This holiday season, share beloved children’s books like Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree with a little one you know—and one you don’t, too.
The Allan Hancock College Bookstore is currently matching every children’s book sold with the donation of a book to the Allan Hancock College Children’s Center Lab.
All of the children’s books currently in stock were handpicked by the Children’s Center Lab staff and purchased by the bookstore. More than 250 titles are available, including an assortment of Hispanic titles, and prices range from $4 to $9.
“This collaboration is an extension of our philosophy that children need to be surrounded by books in order to learn to love reading, and that young children need to have books read to them every day,” early childhood studies program director Thesa Roepke said in a press release.
Funds from the sale at the bookstore will finance the purchase of new books to replace old and damaged titles and to update the center’s library, Roepke said.
According to college officials, more than 100 children have access to the library at the center and are encouraged to choose any book to read at any time.
“A child needs to read the same book or have it read to them at least 10 times in order to improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, and school readiness,” Roepke said.
The Allan Hancock College Bookstore is in the Student Center on the Santa Maria campus and is open Monday through Thursday, 7:45 a.m. to 6:45 p.m., and Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Starting Dec. 19, the store will be open Monday through Thursday only.
For more information, visit bookstore.hancockcollege.edu or call 922-6966, Ext. 3238.
This article appears in Dec 6-13, 2012.