The summer between graduating from high school and starting college, I volunteered with the National Park Service in southern Nevada. Most of my time was spent at the Lake Mead Visitor Center handing out brochures to tourists and selling items from the Center’s gift shop. I also had the opportunity to go on several Park Ranger-guided hikes around the local area. My favorite part, though, was being allowed to help with organizing and documenting artifacts found in and around the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The collection was not very big, but it had a variety of items: fossils, arrowheads, animal bones, plant specimens – even a few embalmed wildlife! I have very good memories about that summer and am so glad I decided to apply to be a volunteer.
I bring this up because April is National Volunteer Month. If you have the desire and the time to help out, volunteering can be very rewarding. And becoming involved in the community isn’t limited to adults – kids can participate, too. The books in today’s volunteer-themed reading list are intended for children, and they offer multiple suggestions for how young voices can make a difference and give back to their neighborhoods, communities, and the world.
- 101 Small Ways to Change the World by Aubre Andrus
- Be the Change: The Future is in Your Hands: 16+ Creative Projects for Civic and Community Action by Eunice Moyle and Sabrina Moyle
- Home Sweet Neighborhood: Transforming Cities One Block at a Time by Michelle Mulder
- Kids Who are Changing the World! written by Sheila Sweeny Higginson, illustrated by Alyssa Petersen
- Philanthroparties!: A Party-Planning Guide for Kids Who Want to Give Back by Lulu Cerone
New at the Library
Fiction
Nonfiction
- Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Philip Gefter
- Coyotes Among Us: Secrets of the City’s Top Predator by Stanley D. Gehrt
- Last to Eat, Last to Learn: My Life in Afghanistan Fighting to Educate Women by Pashtana Durrani
Children
- Bunny Should Be Sleeping written by Amy Hest, illustrated by Renata Liwska
- Charlie Hernandez & the Phantom of Time by Ryan Calejo
- Home Activity Lab: Exciting Experiments for Budding Scientists by Jack Challoner
This is just a small sampling of the many new titles added each week to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District collection. Visit the district’s 15 locations, our website at www.fvrl.org, or call (360) 906-5000 to reserve titles or find additional listings.
You can email Jan at readingforfun@fvrl.org.
