Tag: golden triangle

Fort Worth City Council member Leonard Firestone danced “Baby Shark” with children and parents on June 10 at the Fort Worth Public Library Golden Triangle Branch, 4264 Golden Triangle Blvd.

As part of the library’s Family Story Time Program, Firestone joined families and read them “Mixed: A Colorful Story” by Arree Chung.

“What color is this?” Firestone said.

“Red, yellow, blue!” the children answered.

Fort Worth Public Library Assistant Director of Public Service Michele Gorman said the different branches host different kinds of story times from music and movement story times to bilingual storytimes to toddler story times.

“Generally, our story times are for the birth- to 5-age range. So, oftentimes, these are kids that are either in informal learning programs or not in learning programs,” Gorman said. “So, story times throughout the year give them access to that hands-on learning.”

The library invites special guest readers to “make it fun to make it engaging,” Gorman said.

Upcoming guests include Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, council members Chris Nettles, Jared Williams, Michael Crain, NBC 5 Anchor Laura Harris and Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis.

“A big benefit of that is to see your community representative in the community, right? What a joy for our young users to actually engage with a politician on their terms in their space in a way that’s comfortable,” Gorman said.

Children started with stretches, then danced and sang “Shake Your Sillies Out,” “Baby Shark,” and “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” on June 10.

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker proposed a 2022 Mayor’s Summer Reading Challenge where children can track their reading minutes on the Beanstack app and win prizes through August 27.

Library administration fully backs Parker’s stance that education is critical and key, Gorman said.

The Fort Worth Public Library opened three new branches in the past two years: La Gran Biblioteca Branch in February 2022, the Golden Triangle Branch in August 2020 and the Reby Cary Youth Library Branch in August 2021.

“One of the biggest things is that people keep saying libraries are gonna go away. They’ve been saying that since the beginning and I can tell you that it wasn’t true then and it’s not true now,” Gorman said.

Cristian ArguetaSoto is the community engagement journalist at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him by email or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.