This Saturday morning activity offers a variety of storytelling, reading aloud, poetry, songs, puppet shows, games and art activities. For instance, Stories Around the World, used stories, photographs and songs to introduce Ghana, the Caribbean, East Africa, Italy, the Middle East, and East Asia. Not to be deterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, Story hour has moved to a virtual environment via Zoom, with stories often told by the children themselves.
Reading club activities are a prominent feature, whether taking place in CCL, nearby schools or via social media. Pupils from two pubic primary schools in nearby Onuiyi participated in a reading club and girls’ STEM reading club in 2019. The Football/Reading Club initiated by Ngozi Osadebe sought to promote reading by linking it to football team membership (See Publications for the abstract of Osadebe’s article.)
Most recent is a Teen Reading Club via Whatsapp, initiated by our Chair, Ngozi Osadebe. Every Saturday evening teens discuss issues such as difficult relationships with parents, peer pressure, bullying, and stigmatization; as well as ways of building self-confidence and developing healthy relationships, using Tekena Ikoko’s book, I Wish I Knew This before I Was Fourteen.
CCL participates in the International School Library Month (ISLM) every October. This has taken the form of book mark exchanges with children in other lands and sharing special programs mounted during the month.
CCL organizes special programs and events for ISLM, World Book Day, International Literacy Day, and Earth Day, among others. More on recent reading promotion activities with primary and secondary school students and young mothers may be viewed under Events.
The Library has participated in international virtual projects such as a Virtual Summit on water bringing together children from the United States, Nigeria, Sweden, India, and the Philippines. The project culminated in a global summit during which the Children’s Centre gave a slide show presentation on the problem of water scarcity in the Nsukka community.
Children’s Centre Library has active outreach programs to local primary schools, prisons, health centers and other institutions. It has hosted a number of conferences and workshops for teachers and school library personnel. More on these can be found under Outreach.