Kentucky Humanities, in cooperation with the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, will bring an award-winning family literacy program to Russellville this Tuesday, March 7.

Prime Time Family Reading Time will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesdays from March 7 to April 18 (no meeting on April 4), at the Logan County Public Library, 225 Armory Drive in Russellville. The program is free and includes meals, door prizes, and childcare for younger siblings.

Prime Time Family Reading helps families bond around the act of reading and talking about books. In each of six weekly sessions, a discussion leader and storyteller lead programs that demonstrate effective reading techniques. The books introduced to children ages 6 to 10 and their parents explore timeless issues of humanity—friendship, trickery, patience, respect, and justice—while helping them understand the dynamics of making life choices. The program is free and includes meals, door prizes, and educational childcare for younger siblings.

The storyteller is Taylor Simpson, and Sherrie Pryor is the Prime Time discussion leader. They are Logan Countians.

Kentucky Humanities Executive Director Bill Goodman believes Prime Time is among the most important programs Kentucky Humanities brings to the Commonwealth.

“Kentucky Humanities is passionate about promoting literacy and sharing the love of reading with people throughout Kentucky,” Goodman said. “Low reading scores have been one of the many devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentucky. We hope that families across the Commonwealth will use Prime Time Family Reading as a way to spend time reading together and talking to each other in ways they never have before.”

Prime Time Family Reading has won awards from the Public Library Association and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities created the program in 1995. Its studies showed that children who went through Prime Time increased their reading time by 80 percent and doubled their trips to the library. The program also benefited their parents, who improved their parenting skills and, in 29 percent of the cases studied, their employment status.

Kentucky Humanities is a non-profit Kentucky corporation affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities. For information about Kentucky Humanities’ programs and services, visit kyhumanities.org. To register for Prime Time Family Reading at the Logan County Public Library, call (270) 726-6129 or email carole@loganlibrary.org.