California State University Channel Islands

Camarillo, Calif., March 3, 2010 – Children all over Ventura County are invited to CSU Channel Islands (CI) Broome Library on Saturday, March 20, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., for the 5th Annual Children’s Reading Celebration and Young Author’s Fair. The event is sponsored by CI’s John Spoor Broome Library, the English Program, the Ventura County Reading Association, Target Foundation, and the Ventura County Office of Education.

The celebration is open to the community with free admission and parking. Many exciting activities have been planned for children to promote reading, writing and creativity. There will be an interactive author presentation, storytime, bookmark making, story writing and creation of concertina books. The Celebration will feature an appearance by children’s author Alexis O’Neill who wrote The Recess Queen as well as The Worst Best Friend.

CI students in the English Program, as part of their service learning component, will be reading aloud to children. Children will also receive a signed copy of The Recess Queen to take home with them free of charge. This is funded by an early childhood literacy grant from the Target Foundation.

If a child’s school participates in the Ventura County Reading Association’s Young Author’s Fair, that child can write a book and have his teacher enter it to be displayed and read at the Celebration on March 20.

Assistant Professor Elnora Tayag, an Instruction and Outreach Librarian at CI’s Broome Library, stated that, “In an era where we see so much of our print media struggling to exist, we want to cultivate in children an appreciation for all aspects of print culture.”

For information and to RSVP please visit: http://www.library.csuci.edu/reading

For media inquiries contact Nancy Gill, Director of Communication & Marketing at CSU Channel Islands at 805-437-8456 or nancy.gill@csuci.edu

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CSU Channel Islands is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

CSUCI Mission Statement
Placing students at the center of the educational experience, California State University Channel Islands provides undergraduate and graduate education that facilitates learning within and across disciplines through integrative approaches, emphasizes experiential and service learning, and graduates students with multicultural and international perspectives.