Book Buddies program to showcase princesses and other fairy tales Tuesday

Published 2:56 pm Sunday, March 10, 2019

Carter County Drug Prevention has hosted Book Buddies for about two months, but this time, readers will experience the world of fairy tales and other magical adventures.

Jocelyn Marr, a member of the CCDP’s Youth Board, said the program is about to encourage higher levels of literacy among Carter County children.

“We mostly have preschoolers show up, but sometimes we have older kids too that want to read to us and practice their skills,” Marr said.

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Since starting the program, each week has featured a different theme. This upcoming week, the theme is all about princesses like Belle and Cinderella.

Marr said they try to organize other activities to go alongside the books they read, such as crafts and other projects.

“We are trying to do a different topic each week so that we can reach kids that are interested in all sorts of different things,” she said. “We will do princesses this week and ‘all about trucks’ on March 19.”

The program has been popular among children since it began earlier this year.

She said the reading time is a chance for children to take a break and relax.

“We really want to just give kids an opportunity to have some one on one reading time, feed them a snack and provide something for them to do in the afternoon that is positive for them,” Marr said.

She said recent literacy scores from the TCAP reading assessment prove the need for these kinds of programs to continue.

“The data shows that students in Carter County scoring proficient in the TCAP reading assessment is around 40 percent in the county compared to 48 percent in Tennessee,” Marr said. “We know that literacy rates in Carter County are lower than many other counties in the state and country.”

She said this deficiency spurs them on to create programs that encourage a greater love of reading among Carter County’s youth.

“We know it is important that we keep helping students read where they can,” she said.

Book Buddies takes place every Tuesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Carter County Drug Prevention, located at 546 East Elk Ave.