Children's Books in Children's Hands

Earlier this year, we received a generous grant from the Evjue Foundation that allowed us to buy a complete set of the Charlotte Zolotow Award books for each of the six campus childcare centers here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The Charlotte Zolotow Award recognizes outstanding writing in books for young children (birth-age seven), especially highlighting books that we can recommend as great read-alouds, so the teachers and children at our campus childcare centers are the perfect audience for these books. 

Last month the centers' directors met here to learn a bit about the CCBC and what we can do for early childhood teachers and care providers. At that time we presented each one with their set of books. Never have I seen a more appreciative group! Until...

...a few days later when I received a lovely thank you note from Debb Shaubs, the director at Eagle's Wing, the childcare center that serves UW students with families who live in the Eagle Heights community. It read:

There aren't enough words to say thank you for writing the grant for these amazing books!!!!  It's only been a couple of days now and I'm seeing them put to very good use (photos attached).  High quality literature is so important for children - in spite of all the drool and gob!  Thank you sooooo much for enriching our environment for these precious little ones!

With much love,

Eagle’s Wing

The accompanying photos of the Eagle's Wing staff sharing the books with children made our day here at the CCBC. Debb gave us permission to share her note and a few of the photos here.

Eagle's Wing teacher Michele McDonough reads to snacking babies

A young boy enjoys the 2015 Zolotow winner, read by teacher Lew Oleksy

These pictures would have pleased Charlotte Zolotow down to her bones. She loved UW-Madison, which she attended back in the 1930s, and whenever we talked she would open the conversation with "Tell me something good about Madison."  This is something good I've like to have been able to tell her about. Her legacy lives on here.