The Reading Rover
is a mobile unit serving preschoolers and child care providers throughout Jackson, Macon and Swain counties and the Qualla Boundary with story times, teacher and parent workshops, teaching aids and parenting and family resources. The Rover is funded by community support as well as by local library funds. Additional support comes from area Friends of the Library and civic groups, North Carolina Community Foundations and private donations.i Visit our Reading Rover Resource Page for information to view materials and resources available for checkout, organized thematically.
To learn more, download our brochure (pdf).
See our Events Calendar for the Rover's current schedule.Please note the Rover is off-road in January and July.
The storyteller, Ms. Kari Read, reads stories to pre-schoolers and leads them in learning songs/rhymes, the Rover driver, Ms. Joan Lackey, assists teachers in selecting library materials for their classrooms. At some centers the children select their own library books from the Rover. Books, puzzles, music, puppets, and storytelling kits from the Rover help teachers of young children make learning fun.Items on the Reading Rover can be checked out by the directors, teachers, staff, and parents of the centers the Rover visits as long as they have an FRL Library Card. Items from the Rover can be returned to the Rover or to any FRL location.
In addition, when available, our Outreach Services Librarian offers training classes to childcare teachers,
giving tips on selecting age-appropriate books for the classroom and offering assistance in using the variety of Rover puppets, storytelling kits and books for teaching pre-reading skills. We also offer training classes to parents for teaching skills on using library materials to develop pre-reading skills at home.
The Reading Rover Bookmobile visits 24 childcare centers in our service area, bringing storytime and library materials "to the door" with the purpose of strengthening pre-reading skills.
Summer Reading Program
Since the Rover is "off the road" in July, we run the Rover Summer Reading Program in May and June. All classrooms visited by the Reading Rover are encouraged to participate by keeping a classroom reading record and by checking out many Rover books to meet their reading goal.