The Kentucky Humanities Council, in cooperation with the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, will bring an award-winning family literacy program to Albany August 23rd.

Prime Time Family Reading Time will meet at 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays from August 23 to September 27, at the Clinton County

Public Library, 302 King Drive. The program is free and includes meals, door prizes, and educational childcare for younger siblings.

Prime Time Family Reading Time 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 six to 10 and their parents explore timeless issues of humanity – fairness, greed, courage, coping and determination – while helping them understand the dynamics of making life choices. A “library commercial” in each session will help families become active public library users, and a family door prize will be given away each week.

The storyteller is Ashley Duvall, and Donna Eastham is the Prime Time scholar.

Kentucky Humanities Council Executive Director Ben Chandler says Prime Time extends the Kentucky Humanities Council’s literacy efforts.

“Since the Kentucky Humanities Council began sponsoring Prime Time Family Reading Time in 2004, Kentucky libraries have hosted 169 Prime Time programs in 74 Kentucky counties,” Chandler said. “Prime Time allows families throughout the Commonwealth to bond while discovering the joy of reading and discussing important topics including fairness, honesty, courage, hopes, and dreams.”

Prime Time Family Reading Time 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.

The Kentucky Humanities Council is a non-profit Kentucky corporation affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

For information about the Kentucky Humanities Council’s programs and services, visit kyhumanities.org. To register for Prime Time Family Reading Time at the Clinton County Public Library call (606) 387-5989, email duvall.ccpl@gmail.com, or stop by the library’s circulation desk at 302 King Drive in Albany.