Osborn Two-Way Immersion Academy celebrated Read Across America Week on Wednesday with a ribbon cutting ceremony for its brand new library.

The larger library was built as part of the $8.4 million modernization of Osborn paid for with Measures N and O, bond measures approved by voters in 2016.

“This week is actually Read Across America Week, and so we incorporated a lot of different literacy activities for the night, for parents to enjoy as well,” said Osborn Principal Dr. Erika Ramos. “This new library was just built as of January of this year, so students have been in it for awhile, but parents haven’t had a chance to explore and look around. This provided the perfect opportunity to do so, and that’s awesome.”

Liz Lopez has been the Osborn librarian for 12 years. She said the best part of the new library is all the extra space, which also means more books for the kids to enjoy.

During the event on Wednesday, students were invited to guess how many books total were in the library and then put their guesses in a tumbler for a drawing.

Arianna Perez, a 2nd grader at Osborn, Lincoln Hunter, a 1st grader at Osborn and his brother, Jesse Hunter a former Osborn student who is now in middle school, were three of the students who put their guesses in for the drawing. All three were very excited about the new library.

When asked about their favorite books, Dr. Seuss was popular as Arianna said “Cat in the Hat” and Lincoln chose “Green Eggs and Ham.” Jesse said that “Dogman” was his favorite book when he was in elementary school.

The literary event wasn’t just an opportunity for students to look over the expanded book collection, but also allowed adults to reminisce about their favorite childhood books.

Principal Ramos said that her favorite book as a student was “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” a collection of poems by Shel Silverstein.

“I think just the vast amount of poems that were there was so fun to read because that was one of the books that you really couldn’t put down for too long. You would have to pick it back up and read it again and find something new,” she said.

TUSD’s Director of Communications, Family Engagement and Outreach Marie Russell was also at the library grand opening and shared her favorite book as a young person.

“My favorite books when I was a kid were the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and, true story, at home in my bedroom I still have the set of the books.”