We're Going Bananas for Reading

‘If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone’ Will Be the Featured Story at Family Reading Night

When children’s picture book author Gideon Sterer was growing up, the line between the wild and the everyday barely existed. Just beyond his bedroom window in upstate New York stretched hundreds of acres of woods. But he didn’t have to go far from home to spend time with crocodiles, pythons, prairie dogs, spiders, tortoises, chameleons, iguanas . . .

Sterer’s parents operated a wildlife center, a winding indoor warehouse-type facility filled with carefully built habitats where school groups often came for field trips. It wasn’t a typical childhood, but for Sterer, now 37, it was a formative one.

“It’s always been fascinating to me what the line looks like between human civilization and the natural world,” he said. “In my books, there’s a lot of exploring those boundaries and what happens when you cross them.”

That curiosity is at the heart of Sterer’s newest book, “If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone,” which will be the featured story at the 2026 Family Reading Night, set for Friday, March 6, at Washington Middle School. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.

“Initially, I just had this idea of animals calling each other and complaining about stuff, like a game of telephone,” Sterer says. “And then I remembered banana phones and wondered what would happen if you introduced a child?”

The most obvious jungle candidate for a banana call? A gorilla.

From there, the story blossoms into something more than a silly escapade. The relationship grows. The adventure expands. The jungle illustrations by Emily Hughes amplify the narrative in that way only great picture books can. What starts as whimsy deepens into something thoughtful — a gentle exploration of friendship, connection and curiosity.

Sterer dedicated “Banana Phone” to his mom, who instilled a love of reading in him by making books and stories central to his childhood.

“We went to the library a lot also, just if we had a free day,” he recalled. “We would go to the local library, and I would go read what I wanted to read; she would read what she wanted to read, but then we would take a bunch of books home, and she would read them to me.”

“She was very playful. She really pushed books and literacy.”

In fact, when Sterer was young, he and his mom co-authored a book together during a local one-day workshop. Their story involved spaceships, ninjas and a lot of fighting — the sort of gleeful chaos that makes perfect sense to a young imagination.

It was a few years later before Sterer would write his next book. “Skyfishing (A Grand Tale With Grandpa),” about a girl and her grandfather who find a creative way to fish in the city after he moves in with her family, was released in 2017.

To date, Sterer has published a dozen books, including 2023’s “I Will Read to You,” which was an October 2023 Book Buddy Pick. It tells the story of a boy who loves scary bedtime stories about monsters like skeletons, witches, ghosts, vampires and goblins, but wonders — do monsters have anyone to read to them?

Despite his growing catalog (more than 20 new titles are forthcoming), Sterer admits he’s not a road-warrior author. He rarely travels for events, but this year’s Family Reading Night was too special to pass up. Sterer is excited to share his message with young readers:

“Read more books and be curious. Write and make stuff up. Be exposed to new ideas,” he said. “Develop a relationship with reading. Know that your curiosity can be satisfied with a book.”

In “If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone,” a boy crosses the line between the ordinary and the extraordinary with nothing more than a piece of fruit and a little curiosity. For Sterer, that crossing has always been the point.

After all, sometimes the wildest adventures begin simply — with a book, a bedtime story, and maybe a banana.

Family Reading Night Details

Family Reading Night is presented by the Community Literacy Foundation in partnership with the School District of Washington, the Washington Optimist Club, Washington Public Library and Friends of the Library, and Neighborhood Reads Bookstore.

Sterer’s “If You Make a Call on a Banana Phone” was a January 2026 Book Buddy Pick, and “I Will Read to You” was an October 2023 Book Buddy Pick. Both titles are available in local school and public libraries thanks to donors to the Community Literacy Foundation’s Book Buddy program. The books are also featured on Neighborhood Reads’ Bound to Read blog at neighborhoodreads.com.

As always, Family Reading Night will feature more than 40 reading sessions led by community leaders and high school students, including football players from Washington and Borgia High Schools, Borgia softball players, Washington High Theater and FFA students and the Washington Town & Country Fair Junior Fair Board. Community readers will include Julia Young, WINGS Educational Foundation Teacher of the Year, and Ruth McInnis, Washington Public Library children’s. Washington Parents As Teachers will have a Toddler Room for the youngest readers who attend.

Activity tables hosted by area school/parent groups and other organizations, including the Rivertown Arts Foundation, will offer art projects based on books. The evening will conclude with the Washington Police Department performing a Reader’s Theater.

 A highlight of Family Reading Night are dozens of book baskets given away to families. Organizations and individuals interested in donating book baskets may contact Penny Heisel at sheisel@msn.com or drop them at Neighborhood Reads or Washington Middle School Library. Additionally, through its Book Elf project, Neighborhood Reads has a selection of books set aside for customers to support the event and help build themed baskets to give away.

Families who read together the week before Family Reading Night have the opportunity to bring their completed Family Reading Logs for a chance to win gift certificates. Reading logs will be distributed soon in many schools and can be downloaded at NeighborhoodReads.com.

Family Reading Night is a free family event for all ages. This year’s event is being supported through additional donations from the Washington High School Football Team, Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of New Haven, East Central College and Bank of Franklin County. To see a photo gallery from last year’s event, visit CommunityLiteracyFoundation.org.