Peoria’s public television station, WTVP, is teaming up with area librarians for its annual Rainbow Readers project to encourage children to read during the summer. The station is seeking readers ages seven to 12 to videotape book reports to be broadcast on air.
Participants will be chosen by librarians from among children enrolled in libraries' summer reading programs. "WTVP is asking librarians to select one student to represent their library, and then register with the station by July 5th," said Mary Heinemann, WTVP education outreach coordinator. The children will tape their 30- to 60-second memorized book reports at the station in late July.
"The children are always so excited to tell about their favorite book and then see themselves on TV giving their reports between the station's regularly scheduled children's programming," Heinemann says. "We hope it gets kids who are watching at home interested in going to their own local libraries to discover the abundance of stories waiting for them there."
The project is modeled after the former Reading Rainbow children's series hosted by LeVar Burton, which aired on PBS from 1983 to 2006. For more information, contact Heinemann at (309) 495-0595. iBi
