By Ed Karvoski Jr., Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Shamika Kanitkar, a third-grader at Floral Street Elementary School, got what she wanted for her 9th birthday: books donated to the Shrewsbury Public Library. The celebration started on her birthday, Jan. 20, and continued through school winter break when all of the 34 books were delivered.
Her favorite genre is biographies, which she found was scarce in the Children’s Room. As a birthday gift, her parents made a donation to the library for purchases, many of which are from the “Who Was ?” series of biographies published for children by Penguin Books. Among the famous figures featured are Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller and Marco Polo.
Shamika wants to share her passion for reading with other young library patrons.
“Lots of children will read these books and hopefully will also want to give donations to the library,” she said.
Also purchased were books about various crafts. Shamika and her mother Seema are looking forward to taking a knitting class for adults and kids, which will be offered in the spring by Children’s Librarian Sharon Martin.