Four-year-old Aaizah Lakhani of New Hyde Park has always been an active reader.
Once, her mother Jasmine said, her aunt was reading a book with her and skipped a couple pages.
Aaizah noticed, but let the babysitter finish the book before she said, “You know what? You missed some pages, so you have to read it again.”
“You have to be very honest with her,” Jasmine said.
But the past year has been especially active for Aaizah.
Earlier this month, she became the first to complete Shelter Rock Public Library’s “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” program since it was established last year.
It wasn’t a chore for Aaizah and her parents, Jasmine and Sadruddin, who have read with her throughout her childhood.
They just ramped up their daily reading from two books to three. Aaizah also learned to read on her own over the last year, and usually picks up a book after breakfast in the morning and on car rides.
But to her parents, the task was about more than a number.
Reading has given Aaizah problem-solving skills and a vocabulary larger than her fellow kindergartners at the Denton Avenue School, Jasmine said.
“It is not because we have to read 1,000 books, but that’s our thing — we want to put something in her life that stays for her life,” Sadruddin said.
The program similarly aims to promote early literacy, said Susan Nolan, head of Children’s Services for the library.
Parents keep a running tally of the books they or other caretakers read with their children before they start kindergarten. One book a day for three years, Nolan said, easily gets families to the 1,000-book mark.
The Shelter Rock library aims the program, run nationally by the Nevada-based 1,000 Books Foundation, at busy parents who are better able to read with their kids at home than fit a trip to the library into their schedules, Nolan said.
Early reading has had many benefits for the Lakhani family.
Jasmine and Sadruddin also read with their older daughter, 13-year-old Shazmin, when she was very young.
Since starting school, she has understood new concepts quicker than her classmates, and is now in math and science honors programs.
Reading has helped Aaizah as a young student — she reads several books above the kindergarten level, and is in her school’s Spanish immersion program.
It’s also helped her become more comfortable in new situations. Aaizah was nervous when she started pre-school, and after a week she didn’t want to go.
But reading Anna Dewdney’s “Llama Llama” book series with Jasmine helped put her at ease, Jasmine said.
“When you read with kids, you can read one thing, but it makes them express themselves, and you can achieve a lot and you can have quality time with them,” she said.
When asked to choose her favorite book of the 1,000-plus she’s read, Aaizah picked up “Marley: The Dog Who Ate My Homework,” by John Crogan and Richard Cowdrey.
Sadruddin and Jasmine still read with her every night before bed.
“All parents should give time to their child for reading,” Saddruddin said. “It helps in their life. We have to invest our time to make wonders in their life.”
