Air Force photograph by Rebecca Amber

Volunteer reader, Senior Airman Anthony Bartlett, 412th Communications Squadron, read “Five Little Monkeys Reading in Bed” and “I Dare You Not to Yawn” at the base library Jan. 29.

On Jan. 29 staff and volunteers at the base library held Pajama Story Time. Children five and under dressed in their pajamas, listened to bedtime stories, made pillows and then enjoyed a pancake breakfast.
Volunteer reader, Senior Airman Anthony Bartlett, 412th Communications Squadron, read “Five Little Monkeys Reading in Bed” and “I Dare You Not to Yawn.”
The special reading was part of the weekly story time offered at the library every Wednesday and Friday at 10 a.m.
“Every time we look for a book that we think we can design a special craft project to go along, and this time the idea came up to do a pajama story time. Have the kids make something associated with bedtime,” said Alison Vasquez, library director.
Bartlett has been volunteering for story time as needed for the past two years. The idea of reading to children was first suggested to him while on a deployment and he gave it a try.
“I switch accents when I read. When I was younger I was read to in an English accent because my family is Jamaican and British. So we switch accents a lot. When I was younger they used to read to me like that and it caught my attention,” said Bartlett. “I do the same thing for them and it catches [their attention], they like it.”
After Bartlett had finished their stories, the children made pillows out of felt and stuffing sewn together with yarn and decorated in foam stickers.

Air Force photograph by Rebecca Amber

Children at the base library made pillows out of felt and stuffing sewn together with yarn, and decorated in foam stickers during Pajama Story Time Jan. 29.

According to Vasquez, the craft project and story time are designed to help the children develop some of the skills they will use when they go to school.
“The children are learning to read and sometimes some of them take longer to develop that interest for reading. When they are part of this program they are able to see other children like them and they start learning skills that are going to help them when they start going to school,” said Vasquez.
As soon as school ends for the summer, the older children will have a chance to participate in the Friday morning sessions as part of the Summer Reading Program.
This year’s theme, “Read for the Win” was inspired by this year’s summer Olympics. This year’s summer reading program will start June 10.