Books can provide some quality time at fish camp

BETHEL (AP) -- Classes may be suspended for the summer, but that doesn't mean learning has to end.

The Lower Kuskokwim School District is sponsoring what it calls the ''Kusko Book Express'' for the third consecutive year. It's something of a floating bookmobile, and visits fish camps up and down the Kuskokwim River.

''I realized tht the kids weren't reading in the summer and they were losing too much time,'' said Lenora Arnold, the school district's migrant education specialist.

She earlier had given kids some books to read over the summer, but they weren't getting much use.

She pitched the idea of a summer book program that visits outlying fish camps. The school administration got behind it.

''We went out and visited the fish camps and took the books out there and would follow up,'' Arnold told the Delta Discovery.

The Kusko Book Express has spurred an interest in reading along with interest in the statewide Battle of the Books program, she said.

''At fish camp, they don't have TV and their days are real long. They get bored, and after the first few weeks, they chase us down the beaches for books.''

She says some of the kids at the fish camps have read all 12 books required in the Battle of the Books program.