TPL summer readers recognized
Published 7:57 pm Thursday, July 22, 2010
Devon Corbitt is a reading whiz.
She logged 47,352 pages in the Troy Public Library’s Summer Program and that was more than enough to take top place in the young adult reading program.
Sisters, Melissa and Laura Cain, took second and third place. Melissa read 12,000 pages and Laura read more than 9,000 pages.
As a reward for taking top honors, the girls were treated to pedicures and manicures at C&K Nails.
“Because all three top readers were girls I thought it would fun to do something different in recognition of their efforts,” said Teresa Colvin, young adult and children’s librarian.
“Most all girls like to be pampered and that’s why I decided to treat them to a trip to a spa.”
The girls were a bit out of their element with their feet in tubs of churning water and softener but they said it was fun to be pampered – now, if they just had “a good book to read.”
Devon traces her love of reading back to when she was ages five to eight and living in Africa where her parents were missionaries.
“We didn’t have a television so there wasn’t anything to do except play and read,” Devon said.
“I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember. I read anything that is a good story and has interesting characters. I read all the time. I’m a librocubicularist. That’s someone who reads in bed. Reading is what I do.”
Melissa will be a member of the freshman class at Troy University in the fall. Her reading addiction will be a great benefit to her as she will have plenty of reasons to read.
“I’ve always like to read, from pre-school on,” Melissa said.
“I love to use my imagination and, with reading you can do that. It’s not like movies or television. You can imagine the characters and the places and that’s more interesting and fun to me.”
Laura is a rising eighth grader at Charles Henderson Middle School and, like her sister, she enjoys reading because she can “picture” the characters and they become more real to her.
“I like to read just about anything,” she said.
“Give me a book and I’ll end up reading it.”
Colvin said it was remarkable the number of pages these three girls have read over the summer.
“The purpose of the summer program is to encourage young people to continue to read and keep up their reading skills during the summer,” she said.
“I want to thank C&K Nails, Glow, First Impressions, the Pink Parlor, Dairy Queen and Troy Cable for their support of the Troy Public Library program and all of the young adult readers who participated. And I want to congratulate these three top young adult readers and also the top readers in our younger readers.
The top readers in the four through 11 age group were feted with a luau Thursday, thanks to William White, TPL director, Rebecca Scuba, museum volunteer, Byrd Drugs, Dairy Queen and McDonald’s.
The group included 12 honorable mention awards, which was a first for the TPL Summer Reading Program.
“The number of books read was so close this year that I just couldn’t not recognize these readers who had accomplished so much,” Colvin said.
“Everybody deserved the recognition and the fun of the top readers’ recognition party.”
The top readers in the four and five age group were Joanna Cooper, first; Ava Leverett, second; and Emma Sanders, third.
In the six-year age group, the top readers were Donna Chen, first, and Addy Robinson, second.
Seven-year-old top readers were Tessa Suell, first, and Scott Renfroe, second.
Peyton Sasser was the top reader in the age eight group.
First place reader in the age nine group was Veronica Copper and Montse Ramirez was second.
In the age 10 group, Dani Daniel was first and Abigail Salmon was second. Clayton Suell was the top reader in the 11-year-old group.
Honorable mention awards were presented to Aidan Faulk, Kelton Coppage, Hope Challancin, Cade Renfroe, George Smith, Addie Renfroe, Hunter Coppage, Irene Park, Jessica Wilcox, Mary Stoltze, Brandon Cain and Hailey Sasser.