ANSONIA – From “Goodnight Moon” to “Dune,” readers of all ages can find what they’re looking for with the Salvation Army this week.

From Monday through Friday (Aug. 17 – Aug. 21), the Salvation Army is hosting its second series of “Summer of Stories and Snacks” events across Ansonia. The events feature Salvation Army members manning book racks and tables stocked with lunch bags.

“Any person can come. You don’t need an ID, you don’t need anything. It’s one book per person, and then you’ll get either an orange juice or an apple juice and a sandwich,” said Ansonia Salvation Army Lt. Joshua Fenton, who on Monday was helping set up the group’s giveaway table outside its office on Lester Street.

You can find the Salvation Army at the following locations this week, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.:

  • Nolan Field on Tuesday (Aug. 18)
  • Ansonia Armory (5 State St.) on Wednesday (Aug. 19)
  • Ansonia Nature Center (10 Deerfield Road) on Thursday (Aug. 20)
  • Veterans’ Memorial Park outside City Hall (253 Main St.) on Friday (Aug. 21)

Stacked with books ranging in age from toddlers to high school – including novels based on the video games “Fortnite” and “Roblox,” as well as classics like Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” – the racks are set up to get kids of all ages interested in reading, according to Fenton.

“It’s all really in the hope to get kids reading again,” he said.

Captain Tatyana Fenton, who has led the local chapter of the Salvation Army since last summer, said the program was a big success when they ran it at Nolan Field for a week last year. This year, though, she said she’s seeking to expand the program by making it so people from all parts of town can attend.

“We know there’s some people who can’t make it all the way over there, so we wanted to be able to be more local to the different wards,” she said.

The program is similar to other ones being run throughout the state, including in Bridgeport, Waterbury, Norwalk and New Haven. The program is geared to help boost literacy rates among kids, according to the Salvation Army’s website.

Joshua Fenton said that goal is especially important in a time where AI is being used more and more in everyday life – a recent study by the Brookings Institution Center for Universal Education found that over-reliance on AI tools can damage kids’ learning capacity. Reading good, old-fashioned books can help counteract that, Fenton said.

“Especially with AI, people are not being as imaginative as they could be, and I think stories are a great way to spark that imagination,” he said.

The Fentons, who are married, helped pick out the books together. Tatyana, who has a background in elementary education, helped pick out books for that age range, while Joshua helped fill out the upper ranges.

“We have a lot of children’s books, but some of their siblings said, ‘Oh, well I’ll give my book to my younger siblings, because there wasn’t anything for me.’ So now this year, we tried to get more books for middle schoolers and also high schoolers,” Joshua said.

Tatyana Fenton said the program is one of many the Salvation Army is running as it caps off a busy summer. Also on its calendar are church events including “Brew & Belong” gatherings from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. each Sunday in August, and a Vacation Bible School in the evenings from Aug. 24 to 28.

You can find the Ansonia chapter of the Salvation Army on Facebook.