By Glenn Rolfe

MILLSBORO — Young bookworms are welcomed with open arms at the Christian Storehouse.

Studies have shown that reading to young children or children reading on their own improves cognitive skills and vocabulary, as well as speeds up cognitive development.

To that end, the Christian Storehouse, on Mitchell Street in Millsboro, offers a vast selection of books — and some at no cost.

“I have boxes and boxes of books … and more coming in every single day,” said volunteer Lou Ann Rieley, who oversees books and media at the storehouse.

Cataloged by age and genre for children, books are donated from the community. They are offered at discount prices, and there are occasional specials on top of the low cost.

For eager readers and parents of young prereaders, books are free — with one condition.

“Any time during the week, a child can come in and pick a free book of their age level,” said Ms. Rieley. “If they are prereaders, somebody can read to them. Then, on Fridays, they come in, and they have to tell me about the story.”

The reward for reading is a coupon good for a treat at the Millsboro Dairy Queen.

“Dairy Queen has partnered with us and given us coupons for free ice-cream treats for the kids that read a book,” she added. “Dairy Queen has been very gracious to us and given us lots of coupons this summer.”

At present, the most popular ages for the program are 5-10, said Ms. Rieley, who has been volunteering at the Christian Storehouse about three years. This past April, she took over books/media when her predecessor left for a medical procedure.

With summer’s arrival, she launched the program, “Keep Your Child Engaged in Learning Fridays.” It includes books Ms. Rieley is featuring, plus teaching materials, arts-and-crafts supplies, activity books for kids and educational workbooks.

“That has been very popular,” she said.

Wayne Miller is chairman of the board of directors for the Christian Storehouse, typically busy with its food pantry, community health activities and thrift store.

“I fully approve of Lou Ann Rieley’s children’s outreach program here at the storehouse. It is all about helping the neighborhood,” Mr. Miller said. “She is a big plus in that. So we approve of that and hope this summertime program is a roaring success.”

Inventory includes favorites such as the Junie B. Jones series for beginning readers, “Harry Potter” tomes for the more advanced and the Usborne series. Books are high-quality and have proven quite popular for birthdays, holidays and baby showers. There are durable baby and toddler books, as well.

“Sometimes, we have half-price sales. People will come in and just pile up their carts,” Ms. Rieley said. “One-stop shop; people love that.”

In addition, there is also a new vintage- and antique-book section in the back of the store.
News on books, offerings and programs are posted on the Christian Storehouse’s Facebook page and shared elsewhere online, Ms. Rieley said.

Additionally, on Friday, some materials left the storehouse for a destination far beyond Millsboro.

“I was literally in tears because somebody came in — I guess they knew we do this — and got boxes of educational material to ship to Africa for the schools,” she said. “I was totally in tears. I was like, ‘Gee, that is so cool, that these materials are reaching across the world.’”

Mr. Miller added, “That’s a little bit farther than the 19966 (Millsboro ZIP code).”

Speaking about her fondness for sharing books, Ms. Rieley said, “One of my passions is to get these books in the hands of people that will love them again. We get a lot of things that I can see that people have collected over the years, that they have loved, and I would love to be able to connect the people that would love those books again.

“I am quite a bibliophile myself — a book lover.”