Please join the 'Fight illiteracy' Write Off and Make a Difference
Aug 27 '07 (Updated Oct 06 '07)
The Bottom Line Supply a child with a new book. Help fight illiteracy.
When I was growing up, the television was something that held plants and knick-knacks. We had a room that was four walls of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and at least two or three more shelves in each of the other rooms in our house. I now realize that reading was something I took for granted. I first realized that I was an addict when my grandmother gave me Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I was eight, and I realized that I, like Francie Nolan, wanted to read every single book ever written. And I tried. For quite a while, I really tried.
When I became a mother, I wanted to instill that same love of reading in my children. I've been reading to both of them since before they were born. Also like my favorite literary character, the books my children and I have read together have been as simple as Goodnight Moon! or as complex as Shakespeare, and pretty much everything in between. My daughter took to reading as quickly and completely as I remember doing in my childhood. My son was slower, but in the past two years, he's shown definite characteristics of a bibliophile.
According to Wikipedia, Literacy is the ability to read and write adequately enough to enable someone to successfully function at certain levels of a society.
Did you know…
~ About one in twenty adults in the U.S. is not literate in English.
~ Adults with the ability to perform challenging and complex reading tasks made an average yearly salary of $50,700 in 2003. Those who lacked basic reading skills averaged $22,700.
~ 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.
~ Penal institution records show that inmates have a 16% chance of returning to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70% who receive no help.
~ One child in four grows up not knowing how to read.
September is National Literacy Month!
Epinions user hadassachana had the wonderful idea to host a write off during September that could help combat the unacceptable literacy rate in the United States. She has asked me to co-host this very important event. After quite a bit of research, Cindy found an organization in Mississippi called the Mississippi Humanities Council (www.mshumanities.org). Mississippi has the highest adult illiteracy rate of all fifty states at 40%. The Mississippi Humanities Council is a very family-centered program. An adult attends a weekly program with a child. At these program meetings, the Council likes to have door prizes, especially books. After a child graduates from the program, the Council also likes to be able to give the child a brand new, hardcover book. Unfortunately, the funds just aren't what they should be, and there just aren't enough books sometimes.
What Can We Do?
1. Join our write-off.
2. Buy a new children's book or two (or three…).
3. Review each of them here at Epinions, including a link in your review to this page, my profile page or Cindy's profile page, referencing this write-off.
4. Email the link to your review to both me (srparis22@gmail.com) and Cindy (hadassahchana@yahoo.com).
5. Send your book(s) to the Mississippi Humanities Council, and include a short letter of encouragement, mentioning this write off. The director, David Morgan, has been in communication with Cindy and will know what you’re talking about.
The address is as follows:
Attn: Mr. David Morgan
Mississippi Humanities Council
3825 Ridgewood Road, Room 311
Jackson, MS 39211-6497
6. Cindy and I will post the links, and send many happy thoughts your way.
Since we wanted to get this write off seen by as many people as possible, Cindy and I both posted an invitation. You can read hers by clicking here.
Participating Reviews:
joyfulgirl91 ~ The Giving Tree
pestyside ~ The Incredible Book Eating Boy ~ Blackie: The Horse that Stood Still ~ Owen & Mzee ~ Owl Moon ~ Little Red Riding Wolf ~ The BFG ~ A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray ~ The Big One-Oh ~ The Friskative Dog ~ Clementine ~ The White Elephant ~ The Palace of Laughter ~ The Best Halloween Ever ~ Waiting for Wings
dramastef ~ The Flower Fairies ~ Anne of Green Gables ~ The Ice Dragon ~ Treasure Island ~ The Wind in the Willows ~ Araminta Spookie 4: Vampire Brat ~ Monday with a Mad Genius
Penguinlady is buying new copies of these books she has reviewed in the past: Guess How Much I Love You ~ Mr. Popper's Penguins ~ The Mitten ~ Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems (I'm having a hard time making the links work on the older ones). On top of that, she also bought and sent these other books: Where the Wild Things Are, Charlotte's Web, Corduroy, Stuart Little, James and the Giant Peach, A Wrinkle in Time, The Velveteen Rabbit, Angelina Ballerina, The Giving Tree, Stellaluna, Verdi, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry St., If I Ran the Zoo and The Hat
carstairs38 ~ The Magician's Nephew ~ The Secret of the Mansion ~ My Father's Dragon ~ Nate the Great ~ Henry and Ribsy ~ The Bronze Bow
NFP ~ Richard Scarry's A Day at the Airport
kamel622 ~ It's Time to Call 911: What to Do in an Emergency ~ Goodnight, Thumper ~ Where the Wild Things Are ~ Are You My Mother?
marybatson ~ Frog & Toad are Friends ~ Frog & Toad Together ~ Minnie & Moo Go to the Moon ~ Minnie & Moo Meet Frankenswine ~ The Story of Ferdinand ~ Play Ball Amelia Bedelia ~ Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower ~ Morris Goes to School ~ The Horse in Harry's Room ~ Mrs. Brice Mice
elvisdo ~ Curious George ~ The Story of Ferdinand
My co-host hadassahchana ~ Follow the Drinking Gourd ~ Where The Wild Things Are ~ Miss Rumphius ~ The Real Story Of The Three Little Pigs ~ The Drinking Gourd ~ Paths To Peace ~ Stories Of Knights And Castles ~ A Treasury Of Children's Poetry
dandj ~ Anne of Green Gables ~ White Fang
mongkut ~ Hurray for Today!: All About Holidays ~ Whale of a Tale!: All About Porpoises, Dolphins, And Whales
meagandowney ~ The Tale of Peter Rabbit
pinksteeler ~ Where the Wild Things Are ~ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe ~ Pirates Past Noon (Magic Tree House)
quasar is sending a few copies of a book she reviewed a few years ago ~ The Devil's Arithmetic
millinocket ~ Lulu Goes to Witch School ~ Ramona the Pest ~ The BFG ~ Double Fudge ~ The Legend of the Loon ~ Now We Are Six ~ Angelina and Henry ~ Angelina and the Princess ~ Angelina on Stage ~ Angelina's Halloween
befus ~ A Wrinkle in Time
ssjakira1 ~ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ~ James and the Giant Peach ~ Clifford Keeps Cool ~ The Witches
artemis8 ~ A Wrinkle in Time ~ How to Eat Fried Worms
imagine_stars ~ High School Musical: The Junior Novel ~ Charlotte's Web ~ Stuart Little ~ The Trumpet of the Swan ~ Frindle ~ Ellen Tebbits ~ Nancy Drew: Nancy's Mysterious Letter ~ Granny Torrelli Makes Soup
frazzledspice ~ The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights
jankp ~ Starting With Alice
roheblius ~ By My Brother's Side ~ Mick Foley's Halloween Hijinx
coops32 ~ It's Not the End of the World ~ Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself ~ Deenie ~ The Twenty-One Balloons ~ Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great ~ Superfudge ~ A Single Shard ~ Freckle Juice ~ Kira-Kira ~ A Year Down Yonder ~ Out Of The Dust ~ Blubber
sleeper54 ~ Peter Pan ~ Alice in Wonderland ~ The Wizard of Oz
scmrak ~ Phineas L. Macguire . . . Erupts!
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