 

We Need Your Support!
 
Each year it becomes more difficult to keep Rover on the road. Rising costs of diesel fuel and vehicle maintenance as well as the increase in the cost of library books and educational mateials cannot be met by state, local and grant funding for the Reading Rover.

Please help "feed" Rover. Use the Reading Rover Pledge Form (pdf) to make your contribution.

The Fontana Regional Library is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. No goods or services were provided in exchange for your donation.

The donation form is a PDF document, viewable with Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Download the latest version of Reader.

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