The mothers and children enter the neighborhood meeting room. A raw, icy blast of wind follows the families through the door. Mothers unlayer little ones. Off come the boots and hats and mittens and coats. Babies are unswaddled from the brilliantly colored cloths that are artfully and securely knotted around their mothers. The toddlers and older preschoolers are pulled toward the bright toys and art supplies, and the babies remain tucked in close to their mothers. We gather around a table and greet one another with nods and smiles. We do our best—with little or no English on their part and halting Somali salutations on my part. These tiny attempts elicit more smiles and friendly chuckles.

I pass out copies of a Somali nursery rhyme. Khadra, our interpreter, begins to read it silently. Slowly a wide smile lights up her face. “Oh, I know this! I remember this!” she says with wonder and enthusiasm. And she begins to sing the tune softly, lyrically. A moment later the mothers circled around the table join in:

Shimbirayahow Heesa / Heesa, heesa, heesa / Hees wanaagsan heesa / Kaalayoo soo fadhiista / Halkan soo fadhiista / Hees wanaagsan heesa.

Oh bird sing / Sing, sing, sing/ Sing a beautiful song / Come in front of me /

Sit here and sing / A beautiful song.

“I forgot all about this song, but now I am remembering it from when I was little,” says Khadra.

In her article “Understanding Families: Applying Family Systems Theory to Early Childhood Practice” (Young Children: Journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2006), Linda Garris Christian notes, “To serve children well, we must work with their families. To be effective in this work, we must first understand families who are diverse in ways such as culture, sexual orientation, economic status, work, religious beliefs, and composition…. No matter how different families appear to outside observers, all have certain characteristics in common. Examining these characteristics helps educators engage families in ways that foster optimal child development.”

We know that one thing families have in common is their love for their children and the ardent desire that their children will be successful in school and into adulthood. Still, we find that many families in the community are not visiting the library and are unaware of the vast treasure of resources it holds for families with young children. The reasons are numerous: homelessness, struggles with addiction, incarceration, poverty, and for some, a new and unfamiliar culture.

Our parent education library outreach strives to bring the library and early literacy to the families in our community—to meet them where they are both geographically and culturally. We find their strengths and build upon them. Many families don’t think to read to their babies or young children because they were never read to by their own parents, or they may be uncomfortable with their reading skills, or they simply have not yet uncovered the pure pleasure in reading. Some parents are coming from villages where books in early childhood were unheard of, but they can recall fond memories of gathering on the family bed as a grandparent spun nightly stories in the oral tradition.

I encourage them to continue this tradition with their own children—to talk, sing, and play games with them—to shower their minds with language just as they bathe their bodies with water. I give a children’s book as a gift and together we practice how to share it with their children by talking about the illustrations, asking questions, and wondering what will happen on the next page. Simple acts with amazing results!

In their essay “Making Every Book Count” (Book Links, May 2008), Maria P. Walther and Carol J. Fuhler remind us, “Hearing a book read aloud can make the quiet words on a page sing with joy….” We want every parent and child to feel this joy.