School Celebrates Its New Library

Fourth-grader Christine Magana cooed when she walked into the library. “It has a lot of room!” she exclaimed. “Everything was kind of stuffed in before.”

Christine, 9, and dozens of other pupils at Cantara Street School in Reseda enjoyed their first visit Friday to the school’s new library, which was built after the old library and an adjacent classroom were torn down.

New features include a quiet alcove--with white benches and large stairs--that serve as a group reading theater.

“When I first came in, I couldn’t believe what I saw,” said Daisy Miguel, 11, a fifth-grader who helped approve the final designs as a member of the school’s library committee.

To celebrate the library opening, students staged a show for parents and friends Friday. First-graders dressed as spiders, astronauts and other characters from favorite texts. “I went to the library and what did I see? Books! Books waiting for me,” they sang.

The school and Wonder of Reading, a nonprofit group established by Pacific Theaters Corp., split the cost of the $40,000 project. The school also has received thousands of dollars to buy books, ranging from a $49,000 state grant to $6,000 raised through sales of chocolate, ice cream and T-shirts, said PTA President Lucy Saad. Each book costs about $20.

The school’s library is the 34th in the Los Angeles Unified School District to be renovated with help from Wonder of Reading.

A new library at Fair Avenue Elementary in North Hollywood is expected to open March 10, and another at Sylmar Elementary is scheduled to open March 24, officials said.