International Children’s Book Day was celebrated on April 2. “Research shows that children whose parents read to them every day are exposed to at least 290,000 more words by the time they enter kindergarten than kids who aren’t read to regularly.” This fact was found at https://www.earthday.org/libraries-where-books-go-to-party/ as part of that celebration. Former President Ronald Reagan said, “The library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.” Lifelong learning, for free, is available at our public libraries. I remember the words of our dear friend and library supporter, Margo Culley, who called our greatly appreciated local library, the Wendell Free Library, “Wendell U,” for “Wendell University,” as it is the learning place for residents of all ages.

I am thankful for the Recorder’s online version which makes being able to click on links so easy to do. I encourage everyone, especially young parents, to check out the earthday.org site above. I am thankful that the parents of our dear great-grandson, Teddy, have already created for him a library of books and have taken him to the local town library where he loves interacting with a wealth of reading materials, and I am thankful for the many volunteers, including library trustees like Karen Traub, who help to keep our public libraries open for the knowledge-hungry people of our democracy.

Laurel Facey

Wendell