Libraries Lure Children With Arts, Shows : Literacy: There’s nothing hush-hush about Westside summer reading programs.

Children who visit Westside libraries this summer will not find the traditional hush-hush reading environment. Librarians are using arts and crafts, puppet shows, wildlife on wheels, and boisterous storytelling hours to lure children into the library.

County and city libraries offer summer reading programs that encourage children to keep up their literary skills during the summer months and have fun at the same time.

The annual programs are theme oriented and attempt to motivate children to read by offering prizes and incentives such as stickers, buttons, bookmarks, book bags and a party at the end of the summer. The children earnestly record each book they read in a folder as they collect their prizes.

The number of children who participate in the county and city programs ranges from 50 to more than 300 at each branch.

“We do this every summer,” said Karen Seybold, a Westchester resident who admits being confused trying to keep track of books from the three libraries where her son is participating in reading programs. “It’s a nice summertime activity, a nice interlude between going to the pool and going to the beach.”

City libraries have a Western theme, tagged the Reading Roundup, although each branch has creative freedom to develop the program.

Kathleen Strelioff, children’s librarian at the Palms-Rancho branch, created a pioneer game played out on the window of the children’s section. Each child has a pioneer woman or cowboy taped to the window, where the children stake out homesteads. “As they read books, they can purchase things for their homestead, like pigs, cows, pitchforks or wheelbarrows,” she said.

At the Loyola Village branch library, construction paper prairie dogs with bandannas and cowboy hats decorate the windows of the children’s section. Each child participating has a dog taped to the window, and for every five books read, a star is added to its hat.

Eric Morelli, 7, looked through the shelves at Loyola Village for more books while his mother recorded his previous week’s reading. Toting a plastic pull-string book bag, a prize for reading two books, Morelli proudly displayed his own library card.

Eric’s mother, Liz Morelli, said she is pleased with her son’s participation. “He walks around with a book in front of his face,” she said, adding that the summer reading program keeps children’s minds active. “It gives them community support for something that should be encouraged.”

Children who participate in the program at the Westchester branch city library set a goal for the number of books they want to read, and if they reach that goal, they receive a free paperback book donated by the Friends of the Library.

“They set themselves high goals,” said children’s librarian Margaret Darmody. “Even the beginning readers will set a goal of five to 10.” Some children read more than 60 books during the summer.

At the county libraries, children must tell a librarian about each book they read, write a summary or draw a picture before they can write the title in their folders.

“The children like to have someone to come in and talk to about the books,” said Sandy Nagy, children’s library assistant at the Culver City county library.

Merrick Hamer has performed dramatic storytelling at county libraries for the past 10 summers. “Anything that’s dramatic and silly will evoke a response,” he said, adding that acting out the stories appeals to young children who do not read yet. The summer program, he said, “gives children an environment of books for the summer. It keeps them in touch with books. That is our great objective.”

Darmody, who has been a children’s librarian for 30 years, said the summer reading program has changed since it began in the city libraries in the 1960s.

“Originally there was more competition involved,” she said. “They’re stressing non-competition now. It’s supposed to be recreational reading. The only thing I tell the children is it has to be a real book. It has to have a beginning, a middle and an end.”

Judith Babka, children’s librarian for the Marina del Rey branch, said that during the three summer months when school is out, many young children lose their reading skills. The library programs encourage them to continue reading.

“Libraries try to teach that (reading) is a joy and a lifelong interest,” Babka said. “If we lose the child now, we’re not going to have anyone to service in 20 years.”