MISD Reading Carnival captures kids’ imagination
Event encompassed art, science, theater and plenty of books
Most of the parents attending Saturday’s 5th Annual Macomb Reads Carnival cited one thing that attracted them to the Macomb Intermediate School District event: free books.
“My 7-year-old son loves to read,” said Katie Ellis. “I’ve come the last couple of years and it is always a lot of fun.”
Ellis said her son is currently obsessed with Marc Brown’s “Arthur” series, but enjoys many different kinds of books.
Darryl Easley, who grew up in Mount Clemens, brought four children to the event and is also a huge fan of free books. Easley
teaches literacy classes at his Waterford church and through the Mount Clemens Library. He said he tries to instill a love for reading in children so they can carry that with them throughout their lives.
“Literacy is a huge problem,” said Easley. “There are a lot of parents who don’t read, and if the parents don’t read and if there are no books in the house, it is hard for a child to learn a love for reading.”
The Macomb Reads Carnival also offered STEM activities, arts and crafts, games that were related to reading and books, and presentations from authors. Michigan authors Jonathan Rand and Carrie Pearson were available to autograph books and speak with their young fans.
In the STEM area, Warren resident Tori Flakes
helped her 6-year-old son hold an air cannon aimed at a pyramid of paper cups. Each time he felled the cups with the cannon, he stacked them up and delighted in shooting them down again.
“I think this has been his favorite thing here so far, but my favorite thing is the free books,” Flakes said. “My son likes science and honestly, I think he is probably going to be a nerd.”
Flakes said she is also a nerd and sees that as a very positive thing. She said she appreciated the variety of activities available at the reading carnival.
Children could learn to code a robot to land on particular words on a board and Lawrence Technological University gave demonstrations throughout the day.
Anton Art Center Executive Director Phil Gilchrist said his organization’s arts and crafts room is not only a lot of fun, but is closely tied to reading too. Kids could paint, draw and create multimedia projects with colored paper and glue.
“A big part of childrens’ books are the illustrations,” said Gilchrist. “Children can also learn about different kinds of art from books and their creativity can be inspired by books too.”
The Anton Art Center has been part of the reading carnival event for five years.