Little Bookworms Story Time – Boston Adoption Center

ATTENTION: All Humane Education Events and Programs have been cancelled through the end of 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

The “Little Bookworms” story time provides an age appropriate activity that fosters a sense of responsibility and compassion in our youngest visitors, from those learning to walk to those in preschool. We invite our community’s youngest animal lovers to join us with their adult counterparts for weekly story time. During the hour-long session, we read stories, sing songs and play games, all with an animal theme. We bring at least one adoptable animal into the room to visit and are happy to answer questions about caring for each type of animal.

• Takes place every Tuesday from 10-11am in the Education Room at the MSPCA Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center.
• Advanced registration is not required.
• There is a fee of $5 per child (cash only, please).  100% of proceeds goes to support the animals and the programs at the MSPCA Animal Adoption Center.
• Subscriptions are available for $60 for 13 sessions. 

Getting to Story Time

We host story time in the Education and Training Room at the MSPCA Boston Adoption Center at 350 S. Huntington Avenue in Jamaica Plain.  The Boston Animal Care and Adoption Center Education Room has its own entrance at the back of the MSPCA building. To get to the entrance drive past the first parking lot on your right when you enter the driveway. Follow the driveway until it ends and bear left. Continue past the first set of double doors to the Angell Animal Medical Center and past the second set of double doors which is the main adoption center entrance. Take a left at the end of the parking lot and you will see a set of gray stairs and railing leading up to the Education Room entrance.  We use this room for other activities in the mornings, so unfortunately we cannot open the doors sooner.

What We Read

The stories we read include fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.  Many have been awarded the Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award, which honors books that promote the humane ethic of compassion and respect for all living things.  If you have a great book in mind for the “Little Bookworms” story time, please share it with us!

Bringing a Group

If you are interested in arranging an alternative story time session to accommodate a large group, such as a preschool or kindergarten class, please register by emailing bostonhumaneed@mspca.org.  Please include a phone number where you can be reached.

A Volunteer’s Experience

One of our Little Bookworms volunteers has a blog where she recently wrote about her first experience at Little Bookworms. It provides a nice insight into the program. “As the room filled up with toddlers, infants, and adults, the birds suddenly relaxed and moved to the bars, the swing, the seed cups, whistling and calling out – to each other and to us. Suddenly we weren’t people staring here and birds frozen in fear there, but two communities appreciating one another, talking and connecting in ways you could barely see but could feel. The room got noisier and noisier and the leader clapped her hands so the people knew to settle in for a story. And the five green birds, they grew quiet, too, and stayed that way until the story’s end. Being with animals often reminds me of my perch in the grand schematic, which is good for the ego and lifts the spirit, kind of like wings.” -Eliza Blanchard, MSPCA Volunteer

Please email any questions about the program to bostonhumaneed@mspca.org.