CAZENOVIA — On July 1, the Cazenovia Public Library (CPL) received a $2,250 grant from the Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation to help fund the fall 2023 through spring 2024 Snuggle Up & Read program, a collaborative community initiative organized by CPL, Burton Street Elementary School, and CazCares food pantry and clothing closet.

The program will provide 40 low-income Burton Street families with a set of three books along with a special family snack, reading tips, and guiding questions.

The book kits will be discreetly distributed through Burton Street Social Worker Mary Tibbits, who has existing relationships with the participating families.

According to CPL Youth Services Coordinator Jenna Wright, the most recent statistics from the New York State Education Department Data Site show that 110 students at Burton Street receive free or reduced-price lunches, and data from the United States Census Bureau show that over 10 percent of Madison County residents were living in poverty as of July 2021.

“By providing our target families with engaging books to read in their home environments, we can create opportunities for students to interact with new words and concepts that will become a part of their ever-growing background knowledge,” CPL explained in its grant application. “Our goal is to provide these families with a selection of vocabulary- and image-rich books that will provide [them] with a glimpse into experiences beyond their front door.”

The books selected for this year’s Snuggle Up & Read program are “The Lost Package” by Richard Ho, “Mousetronaut” by Mark Kelly, and “Shark Nate-O” by Tara Luebbe and Becky Cattie.

According to Wright, these titles were selected with the intention of inspiring and appealing to all kids in kindergarten through fourth grade, providing the students with narrative nonfiction text, and increasing their knowledge and vocabulary in specific content areas.

“Literacy research indicates that children benefit from reading texts that are rich in vocabulary and content knowledge, both of which support the development of language comprehension,” she said.

Wright also said the program organizers hope the books will serve as motivation for families to carve out time to sit down and read together.

“In some instances, this may look like caregivers reading to their children, or English-speaking students reading to their non-English speaking caregivers,” she said.

CPL has been working over the past several months with Burton Street teachers, the school’s mental health team, and the administration to create a program that will complement and enhance the social-emotional learning work that the elementary students are already doing.

According to second-grade teacher Julie Kielbasinski, Burton Street students participate in monthly assemblies focused on character traits such as honesty, respect, caring, responsibility, and kindness. They also engage in daily social-emotional activities in the classroom to reinforce their understanding of concepts like empathy, a growth mindset, goal setting, and dealing with stressors.

“For many of these lessons, a carefully chosen picture book is the catalyst and leads to the development of new vocabulary and productive discussions,” Kielbasinski said. “[Snuggle Up & Read] is another way to put intentionally selected content- and vocabulary-rich books directly into the hands of the families that need them the most — those with English as a new language and families receiving support from our Burton Street social worker.”

According to Wright, the guiding questions in each family’s book kit include not only questions that check for literal comprehension but also questions that facilitate conversation about feelings between caregiver and child or between siblings. Such questions might prompt the students to consider what the problem in the story makes them think about in their own life, how they are like the main character and how they are different, how the setting of the story compares to where they live, what specific things they noticed, and what they wonder about.

CazCares, which is based at 101 Nelson St, is providing the snacks for the take-home kits.

“We hope that some of these families who might not take advantage of the many free services provided at CazCares — groceries, clothing including coats, school supplies, holiday meals, [and] emergency assistance — will learn more about these offerings and will feel more comfortable visiting,” said Wright. “. . . [Additionally,] we will encourage these families to engage with both the library and CazCares through a series of follow-up questions, check-ins, and information that will be available for them to access online or via text message.”

For more information on Snuggle Up & Read, call the library at 315-655-9322. To learn more about CPL and its other programs, visit cazenoviapubliclibrary.org.