Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Read Across America Week concluded Friday when the Andalusia Public Library received a donation of three books in the Tiny Timber Crew from Scott and Patricia Vick Moody.

The Tiny Timber Crew is a growing children’s book series written to educate K-2 students about the sustainable forest industry. Each character explores a different sector of the forest industry supply chain and meets the people who keep the industry running every day.

“Patricia Vick Moody reached out to me after our annual meeting and was really interested in the Tiny Timber Crew. Right now, we have an initiative to get the Tiny Timber Crew into public and private schools across south Alabama. She approached me about putting the books in the Andalusia Public Library. It started to snowball as other counties outside of Covington County also wanted to do it, but it began right here,” ForestryWorks Workforce Development Coordinator Kara Foreman said.

Foreman added that the forestry field is huge in the state of Alabama.

“Regardless if you go into the forestry industry or not, it touches your life every day. We really want people to be aware of how much they use products that come from the forest, whether it’s intrinsically or extrinsically,” she said.

The Tiny Timber Crew is currently comprised of “Lucy Meets a Logger,” “Travis Visits a Tree Farm,” and “Sam Visits a Sawmill” with a fourth book entitled “Peter Visits a Paper Mill” to be released later this year. Stephanie Fuller of ForestryWorks is the author of each book.

Moody read “Travis Visits a Tree Farm” to the children in attendance.

“We love this library, and our family has a long history here. The Tiny Timber Crew is an educational series that is really well done. I asked Kara if the Andalusia Public Library had these, and she told me she didn’t think they did. It is such an incredible library here in Andalusia, and they have gone all out with the fun games and décor,” Moody said.

Trees have been in Moody’s family for several generations.

“It combines some of my favorite things: kids’ books and trees and is really a lot of fun. I loved to read to my children when they were little. I ran into someone whose daughter is one of my high school classmates’ granddaughter. It is fun to make the connections and meet some new ones,” Moody said.

APL Children’s Librarian Caryl Lee Ray was first contacted in November about bringing the Tiny Timber Crew series to the library.

“We were very excited about it. When Kara and I touched base in January, we found out we would be able to not only have the books, but we could also do a whole program and presentation with Patricia Vick reading to the children. They were able to do all kinds of wonderful experiments, activities, and fun things for these kids,” Ray said.

Ray estimated approximately 75 to 100 children in attendance for Friday’s Story Time along with appearances by John Vick, John Thompson, and Michele Gerlach.

“It means a lot to have the Dixons come in and be a part of this because they are the ones who funded the decorations in this library. The mural we have on the walls is an actual representation of their land. The trees we have are actual trees from their property. To be able to have them come in and see we are preserving the legacy they have given us is a very powerful thing. To hear Mrs. Patricia read stories in dedication of her grandmother is also a powerful thing for us. Everything about this is phenomenal and fantastic; I couldn’t have done this without the Dixons backing me, ” she said.

“Lucy Meets a Logger,” “Travis Visits a Tree Farm,” and “Sam Visits a Sawmill” will be added to the catalog at the library.

“It means a lot for our library to receive these three books of the Tiny Timber Crew series. People will be able to check them in and out, which is a good thing,” Ray said.

ForestryWorks is located at 555 Alabama Street in Montgomery. For more information email info@forestryworks.com or call 334-481-2150.