Amarillo libraries receive grant from Texas Book Festival to buy new interactive books

The Amarillo Public Library has announced it is a recipient of a Collections Enhancement Grant from the Texas Book Festival. With this grant, APL will have the ability to purchase additional interactive reading materials for young readers.

Each year, the Texas Book Festival awards grants to support collection enhancement for Texas public libraries. This funding enables libraries to share the diversity and breadth of literature with their communities. Funding comes from book sales at the Texas Book Festival and other generous donors.

"This means so much for all our libraries; it will allow us to enhance our collection of interactive audio picture books and non-fiction books for all five of our locations," said APL Youth Services Coordinator Melody Boren. "They come with a device embedded in the book that allows it to be an audio book and regular book in one, and there is no external device necessary. We know that kids love being read to, and now they can get that from the book and go at their own pace. ... We cannot keep them on the shelves. Parents and kids love them, so this will be a very meaningful gift from the Texas Book Festival."

The library will use the award to purchase additional interactive read-along titles, such as "Captain Underpants," "Dinotrux," "The One and Only Ivan," and more. These books will be utilized by area children with integrated talking book technology. Readers will have the ability to read the story and turn the pages just like a traditional book, follow along with an audiobook, or switch to a learning mode, which allows them to challenge themselves and get reading help only when needed. The grant will allow APL to purchase approximately 50 of these kid-friendly interactive titles that will be accessible across all five APL branch locations.

Announcing APL as one of the grant recipients, Texas Book Festival School and Community Programs Coordinator Michelle Hernandez wrote in a news release: “We applaud the work you are doing to help foster a love of reading in your community and to best serve your library patrons with books that meet their needs and interests.”

Boren spoke about the benefits of a child using audiobooks to progress their reading abilities and how it is shown to build vocabulary and improve comprehension when a child rereads their favorite story, as well as builds a new reader's confidence.

"Audiobooks are great for helping emerging readers build confidence and feel comfortable with following text and the direction of the text, and help them become aware of the steps of reading a book, including turning pages and following pictures, while interpreting what they are hearing with what they are seeing, so it builds a lot of skills for young readers," Boren said.

To find a library location near you or to check out a specific audiobook, visit APL online at www.amarillolibrary.org.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo libraries receive Texas Book Festival grant to buy new books