Wichita ? The Wichita Public Library has asked parents of thousands of children who took part in a summer reading program to discard one of the toys awarded to children who achieved reading goals.

Library director Cynthia Berner Harris said the toys in question were small bendable cats and dogs that may have excessive levels of lead in their paint. She asked parents of children who have the prize packages to discard the toys in question or return them to the library.

A Wisconsin company last month recalled 340,000 bendable cat and dog toys awarded to children in reading programs in other parts of the country.

Although the Wichita library didn’t get its toys from that company, the ones it had were similar.