access to books

My mother spent a couple of years in the early 1970s as a kindergarten teacher. She said it was readily apparent at the beginning of the school year which children had been read to, and which hadn’t. Reading with children is crucial to their development. Not only does reading stretch their imaginations, it helps them develop language and social skills that will be necessary to their functioning as life progresses. Many books and articles attest to this. For a couple of examples, check out Family Resource dot com, and the statistics information on Emma Walton Hamilton’s Raising Bookworms site. (More about Raising Bookworms, and a GIVEAWAY, at the end of this post.) Libraries play an integral, indeed crucial role, in providing access to books, for without access to books it is very difficult to raise readers. This is true for both public libraries and school libraries. A few years ago, the International Association of School Librarianship compiled a list of links to articles illustrating how school libraries enhance children’s achievement in school. This article from RIF (Reading is Fundamental) highlights the importance of access to reading material for kids. The New York Public Library underlines the role of summer reading programs. For a look at my personal childhood experience of libraries, what is happening around the world to bring library access to the poorest of our globe’s citizens, and for a chance to win a copy of Emma’s book Raising Bookworms, click the magic words.