The presence of child-friendly libraries provides options for students to read the storybooks they like, with attractive pictures and colors.

On Wednesday (6/14) and Friday (6/16), the Rainbow Reading Garden Team met with four students from two different schools, namely SDI Towak and SDI Nebe, both of which are school partners of Taman Bacaan Pelangi in the Nagekeo Regency, East Nusa Tenggara.

These four students talked about the library building that existed before collaborating with Taman Bacaan Pelangi. They all simultaneously shared that they loved coming to the library to read or borrow books. The available books cover various subjects, and some of them are storybooks. They use the textbooks when needed in class. Meanwhile, the storybooks are the ones they often borrow and take home, but unfortunately, there aren’t many interesting options for storybooks for children.

“We borrow textbooks to take to class, but when it comes to storybooks, we usually borrow them to take home,” said Marlen, a fifth-grade student at SDI Towak (6/16).

“I most often borrow Kunang-Kunang magazines because the stories are exciting,” said Joseva, a fifth-grade student at SDI Nebe (6/14).

The textbooks used in class are then displayed in the library, which makes students bored. Therefore, it is natural that the books they borrow are the ones they enjoy, which are storybooks. Limited availability of storybooks makes students have few options regarding what they like, as only the Kunang-Kunang magazine fulfills their wishes, so it is not wrong if students continue to borrow that magazine. If this continues, they will become lazy to read because they already know and even memorize its content.

Looking at the child-friendly library in SDI Towak and SDI Nebe now, with many quality storybooks, a variety of them, and good visual images, it makes children always curious about what to read today.

The school principal, teachers, and librarians at SDI Towak and SDI Nebe continue to encourage students to come to the library to read or borrow books to take home.

“The storybooks are cool, the cover images are nice, and I like the many colors,” said Anaya, a third-grade student at SDI Towak.

While previously, students had limited options for borrowing the same books, now students are free to choose storybooks they find interesting, from their cover images, the stories, or the colors.