Preschoolers crowded around KOLO newscaster Erin Breen as she read children's books Saturday at the Carson city library.
Breen, who focuses on children' issues in her "Connecting with Kids" segments on Channel 8's 5:30 p.m. newscasts Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, told her young audience how important reading will be for them.
She explained that she spends much more time reading newspapers, wire service reports, books and reports than she does reading on the air the stories she writes.
"You can find out anything you need to know, if you read," Breen said.
As Breen read "Cock A Doodle Cook" to the children, her daughter Meghan, 4, rested her head on her mother's shoulders and looked at the pictures.
Breen frequently paused to answer the children's questions and get to know them a bit. Jake Landes, 3, of Carson City alternated between standing near Breen and sitting on the lap of his grandmother, Karen Trivitt.
When Breen started reading "Cosmo Zooms," she looked up and and asked, "Where's Jake? Come look at the pictures. Oh, Jake fell asleep."
Sure enough, Jake was napping in Trivitt's arms.
Breen recalled her childhood in a family of six children and how her father read to them every night at bedtime.
"I have a twin sister and we each wanted him to sit on our own bed when he read, because he left a warm spot for our feet," Breen said.
She asked what the children's favorite books were and some of the answers dated back to her childhood, like "The Cat and in Hat" and "Charlotte's Web."
" 'Charlotte's Web' was the first book I read all the way through on my own," Breen said. "We were on vacation and my parents kept telling me to put the book down, but I had to keep reading.
"Books are so great because you get to imagine how everything looks and sounds. You get the pictures and ideas in your own head how the characters are. I did watch the video for 'Charlotte's Web' once and I didn't agree with how Charlotte sounded in it, because I already had her voice in my head."
