A REAL PAGE-TURNER. Reading to your children can make them smarter – and more adorable.

Doing anything 1,000 times sounds like an achievement. It also sounds like a daunting task, until you break it down into smaller increments. That’s the rationale behind the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten movement, an early literacy initiative that’s been adopted by libraries around the nation, including the Menomonie and Altoona public libraries.

“One-thousand sounds big, but it’s also attainable,” explains Jodi Bird, youth services department manager at Menomonie Public Library. Reading one book a night to your youngster will get you there in less than three years. Three books a night will get you there in under one year, and reading six books a day – which is easier than it sounds, considering books for young kids are generally quite short – will put you and your child across the finish line in less than six months. (Any faster than that means either your kid is particularly patient or you have an unusual obsession with the collected works of Dr. Seuss.)

While there’s no particular magic to the number 1,000, the goal of the program – getting preschoolers and their parents, grandparents, and caregivers engaged in reading frequently – is backed up by research. “The more you talk to your infant or toddler the more they’re beginning to understand the meaning of reading and language,” Bird says. Studies of children have found that the more they are read to, the bigger their vocabularies are, the more prepared they are to read on their own, and the better their vocabulary, spelling, fluency, and reading comprehension skills are down the road.

The Menomonie and Altoona programs take pages (pun intended) from the growing number of libraries undertaking similar initiatives. “This is something a lot of libraries around the country are doing as an easy way to get their children ready for school,” Bird says.

So where do you get 1,000 books, short of maxing out your credit card at Amazon.com? Why the library, of course! But the initiative isn’t a fiendish plot to boost library circulation figures: Bird explains that you don’t need to read 1,000 different books to your child; reading the same book 100 times to a child is still helpful (although – and I speak from experience as the father of a toddler – it better be a book that doesn’t drive Mom or Dad batty).

Itching to get reading? Menomonie-area parents can go to the library, 600 Wolske Bay Road, and pick up starter packets that include forms for tracking the first 100 books read. Returning the forms entitles the tot to a prize, the opportunity to add a paper “gumball” to a gumball machine display in the library, as well as sheets to record the next 100 books. The Altoona program works much the same way: Parents can stop at the library, 1303 Lynn Ave., to pick up record sheets. For every 100 books, the child gets two stickers: one to add to a train at the library and an identical one to add to train picture at home; the child gets a free book after reaching 500 and 1,000 books.

Of course, you don’t have to live in Menomonie or Altoona to read 1,000 books to your child: All you need is a library card, a kid, and some determination. Your little one may not get any prizes, but he or she will be better prepared for life when you finally close the book on this ambitious goal.

To learn more about the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program, visit the Menomonie Public Library (www.menomonielibrary.org) or the Altoona Public Library (www.altoonapubliclibrary.org).