SALT LAKE CITY — The Guadalupe School’s book fair has no shortage of color.
The books run the spectrum when it comes to what you can find.
“They can see we have Pokémon or we have this about dinosaurs or books about sea animals. There are all these choices that are out there,” says the Guadalupe School’s librarian Angi Castillo.
The proverbial pot of gold at the end of this rainbow?
Five free books the students can add to their home libraries.
“If I get books in their hands and we can teach them to love books when they’re young, it can help as they grow older to be more interested in books,” says Castillo.
It’s not just Castillo helping lead the charge.
There were some familiar faces at this week’s book fair, helping little ones find the titles they wanted to take home.
Staff from all departments of FOX 13 not missing the chance to relive their childhood book memories or helping students pick what could become one of their new favorites.
“I have really fond, early memories of my mom and dad taking us to the bookstore,” says FOX 13 reporter Mythili Gubbi. “We would spend a Sunday reading a book at the bookstore or doing all the little author forums and talking about what we’re reading or reading a book at bedtime. Books were always a big part of our lives growing up.”
“I can tell when the kids come in here their eyes light up, just when they see the cover of a book,” says FOX 13 sports reporter Morgan Vance. “The characters, the dogs or cats, the princesses, whatever they are, their eyes get real big and my eyes get big just watching that.”
At Guadalupe, the words in these books are not just text that tell a story.
They’re a tool to a new world for some: learning a new language.
“I recently discovered that a lot of our kids, their parents, are first-generation immigrants, so they’re learning English here at school,” says Castillo. “So getting books into their hands is very important because it’s probably not something their parents brought with them.”
No matter what “colors” the students choose in the rainbow of books, the end goal is to get them reading and to make it easy to do so.
“I wish I could express how grateful we are that they do that because most schools the kids come in and have to pay for the books,” says Castillo. “Their parents had to pay for the books and that’s still exciting, you still get books, but the idea that they don’t have to pay and they’re receiving this really amazing resource is…I just can’t express the gratitude.”
