By Ellie Brogan
Over a dozen children with their parents and guardians gathered to see Obie, a white five-year-old Samoyed, as librarian Pam McCuen read aloud at the Wayland Free Public Library on June 17.
Sullivan shared some fun facts about Obie and Samoyeds. For example, Obie, a former show dog, twice won the Select Dog award (akin to a silver medal) at the prestigious Westminster Dog Show.
McCuen then led the group in a short song before reading Hot Dog by Doug Salati, a picture book about a city dog adventuring to the ocean. McCuen’s enthusiastic reading taught life lessons and color symbolism while connecting the story to Obie at times.
After the story ended, kids took photos with Obie and brushed his fur as the dog sat quietly. His coat had the classic Samoyed appearance of a living ball of fluff.
Sullivan and Obie have been participating in Wayland Free Public Library events for five years. Before that, she came with her other dog Corbyn for years before the pandemic until he passed away. Another dog named Tucker preceded Corbyn in the kids-and-dog event.
Originally, the dog event “was about shy kids reading to Corbyn but that got hectic, because there were a lot of kids who wanted to do it, so we switched to story time,” said Sullivan.
McCuen made a few book recommendations: We Are Definitely Human by X Fang and The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin, for rising first-graders and younger and rising fifth-graders and older, respectively.
The Wayland Free Public Library’s summer reading club for kids provides prizes for how many minutes kids read, such as stickers for every 15 minutes and a button for every five hours. More events can be found on the Wayland Free Public Library website or in their weekly email newsletter.
