By Keith Howard

Sitting in a child-size chair, Sen. Jarrett T. Barrios read the words on the page out loud. He held the book up so his audience could see the pictures. There were more than a dozen kids sitting at his feet. They all looked up, staring at the page and attentively listening to Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats.

Barrios spent Thursday morning reading to children at the Capuano Early Education Center as part of a program to promote early literary skills amongst middle- to low-income and second language English students.   

“I can’t imagine a more sound way to promote reading for children from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Barrios.

Barrios’ visit to the preschool classroom was part of national program called Raising a Reader. The idea is to increase literacy skills in young children. The Capuano school implemented Raising a Reader in March. When Barrios reached the end, each student in Ms. Larissa Kenny’s pre-kindergarten class was given a red tote bag containing four children’s books, courtesy of the Raising a Reader program.

Every Thursday children takes home a book bag with a new selection of age-appropriate books and returns them the next Tuesday. Then the books are rotated to a new student, said Donna DiFillilppo, executive director of Raising a Reader. “Our goal is to flood kids with books from birth to age five,” said DiFillilppo.

“We try to give them high quality material.” The books are all culturally sensitive, free of pop-culture references and are carefully selected from a diverse list of children’s books, she said. The California-based organization, Raising a Reader, aims at providing books to kids in hopes of encouraging families to read together and get kids across the country excited about reading.

“They actually have a wide variety of books that really challenges them,.” said John Shea, the father of Vivian and Cole, two students at the Capuano Center. Raising a Reader reports a 33 percent increase in the percentage of parents overall who read to their children three or more time a week and a 59 percent increase amongst Spanish-speaking parents.

“This is where it starts,” said Principal Susan J. Collins. “We give the foundation and you see that in every classroom you walk in,” she said.