She is already making her mark in creative circles. 

Meet Mouslymatou (“Mously”) Mbathie.

The eight-year-old Seaside student’s artwork forms the centerpiece of the Northwest Regional Education Service District’s Early Learning Hub’s “How to raise a reader” program.

The brochures are being distributed around Clatsop County and have the theme “Imagination brings characters to life.”

They are illustrated with her work. “I drew me with all my favorite book characters,” she explained. “They make me feel like they are always with me.”

Mously won a countywide art contest. Her submission features her standing among all of her favorite book characters. There’s a bespectacled elephant named Gerald, Raggedy Ann with her bright red hair, Barbie in a pink dress and a vested alligator named Brash.

The contest was part of a wider campaign developed by the Early Learning Hub to promote early literacy. Students were invited to share what they love about reading and what it means to them.

Using the artwork from the contest winners, the hub team developed a toolkit to help parents and child care providers promote early reading skills.

Educators say brain science indicates that children develop literacy skills from the moment they arrive. That’s why they say children should be nurtured in the home and in child care settings. That means families and child care providers are the ones helping children develop those early skills that will set them up for success once they reach kindergarten.

“We thought it could be so much more powerful to talk about early literacy using children’s own voices,” says Abbey Lutskovsky, who oversees the Northwest Regional Early Learning Hub and rolled out the contest in the fall in partnership with school districts and child care providers. “Integrating their ideas and artwork into the toolkits really brought them to life,” she says.

Lutskovsky and colleagues then teamed up with Oregon’s Department of Human Services to add Little Free Libraries to self-sufficiency offices in Seaside, Astoria, St. Helens and Tillamook. The reading tips and artwork are featured at each little library.

All children under five in Clatsop County can receive free books delivered to their doorstep monthly by signing up at imaginationlibrary.com

They can also sign up for a free library card at Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside public libraries.

Meanwhile, Mously plans to take time off from her moment in the spotlight for another educational duty: she plans to teach her sister Yacine to roller skate.

How to benefit

The full literacy toolkit is available online at nwresd.org/raise-a-reader.