Shirley Stuart smiled as she walked between aisles of project boards filled with pictures of dogs, goblins, wizards and every other kind of conceivable character. She briefly stopped to chat with a little girl standing in front of a pink project board laced with a matching boa before continuing her journey through the maze of trifolds, while dozens of anxious kids watched from the stands of the City Auditorium.
Stuart, a retired speech pathologist, was one of many volunteers to help judge the district reading fair Thursday, which pitted the top three winners from each Warren County elementary school and some junior highs against each other to see who will advance to the state competition.
“What’s great about it is it does bring the community together,” Stuart said. “It is a competition, it really is, and they (the students) kind of thrive on that.”
Seven-year-old Clark Hobson of St. Francis agreed. Hobson, who did his project on a book about a dog going to a baseball game titled “Strike Three Marley,” said his favorite part about the reading fair was winning.
“It’s good. It’s fun,” Hobson said. “I liked painting the dog (on the project). I read the book and I liked the book.”
There were many more like Hobson who mingled on the auditorium floor and in the stands with parents and teachers, all savoring the moment in which books became the focal point of the day.
Marti Farrar, a librarian at Bovina and South Park, helped oversee the event, which featured more than 400 students and lasted from early morning until after lunch.

“This helps foster a love of reading and encourages it. We even have junior high kids here,” Farrar said. “If we can catch them down here in the lower grades and keep on reading … it just makes you feel good inside that you’ve done that.”
Amidst the excited faces of students from across Warren County eager to discuss their favorite book and why they chose it, Farrar said events like reading fairs are an integral way to foster a love of reading in students that is carried with them through the years.
“You’re sharing your creativity and the way you translate that book. (You demonstrate) how that author has gotten to you and how you translate that book into a visual project,” she said. “It’s visually appealing. You get somebody who comes up to your board and says, ‘Oh, I want to read that book.’ We have some.”