Storytelling and Song at Sibilly Elementary School, St. Thomas 2016

The Joseph Sibilly Elementary School on St. Thomas hosted one of several 2016 Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge presentations in the Virgin Islands. Assembled outdoors, the students received a bag containing two books. Ms. Kalamis Maduro, Elementary Programs Coordinator, jumped-started the program presenting the books, asking selected students to read to the eager audience, and introducing speakers Sam Topp, deputy director of communications in the Office of the Governor, Mario Picayo, publisher and author, and Lois Hassell-Habtes, former principal of the Sibilly school and co-author with the late Ector Roebuck of Broo ‘Nansi and the Tar Baby. Ms. Hassell-Habtes in the good tradition of the story teller, began her reading with guitar playing, inviting the children to join her.