MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Children and their parents gathered in the station library here July 11, 2012, to take part in Delicious Discovery Day.
Participants not only learned how reading is beneficial, they had a chance to see a variety of books from different regions. Putting the "delicious" in the discovery, they enjoyed tasty treats and dishes from other countries and cultures with which the kids and their parents may not have been familiar.
Delicious Discovery Day started with the children gathered together on the floor as Stacey Kobe-Bellika, supervisory librarian, read the children’s book, “Yoko”.
“This is part of our summer reading program, which is part of a Department of Defense wide program,” said Kobe-Bellika. “Every military base everywhere has the same theme for their summer reading program, and this year’s theme is 'Reading Is Delicious,' so today we are doing a Delicious Discovery Day. We want to introduce kids and their families to foods from other countries that they may have not tried as well as some books they may have not yet read, so today is about promoting new things.”
The Delicious Discovery Day featured foods from a mix of several different cultures from around the world.
“We have food from Mexico, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Caribbean, Hawaiian cultural, Scandinavia and several others,” said Kobe-Bellika. “It’s not just learning about foods and books from other countries, but also other cultures.”
The children seemed eager to try the different foods on display while they sat on the floor and listened to the reading of “Yoko”.
“I’m having a lot of fun, I really like reading and the food is really good, a little different than normal, but it’s still good,” said Evie Smolenski, 8, child participant. “I like reading a lot of books, classic books, chapter books and things like that. I have a lot of favorite books. Some are the “Harry Potter” series, the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series and a whole bunch of others. I have a lot of books on my book shelf and have so many favorites.”
Children eagerly walked around the displays intent on trying new things. As the event drew to a close, they left with an appreciation for new books and foods.