Lukas West, 4, who came in his fire fighters’ get-up, sits in his mother Elke West’s lap and listens to a story during a Winter Story Time session at the Bitterroot Public Library on Wednesday. SEPP JANNOTTA - Ravalli Republic

While Paula Prescott read earnestly from the children’s book “Wild About Books” on Wednesday morning, members of the young audience sat in rapt silence, not counting the occasional stray.

The group of 20 or so youngsters (and attendant grownups) was assembled for the Winter Story Time series, a long-running program for preschool-age kids.

The Story Time series, which now includes a Friday morning session dedicated as Toddler Story Time, has drawn an increasing number of children and parents to the library, with numbers topping 30 on recent days, said Sally Blevins, the library employee who runs the program.

“The toddler program is new and so far it’s been wildly successful,” Blevins said. “It’s my favorite time of the week.”

Billed as a time for ages ranging from babies to 2-year-olds to “enjoy stories, songs, fingerplays, rhymes, and board books,” Blevins said the sessions are held in a downstairs room to accommodate the liveliness of the kids.

It’s not intended to be time for kids to sit quietly and take in every last detail of a story, Blevins said, rather the point is to have them focus, to whatever extent they can, on the rhythm and feeling of storytelling. If they fidget, get distracted, even wander around, that’s alright, she said.

“I tell parents and grandparents that the movement is fine,” Blevins said. “That’s what they do at that age.”

Blevins said both the toddler program and the preschool aged story time series are an important tool to give young children a jump start on reading.

“You can’t start too young,” she said, emphasizing that exposing children who might not have fully embraced language still can help to improve their uptake once they begin reading and writing for themselves. “It’s really amazing to see them (reacting to a story) at this age.”

The toddler sessions come with a theme and Blevins typically leads the group through reading, some movement exercises and some songs.

At a recent day dedicated to the topic of babies, Blevins said one parent brought a wee infant that was eight days old.

“That was a thrill,” she said, her eyes lighting up at the memory.

Many parents bring their kids to both the toddler session (Fridays at 10:30 a.m.) and the preschool age story time (Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.).

Prescott and Shannon Smith said they were dedicated to Blevins because of her work to promote books to their kids. Both have taken a turn as guest readers for the preschool story time.

“I decided it was my time to give back to the group and give Sally a break,” said Prescott, whose 10-month-old daughter, Calloway, played at her feet while she read.

Smith said the story time program had really perked Ronan’s literary interests.

“It’s been huge,” she said. “He’s always loved books, but ever since we’ve been coming to toddler time he’s really blossomed.”

Ronan, who lists books from the “Thomas the Tank Engine” series as his favorites, goes to sleep each night with some reading from Samurai storyteller Musashi Miyamoto - “we leave out the really gory parts,” - Smith said.

“They are huge books but he loves hearing them,” she added. “And they’re the only thing that gets him to sleep.”

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Reporter Sepp Jannotta can be reached at 363-3300 or sjannotta@ravallirepublic.com.

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Lisa Jean wrote on Feb 8, 2010 7:39 PM:

" Oh my favorite little customer Ronan! He is such a lucky boy to have an excellent mother who takes him to the library. It is good to see my old peeps in the paper. "

Shannon Smith wrote on Feb 5, 2010 8:26 PM:

" Story-time is awesome for both children and parents. Thanks for the article!

Vocal Motion "

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