In an attempt to build a thriving reading culture among children, Crystal County Schools held its termly book reading session with Mariam Longe, who is an author and a TV co-host.
The book reading session was held on Tuesday at Crystal County Schools, Crystal Estate, Amuwo Odofin.
Mariam Longe read her latest publication, titled Vultures to the Rescue: The Cleanup Crew, which shed light on the significance of vultures to society.
In a brief chat with the author, she said, “In the course of my relationship with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, I was inspired to write a children’s book on the role that vultures play in our environment and ecosystem.”
“I realized in the course of my ambassadorship with them that many children are not included when we are talking about the environment, environmental protection, and environmental conservation. “
“My thinking is that if we want adults in the future to make better decisions, we can start teaching them when they are young, so that they will do better than we are doing right now because they are coming with better tools than we have. It was also really sad for me to see that many Nigerian children have never seen a live vulture. When I was growing up, I used to see them, and they are nearly extinct now.
“With the vulture, it’s to correct the false information, the myths about them that they are evil, that they serve no purpose but to destroy us, but the thing is, they are truly important in protecting our environment.”
She commended Crystal County Schools for constantly promoting a reading culture among children.
“This is the very first school on the school tour we are setting off on, and I have to say I am so thrilled.
“I love that the school already has a culture of asking people to come in to do a book reading, so the children understand the importance of sitting down reading. This is how you build knowledge. Schooling is good. Yes, proper education in classes is also good, but when we talk about extracurricular activities, reading is an important part of personal development and nation-building.
“If our children don’t read, they won’t have the knowledge and the tools to build a better nation, so Crystal County Schools is doing a very good job in that aspect, and I’m just so happy because you can tell from the children that this is something that they are used to.”
Mrs. Ezinne Adelaja, Educational Director for Crystal County Schools, said, “Every term we have a reading session where we have children’s book authors come read to our children.
“One of the objectives of this is to help our children realize that readers are leaders, and the more they read, the better they are.
“We know very well that the children enjoy reading when it’s brought down to their level, and when the authors come around to read to them, it makes it more real for the children. When they read later, they can actually read in the author’s voice or make up a voice that suites them. So when the author comes around, there’s a lot of characterization in the reading and that remains with the children.”
