Staff photo / Brandon Cantwell Andrew Sturgeon, 1, of Howland, left, visits with a therapy bunny dressed as Angelina Ballerina at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library’s Family Book Day Saturday. The bunnies, provided by Frisky Ferrets, Fuzzies and Feathered Friends Rescue and Sanctuary, regularly appear at the library for “Read to SomeBunny” and “Hop Into Literacy.”

WARREN — The gloom and potential for rain from an overcast day did little to stop families from bringing their children to the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library for Family Book Day.

More than 500 children and teenagers from across the county were at the library Saturday as they put together crafts, pet bunnies dressed as book characters and took home a free book.

They also had the chance to witness a show by an award-winning magician and storyteller, Yasu Ishida, who emigrated from Japan 21 years ago and performed in the library’s Harding room.

He said growing up in Japan and being awestruck by films such as “Back to the Future” and “Indiana Jones” filled his dreams with “great things” about the US.

“I want to build a bridge between America and the culture and the people,” Ishida, an adjunct professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, said.

“Like anime or manga is doing here, I wanted to give a good image of Japan, from a different aspect; I think in the future, in the long run, we won’t fight each other and that’s connected to world peace.”

Community Engagement Manager Lori Faust said that having Ishida was a “good fit” with this year’s theme, “Fluffy Tails & Magic Trails,” because he incorporates folktales into his performance.

“Most of our activities here at the tables, there’s something for toddlers, preschoolers, younger and older elementary, gaming for the teens,” Faust said. “A lot of them were planned around that fairy tale / folk tale theme.”

Faust said the impact of Saturday’s event in getting the youth involved in reading was”two-fold”, noting they were focusing on promoting the joy of reading.

“With school and the testing and reading levels, all those different elements that go into education, sometimes we lose the love of just getting lost in a good book,” Faust said. “Here at the public library, we really try and emphasize kids reading what they want to read; they love graphic novels, and we emphasize to parents that graphic novels, there’s pictures — but they’re reading.”

Faust said it also helps for parents to model reading themselves — especially reading for pleasure.

“If a child sees their mom or dad, or another grownup reading, they know that has value,” Faust said. “We hope that’s what parents are showing kids, bringing them here (shows) that this is something they think has value.”

At the front of the library was their new outreach vehicle for display, which they were able to purchase through the Library Accelerate Learning Grant through the Ohio Department of Education.

Faust said that as part of the grant, they did several different strategies in local schools, such as a “depository collection.”

“They do not have robust school libraries themselves, so we bring books and leave them, the kids can use the public library books,” she said. “We’ve been going into all of the schools and signing kids up for library cards — we’ve done thousands of library cards for the past couple years and we’ve been going to some schools and doing read-aloud programs.”

Faust said they have a large bookmobile that has been around for a very long time, and it still does its regular community routes to outlying areas with no libraries.

With this outreach vehicle, they plan to bring it to parades, events and festivals, as well as school literacy nights as a pop-up vehicle all over Trumbull County.

“We’re very excited to finally get it. It took two years for it to be completed,” Faust said.