National English Honor Society, in association with the library, has continued a program where members of NEHS read picture books to the Little Raptors once a month. The books correlate with the theme of the month to show diverse characters and ideas. NEHS members are going to find the books for the rest of the year and then donate them to the Little Raptors after they are read. For October, they read books featuring Hispanic characters and culture. The books included Green is a Chile Pepper: A book of Colors, Papa and Me, and Dreamers.

Hunter Brown was one of the people participating in the reading last time, “I do think that reading cultural books has a large impact on them because they do actually take what they learn and it reflects how they treat others.” By reading books of diversity, the children are exposed to multiple perspectives, views, and ways of life. Exposing people to cultures when they’re young creates the open-mindedness needed to form an accepting society. The members are very excited to continue this program. Ethan Peou stated, “My favorite part of the Little Raptors are their expressions and their faces when they see something they recognize and they always get super excited.”

This month’s theme is Native American culture, and NEHS members will be reading books on November 9th. The percentage of the Native American population of EHS is 0.8. Native American culture is very important to celebrate and recognize in order to expand our knowledge and diversity. NEHS hopes to do just that with this month and many months to come!