Mitchell library’s bilingual story time teaches English, Spanish to youth

The Mitchell Public Library has created a bilingual story time program to teach young kids Spanish and English.

Ada Morales, circulation desk assistant, and Jean Patrick, children’s services director, said the program jumped off after they did their first bilingual story time online in October 2020. It was during the same time schools were closed in the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now they are aiming to offer the program in-person twice a month. Patrick says they held two successful story times during the summer, hosting 12 to 24 kids at a time.

“It just spread [online],” said Patrick. “I think we realized when the library was more open to people again, we really wanted to do it in person. Our community is growing and the number of Hispanic families that come to the library continues to grow.”

There was a huge audience on Facebook that tuned into their first story time. Some commented from as far as Texas and Iowa inquiring about their bilingual program, said Morales.

Patrick and Morales are the story time readers behind the dual-language learning program. The library’s dynamic duo will take turns reading children’s books like “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr. , teaching words and phrases in both English and Spanish.