Kentucky Humanities, in cooperation with the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, will bring an award-winning family literacy program to Madisonville April 11th.

Prime Time Family Reading Time will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesdays from April 11 to May 16, at the Hopkins County-Madisonville Public Library, 425 East Center Street in Madisonville. The program is free and includes meals, door prizes, and childcare for younger siblings. 

Prime Time Family Reading helps families bond around the act of reading and talking about books. In each of six weekly sessions, a discussion leader and storyteller lead programs that demonstrate effective reading techniques. The books introduced to children ages 6 to 10 and their parents explore timeless issues of humanity—friendship, trickery, patience, respect, and justice—while helping them understand the dynamics of making life choices. The program is free and includes meals, door prizes, and educational childcare for younger siblings. 

The storyteller is Dotty Short, and Marlena Starks is the Prime Time discussion leader.

Prime Time Family Reading has won awards from the Public Library Association and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities created the program in 1995. Its studies showed that children who went through Prime Time increased their reading time by 80 percent and doubled their trips to the library. The program also benefited their parents, who improved their parenting skills and, in 29 percent of the cases studied, their employment status.

To register for Prime Time Family Reading at the Hopkins county-Madisonville Public Library call (270) 825-2680 or email marketing@publiclibrary.org.