SAN FRANCISCO--The "Reading Wizard", an 11 - year - old - boy, whose offer to read to children without being paid at a local library was refused by libraries, will get to read to younger kids after all. Mayor Willie Brown last Wednesday ordered San Francisco Public Library officials to allow John O'Connor to read to preschool children to get them interested in books and stop them from watching television and video games. "I didn't expect this kind of attention. " John said, "It's just shocking." John has chosen his first book, "The King's Giraffe", and made up fliers inviting neighborhood children, aged from three to six, to the Presidio Branch every Wednesday afternoon. He planned to call himself the "Reading Wizard" and wear a special hat, fake glasses and a black coat. But his idea was refused - on the phone, in person and finally with a letter from Toni Bernardi, the chief of the library's children and youth services. Using terms like "age appropriate material" ,she wrote that only library workers are allowed to read to children. John then went to a member of the city board of supervisors , who advised him to write letters to the library officials. "Our libraries are supposed to turn kids on, not to turn them off." Brown said he enjoyed "the creative idea, the sense of civic duty and the caring for others that John clearly showed us." By dressing up as a wizard, the boy probably hoped to_.
put up a performance frighten the three - year - old boys get the officials shocked attract the children's attention