Many of our neighbors in Johnson County speak and read languages from all over the globe.
On April 30 the Clark Pleasant Branch Library is holding a festival celebrating children’s books from around the world. Families, kids, and people of all ages are invited to this fun event.
El día de los niños/El día de los libros — in English that’s Children’s Day/Book Day — or Día, is an international celebration of children, families and reading. Putting an emphasis on promoting literacy in all children, Día connects children to books from different cultures and languages.
Celebrate Día kicks off at 2 p.m. with a multilingual storytime and the reading of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” written and illustrated by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. Students from the Adult Learning Center, as well as employees of JCPL and community members, will be sharing their native languages and cultures during our celebration. After storytime, guests will have the chance to view a traditional Chinese dance and learn traditional dance steps. Guests will also be invited to make crafts and try snacks from the participating cultures.
During our Día festival, we will also have the grand opening for our Exploration Walk located around the Clark Pleasant Branch. The Exploration Walk features interactive play and learn activity stations. The ribbon cutting for the Exploration Walk takes place on the patio at 2:45 p.m. Bibli the Bookworm, JCPL’s new mascot, will be attending the ribbon cutting and will have a meet and greet immediately following. Key funding for the Exploration Walk was provided by the Rotary Clubs of Johnson County, Center Grove, Franklin and Greenwood.
We are looking forward to sharing the languages and cultures of our neighbors with you. Spend your afternoon, with storytime, crafts, snacks and entertainment for all ages. And if you’re not able to make it to our Día festival, JCPL offers a range of language services from bilingual books to online language learning. Learn more about those resources and Celebrate Día here: PageAfterPage.org/dia.
Monica McKeown is a Library Assistant at Clark Pleasant Branch. JCPL staff members share in writing this twice-monthly column. Send comments to [email protected].
