Story hour is returning to the Pearl River County Library System for the fall.

The Poplarville Public Library will have story time Thursdays from 10 to 11 a.m. from Oct. 3 to Nov. 7. The Margaret Reed Crosby Memorial Library will have story hour for 3 to 6-year-olds on Fridays from 10 to 11 a.m. from Oct. 3 to Nov. 7. The Baby and Me program will run Oct. 1 to Nov. 19 on Tuesdays from 10:30 to 11 a.m. at the Margaret Reed Crosby Memorial Library.

“It’s important to introduce kids to reading and books at an early age,” said children’s librarian Megan Miller. “It’s harder to get kids to like to read if they’re not introduced to reading young, and it also gives them a chance to get out of the house and socialize with other kids their own age.”

The programs include listening to stories, singing songs and engaging in finger plays like the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Miller said. Hand-eye coordination is a skill kids need to learn before they can read, Miller said, and finger plays build that skill.

“You don’t think about your hand-eye coordination when you’re learning to read, but it takes hand-eye coordination to be able to follow along with the words on the page,” Miller said.

Story time and story hour expose kids to different kinds of books and different stories, Miller said.

The Margaret Reed Crosby Memorial Library is also introducing monthly family nights to add more library programming outside of school hours.

The first family night will be a Fall Festival on Oct. 29, and will include a costume contest. All kid’s programs at the library are free and open to the public, Miller said.