One Small Island

By Aliya Newkirk, member of the Board of Directors

So last night was the annual benefit to raise money for Behind the Book, Inc., held at the Jewish Museum located on prestigious Fifth Avenue–very NYC.  I have been an active member of the Board of Directors for this organization for the past three years.  What I love about this particular charity is that it is filled with action oriented people who don’t just pretend to believe in literacy but are actually willing to roll up their sleeves and work for the cause.

Throughout my tenure as a board member, I have watched Executive Director, Jo Umans, work tirelessly to provide innercity kids with unique and valuable experiences that foster a love of reading.  From countless published author visits, classroom intensives surrounding the semesters’ literature, partnerships with various teachers and principals, as well as generously providing the necessary supplies, I have seen firsthand the synergy of belief in a cause and ceaseless action.

 Last nights, keynote speaker was Charles Blow, the op-ed columnist for the New York Times.  To summarize his speech, he basically described how books and literacy were his saving graces and the means by which he escaped the ills of poverty.  He also explained that the costs of our failing school systems were born by everyone.  That one child left behind is, in fact, your child left behind.  What was profound about his speech is that it brought me to a place where I thought intensely about living in NYC, a place where extreme wealth and abject poverty live next door to each other.  I also thought about the manner in which books and getting lost in reading shed light on some of the bleaker moments of my own childhood.  In short, I was made uncomfortable, and for that I am grateful.  As I glance over at my overindulged NYC brood and their bounty and think about the fact that they had amassed a children’s library worth thousands before they even took their first breath of life, I became sick at the thought that there are countless poor children who live in homes that do not have one age appropriate book much less a parent who reads to them on a regular basis, or any basis. 

The take-away for the evening was that I and every responsible New Yorker must do more, give more, and be more to our forgotten NYC kids.  The ones we shake our heads at, the ones we ignore, the ones we pity, the ones we owe!  I will try to live my life in way that keeps in mind the fact that this island we inhabit is only nineteen miles long and we choose to “occupy” it.  So, why not encourage literacy and education instead of the delinquency that a lack of educational and economic resources fosters?  In short, it makes for much better neighbors.

If you would like to support this deserving organization visit our site at www.behindthebook.org and give generously.  It’s cheaper than anti-depressants.

Empowerment through Creation and Hard Work

By Susanna Pitzer, author of the award-winning book Not Afraid of Dogs

For years, I have worked with children and adults on writing, illustrating, acting, and producing their own shows. All of these creative endeavors have allowed me to see first hand how a person who shares their talents is a person that grows more confidant.

They start to speak up more, to share ideas, and to set higher goals for themselves.

Through Behind the Book, I’m able to work with children on writing and illustrating their own stories, thus building their sense of worth while at the same time improving their reading, writing, and thinking skills.

I work with the teacher and students for weeks on their projects. Work…that’s another important part of this process. These young people get a glimpse into what it takes to succeed. They begin to understand that most projects aren’t dashed off on paper and produced. They are worked on, changed, reviewed, discussed, and then worked on some more.

We discuss how most books are written over years, and that we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves if our story isn’t perfect the first day.

Personally, I was blessed with two great parents who supported creativity and believed in hard work. We all worked in the family business, my father’s veterinary practice. My father expected us to work hard, and he strived to make it fun. As we worked, we told stories, made up songs, and imagined what wonderful futures we would have.

I strive to bring these feelings to my students. That work and fun are not separate.

To me, the most important result of Behind the Book visits is the empowerment of young people. Through their hard work in writing, editing, and completing projects, students see that they can accomplish some pretty wonderful things. They improve their reading, writing, and thinking skills, feel better about themselves, and start to feel more self worth.

My hope for each of them is that they will start to speak up more, share their great ideas with others, and set higher goals for themselves.

Susanna Pitzer during a Behind the Book program with 1st graders at CS 21.

In Australia, Communities Come Together to ‘Paint the Town REaD’ For Early Literacy

By: Dr. Matt Finch

Matt works with a fifth grade student in Behind the Book's Comic Making Workshop

Auburn’s not the first place people think of when asked to imagine Australia. Its suburban streets are lined with African restaurants and Chinese bazaars; in this densely populated Sydney neighborhood, far from the surfers’ beaches and without a kangaroo in site, you’re as likely to be greeted with a Somali ‘See tahay’ as an Aussie ‘G’day’.

Early one morning in June of this year, I watched as educators, community health staff, booksellers, performers and local government officers all descended on this multicultural suburb in the name of a unique Australian literacy scheme, Paint the Town REaD.

Marquees, balloons and banners sprouted throughout the neighborhood announcing a Community Reading Day, and a local mascot, Auzzie, led songs, dances and stories for young children and their carers.

Pre-schoolers and their parents flocked to the event, joining storytelling sessions at venues that ranged from the local police station to cafés, shops and even supermarkets. Amid music, dance and storytelling from the various cultures of Auburn, a great procession of adults and kids moved through the neighborhood to celebrate reading.

At one coffee shop, the manager, Vincent, read to children from a series of picture books. He was a consummate performer, engaging with the kids, making them laugh, talking through the pictures with them. Each group that came to that coffee shop adored his enthusiastic, heartfelt delivery.

After the session I got talking to the 25-year-old café manager. Vincent came to Australia from Taiwan at the age of 15, with hardly any English. After settling in Sydney, he developed his language skills and started to work in the café. He noticed that every day, local moms would arrive for mid-morning coffee with their babies in strollers.

As people at neighboring tables chatted over coffee, friendships formed between the diverse communities of Auburn. When Paint the Town REaD came to the suburb, Vincent was keen to use this natural meeting-place as a vehicle for the literacy skills that had brought him success in his new home – spreading the message to ‘read, talk and sing with your child from birth to kindergarten’.

Over the last few years, I’ve encountered literacy organizations from around the world, all dealing with the same challenges: engaging communities, sustaining child language development, and helping parents find the skills and confidence to support their children’s literacy.

Whether it’s Behind the Book’s author workshops in NYC, the one-to-one mentors of England’s Volunteer Reading Help and South Africa’s Help2Read, or the hospital-based initiatives of Reach Out and Read in the USA, all over the planet people are striving to give our children the opportunity to be literate for life.

The unique response of Australia’s Paint the Town REaD scheme is to engage whole communities in the issue of early literacy. Although inspired by research into child development, it’s a down-to-earth, grassroots movement which has spread across the country over the past 16 years.

Through ongoing events as well as annual Reading Days like the one in Auburn, Paint the Town REaD thrives on community – spreading the word throughout a town or suburb, so that it’s café owners, police officers, pharmacists, shopkeepers and high school students who all get involved and bring the scheme to life for parents, children and the community at large.

I’ve attended events like the inspiring 24-hour readathon for LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day in Times Square before, but Paint the Town REaD goes beyond profile-raising. Vibrant one-off Paint the Town REaD events like Reading Day come with a year-round commitment to literacy in each town, until everyone from pre-school to the retirement home joins the commitment to ‘Read, talk, sing with your child from birth to kindergarten!’

High schoolers read with younger brothers and sisters, local businesspeople and public services donate their time to the cause of early literacy – and the whole community focuses on the goal of helping children become literate for life.

As organizations increasingly recognize that youth literacy development is as much about the whole community as the individual child, whether it’s New Zealand’s Literacy Aotearoa supporting parents who want to read to their children or Behind the Book implementing a whole-school approach to author-supported literacy workshops, Paint the Town REaD leads the way in demonstrating how an entire town can get behind the message of lifelong literacy from birth.

To find out more about Paint the Town REaD, read this interview with its founder Rhonda Brain, or download the Paint the Town REaD booklet here.

Dr. Matt Finch is a writer-educator and curriculum consultant for Behind the Book who has worked around the world from Shakespeare’s birthplace to Brooklyn and the mountains of Peru. Find out more at his site, http://booksadventures.wordpress.com/about/