MEXICO — More than 30 children and their parents gathered in the Calvin P. Lyons room Tuesday morning to watch retired librarian Brenda Sassi and Holy Savior School teacher Michelle Boucher-Ladd read about wild creatures.

The presentation, which was a part of the Mexico Public Library’s Terrific Tuesday! program, was focused on two topics: extinction and antlers. Sassi talked about the concept of extinction, and why it was important to learn about.

“Extinction is when there aren’t any animals left in a certain species,” he said. “It’s something that we all should definitely be worried about. Especially you guys, because it’s your generation that is going to solve the problem.”

Sassi asked the children if they could think of an example of an extinct species.

One child raised his hand and yelled, “Dinosaurs!”

Sassi laughed and said, “Yes, dinosaurs is a great example. Have any of you seen dinosaurs lately?”

Later, Sassi read from a children’s book titled “The Watcher,” which follows British anthropologist Jane Goodall and her attempts to protect and study chimpanzees.

Following Sassi’s presentation, Boucher-Ladd talked with the children about moose and deer, and the difference between their antlers and the horns on other animals.

“Does anybody know the difference between antlers and horns?” Boucher-Ladd asked.

When noboyd responded, she said, “The difference between antlers and horns is that an animal’s antlers will fall off in the winter, and grow back again in the spring.”

Boucher-Ladd then read the children’s book “Imogene’s Antlers” to the audience.

“I’ve always liked this book, because it’s about a girl who wakes up one morning to discover she’s grown antlers,” Boucher-Ladd said. “To me, that’s really cool, because female deer don’t get to grow antlers. Male deer are the only ones who can, so for a girl to be growing antlers is pretty neat.”

The children crafted their own antlers out of cardboard paper.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com

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