HER BIG BR0WN EYES are nearly the size of quarters as she listens to her mother read an intriguing story about a boy taking a train trip.

Inside the young girl's brain, thousands of synapses fire off messages to nerves throughout her small body. The child has been captivated — intellectually, physically and emotionally by a storybook tale.

This year, children all across the state fell under the magical spell of books through the Georgia public libraries' summer reading program. The reading program received an extra boost this past winter when the General Assembly approved the governor's proposed $200,000 allocation to its budget. The legislature also approved a generous $10 million in supplemental budget funds for public libraries to purchase about 600,000 books, tape recordings, CDs and other circulating materials. Roughly $5 million of the allocation bought children's materials at the state's 371 public libraries.

"This money was a wonderful, wonderful gift for our libraries," said Gail Firestone, library access coordinator for the Athens Regional Library System. "We've used every penny we received. It was a terrific opportunity to bolster our collection."

Molly Kinney, library consultant for public library services at Georgia's Department of Technical and Adult Education, agreed.

"This money will certainly make more materials available to the public," Kinney said. "For people who like to browse, there will be more variety. And people really like a nice, clean fresh book. So this money is giving us a visibility that we didn't have before. The word is gradually getting out."

Each library chose what materials to order and had to spend their allotments this past spring. Most materials were expected to be available to library patrons no later than summer's end, Kinney said.

Some materials replaced outdated and worn-out series and titles, while others beefed up the local collections. In Columbus, for example, the money enabled one library branch to double its children's collection. In Athens, a librarian described the book cataloging area as a beehive buzzing with activity when the new materials arrived.

The new books could not have started arriving at a better time — just as this summer's reading program was getting off the ground.

GEORGIA READS

Each year, Georgia's summer reading program encourages children and their families to read for pleasure during the summer, Kinney said.

"Studies show that children maintain or increase their vocabulary skills by participating in summer reading programs," she said. "If they don't read, children sometimes lose some of their skills."

In fact, said Cobb County Library System children's program coordinator Patty Latch, they can lose up to two grade levels of reading skill in one summer.

In 1997, more than 150,000 children took part in the program. New books on the shelves may have increased reading this year, but the big impact will not be seen until next summer, when this year's special allocation to the summer reading program has been put to work. Because of the legislature's support, participation is expected to increase 10 percent or more in the summer of 1999, Kinney said.

Librarians helped generate interest in the program by visiting schools last spring. Colorful dinosaurs — irresistible to most children — appeared on promotional materials to illustrate this year's theme: "Think Big! Read." Also, public television stations aired public service announcements encouraging parents and children to get involved.

DTAE's public library services provided local libraries with themed stickers, bookmarks, posters, door knob hangers and reading diaries, said Charmette Kendrick, a Columbus children's librarian and this year's chair of the Georgia Summer Reading Program Committee.

The program is self-directed and, upon completion, all participants get a certificate. Children, up to age 13 in most counties, choose the books they want to read (or have read to them) and then set their own pace. Children record book titles or the amount of time spent reading in their reading diaries. Libraries collect the diaries by summer's end and pass along this information to the children's schools in the fall.

To attract children and their parents, libraries host fun, theme-oriented events, such as arts and crafts workshops, movies, music concerts, and performances by storytellers, magicians and jugglers.

For instance, the Oconee Regional Library System in Dublin invited a professional cartoonist to teach older children how to draw dinosaur cartoons. The children also voted for their favorite dinosaurs and decorated sponge-like dinosaurs that expanded when dipped in water, said children's librarian Tish Schrader.

In Canton's Sequoyah Regional Library System, children made fossil molds and attended a program featuring live snakes. In Cobb County, libraries used "story time boxes" that included puppets and various story-related props, such as seashells. In Valdosta, children saw a dinosaur art exhibit based on Dougal Dixon's book, "Questions and Answers About Dinosaurs."

Some library systems also gave prizes to summer reading club participants. Fulton County gave club members coupons for ice cream and an Atlanta Braves souvenir.

In the Athens Regional Library System, participants received dinosaur stamps, stickers, or glow-in-the-dark dinosaur figures upon reaching milestones. Their names were written on dinosaur-shaped cutouts that were displayed on the library's "Awesome Reader Wall."

Other systems, like Cobb County's, took a different approach because "the children are already excited about reading," said Latch. "We have committed readers in Cobb County. Getting them to read is not like pulling teeth."

Kennesaw parent Jean Esposito agreed. "My 9-year-old daughter has been in the program since she was in first grade," she said. "She loves the story times and the challenge of reading as many books as she can."

Instead of prizes, Cobb libraries sponsored an end-of-the-summer celebration for participants. The event, which attracted more than 3,000 people, featured storytellers, jugglers and refreshments. The two components of the summer reading program — independent reading and special activities at the libraries — make it a comprehensive and surprisingly inexpensive educational experience, Kinney said. In 1997, the program cost 78 cents per child, excluding salaries for librarians.

"I don't know of any other program this well established and this valuable that costs the taxpayers this little," said Kinney. "It's a lot of bang for the buck."

Jane M. Sanders is a free-lance writer living in Kennesaw, Ga.

Reading Is Fundamental WHAT IS IT ABOUT READING a book that is so fundamental to learning? Most librarians and many parents, including Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, have strong feelings about this issue. Here is what some people have to say: - - - - - - - - - - - - "I believe we need very early intervention to break the cycle of illiteracy. Children need books, written materials, parental role modeling and exposure to the library. ... Books — and the stories in the books — are tangible to children. Books allow children to develop skills in eye-hand coordination, imagination, critical thinking and sequencing Books have the power of affecting lives. You can smell a book, taste it, hear it, see it. You can interact with a book on a variety of levels. It is a multi-sensory approach to learning. ... You can use a book for a door stop, but you can also use it to change your world." — Molly Kinney, DTAE's Office of Public Library Services "A federal government study done five years ago looked at why students in the United States were falling behind students in other countries. They found that the most important thing is to read aloud to your children. The more exposure they have to language, the more successful they will be. I know that my parents started reading to me when I was a baby. Then I started reading to myself at age 3. I think that early exposure is why I became a librarian." — Charrnette Kendrick, Columbus, children's librarian "I grew up in a home with reading. It allowed me to go and do things I never thought I would be able to do. Reading is the basis for everything we learn. It is a fundamental building block for history, math, science, everything." — Tish Schrader, Dublin, children's librarian "During the summer, we are reading at least 30 minutes a day. Reading is essential to everything. It is just a joy for me to see my children reading because I am a reading junkie." —Tricia Patterson, Kennesaw, mother of 6- and 8-year-old daughters "Now the time has come, in my opinion, to take a giant step forward with another important piece of learning equipment. It is a wonderful educational tool: compact and portable. It never needs batteries or a power source. It never crashes or needs rebooting. Its clock will not expire on December 31, 1999. You can scan it optically. It will register information directly into the brain. It has a browse feature that allows you to move instantly to any page, either forward or backward. It is portable. It is durable. It is affordable. And the fact is that while we have been focusing our attention on outfitting our schools and libraries with the technology they had to have, we have at the same time been shortchanging them when it comes to that most fundamental learning tool of all — a book." — Governor Zell Miller INTRODUCING THE FY 1998 SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY   — Compiled by Jane M. Sanders