Children Get Loud at Library Event

Though usually a quiet place, the Moorpark Library on Wednesday morning was anything but.

“Can you be loud today?” children’s author Alexis O’Neill asked a group of captivated youngsters.

The Simi Valley resident, who works as director of education at the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, was one of three guest storytellers who participated in Moorpark’s celebration of the Great American Read Aloud, one of the events of National Library Week.

Thousands of libraries took part in the 8-year-old nationwide event by having celebrities and community leaders read to children from their favorite books.

“The kids really enjoy it,” librarian Sandi Banks said. “I think the older kids don’t get read to often.”

O’Neill’s audience of nearly 30 wide-eyed fifth-graders and preschoolers was happy to oblige by being loud as possible.

They screamed and shouted along with Emily, a girl born with a booming voice, as O’Neill read her book “Loud Emily.”

Mayor Patrick Hunter kicked off the program by reading from “The Kissing Hand,” a favorite book of his two sons.

The tale of a young critter whose hand is kissed by his mother so he will have a reminder of her love made Hunter think of the times he has read the story to his youngest son.

“I used to hold him in my arms and he used to fall asleep to that,” Hunter told the children after he read.

O’Neill followed, decked out in her “storytelling hat,” which she explained “helps me tell stories better.”

The children chanted along as O’Neill belted out sailors’ songs and screamed as loud as young Emily as the author read from her book. “I liked the noisy one,” said Aaron Andelson, 10. “It was loud and there was a lot of excitement.”

Pat Castro, former president of the Moorpark school board, rounded things off by reading “The Three Sillies.”