‘Reading is a great thing to celebrate.’ School lets kids leave their mark on books
How often do you get a chance to both give and receive a present on your birthday? Every year, dozens of Belinder Elementary students leave their mark on the school’s library through the Birthday Book Club.
Its structure is simple. Parents give $15 to the school library through the PTA. In the correct birthday month, the child chooses a book off the club cart. His or her name goes on a bookplate dedication inside the book.
The birthday child then gets to check out the book for a longer than normal time, and when the book comes back, it becomes part of the regular library collection that anyone can use.
School librarian Wendy Oviatt said students were thrilled last year to find a book with a teacher’s name in it from when their teacher was a student at Belinder, which is in Prairie Village.
Oviatt chooses a range of books to put on the cart, ranging from classics to popular series.
“I kind of listen to subjects kids are interested in that we might not have in the library, just to add some depth to collection at same time that I’m meeting some of their needs,” Oviatt said.
Fiction, non-fiction, picture books, chapter books — they’re all there.
“They’re usually really excited that they get to pick their own book out. Some of are really careful go through every book cover and spend a lot of time searching for just the right one,” Oviatt said.
She’s not sure how many birthday books are in the library at this point, and the program predates her time at the school.
Having the opportunity to add that many books each year through the club makes a significant difference to the library’s offerings.
“It really does help. (With) our budget, it almost doubles what I get from the district,” Oviatt said.
For summer birthdays, Oviatt looks to the child’s half-birthday to do the club donation. Whenever they get to participate, the kids enjoy it.
“It brings some flair to reading. It creates that support of the reading program and lets kids know reading is a great thing to celebrate, too,” Oviatt said.
Not everyone chooses to or is able to participate. This year, parents of 137 students out of Belinder’s approximately 480 have signed up. A few parents have donated enough for an additional 12 students to participate whose parents might not have the spare cash.
The club is a partnership with the PTA, but with the pandemic, parent volunteers can’t come into the building to help.
Carrie Kruse has been the PTA committee chairperson for three years. She has three daughters at the school, in kindergarten, fourth and sixth grades. Before the pandemic, she’d take the cart out with the kids each month.
“When I was able to go into the school and bring the book cart into the lunch room, the kids get so excited when they see the book cart coming,” Kruse said. “… To see kids get enthusiastic about a book is pretty wonderful. It’s just a special way to honor their birthdays and grow our library collection, as well as foster love of reading, of course.”
Whenever her kids check out books from the school library, they always check to see whose name might be in the front.
“Sometimes it’s a friend or a neighbor—current students or from years past. It’s a fun way to remember past students and promote that sense of community,” she said.
Now, Oviatt has to do all the hands-on parts, but Kruse still keeps track of all the donations and who gets to choose books each month. In the 2019-2020 school year, there were 167 regular book club participants, along with 24 additional donated books for other kids.
Oviatt said she knows other schools in the district have similar clubs, but she isn’t sure how many.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "‘Reading is a great thing to celebrate.’ School lets kids leave their mark on books."