Selma’s super summer reader
Published 12:00 am Friday, August 13, 2004
Becky Nichols, librarian of the Selma-Dallas County Public Library, loves books and children. And she especially loves children who read books.
Erin McCown, age 10 and a fifth-grader at Morgan Academy is such a child. McCown was the standout
in this year’s Summer Reading Club.
She read no fewer than 101 books.
“Erin will have something very special to report to her teacher about her summer activities when she returns to school. This is a special year of ‘100s’ at the library as we celebrate our 100th birthday,” Nichols said. “Erin stands out in this special summer of 100s, having read 101 books. Over the past five years of Erin’s life, she’s read almost every book in the junior fiction area. When we see Erin coming up the steps, the question we always ask is ‘What book has Erin not already read!’ She is the centennial reader in the centennial summer.”
Erin said that she not only enjoys reading books for herself but to her younger brothers Will, 7, who is a second-grader,
and Ben, 4, who is in K-4.
“My parents (Kim and Colin McCown) have always read to me and so I am reading to my brothers,” she said.
Nichols sees Erin as a standout in Nichols’ 28 years at the library.
“I think she (Erin) began as an above-average reader in Kindergarten. She was soon devouring most of the books that we had for her age group,” she said. “The key was her parents who read to her and showed her the promise and power of reading. Reading to children is something every parent in the community can do for their children.”
Erin said her favorite books are mysteries, such as the Nancy Drew and Boxcar Children Mysteries series.
She also likes to read American Girl magazine. She admits to watching TV and enjoying it, but confessed that given the choice of watching the silver screen or reading a book, she prefers the latter.
Nichols notes that Erin has read many of the Newbery books – award-winning books by the best children’s authors.
The byproduct of parents reading to children and children learning to read, according to Nichols, is superior academic accomplishments. Erin is a straight-A student and a bright and interesting person, she said.
Nichols said that the McCown family has taken full advantage of what the library has to offer.
“Everyone in the family who is eligible has a library card and they come in two and three times per week to check out books. They have developed the library habit,” Nichols said.
Erin says her home is filled with books and that books are frequently given as gifts among family members and to relatives and friends. “That’s the first thing we think of when it comes to selecting a gift – a book,” she said.
Erin says her favorite subjects in school are math and English.
Right now she thinks she might like to be a teacher or a