We Interrupt This Program…

Obviously a personal blog can be whatever one wants to be, but we do strive to keep this from being too political, religious (although spiritual is fine), or filled with the ideological soapboxes atop which we climb and expound. However, we do have our yearly “support kids, books, and reading” commercial that we’d like to reprise if we may. If you’re not a reader, look away…

T. is involved with Guys Lit Wire, a blog dedicated to finding literature of all sorts for boys, in response to the cries from teachers and studies which screech that “boys don’t read.” Made up of teachers, librarians, and booksellers, this team blog is all about the books, and every year, does one charitable function in the form of a Book Fair to get the word out about kids and teens in need.

Last year the Guys Lit Wire community donated some 772 books – their entire wish list – to Ojo Encino Day School in the Navajo Nation, and Alchesay High School, on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. This year, the focus school is in our nation’s capitol.

You’d think being in D.C. would mean that a school was well-staffed, well built, and primed to turn out America’s finest scholars. Yeah. You’d think. I was a little shocked at what I saw of Washington D.C. when I went to the ALA Convention last summer. That inner city poverty thing is alive and well. A few blocks away from the White House, and the sidewalks aren’t even as nice any more. Why is GLW interested in D.C.? Because Ballou Senior High School – a school with over 1,200 students – has 1,150 books in their library. Not even enough books for every student to read one, despite the American Library Association suggested ratio of 11:1 for books to students in American schools. 1,150 books! And you know many of those are dictionaries, reference books, and the like. But, alas, the D.C. district isn’t a state – it has no representative in the House or the Senate, recall. If there’s nobody beating the drum to care about kids and literacy, they’re not getting anything other than the bare minimum. Emphasis on “bare.” Which is the exact description of their library bookshelves.

Fortunately, there’s us. And the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair. As happens every year, the librarian at the school is polite, but slightly skeptical, afraid that nothing WILL happen. Other people have tried to help, given well-meaning stacks of books – in duplicate – without asking what the students readers want and need. Guys Lit Wire is different; we’ve asked. And the list is up.

– from organizer Colleen Mondor, author and book reviewer: “For those of you who have been with us before, the drill is the same. Go to the Powell’s web site. In the upper right you can click on “wish list”. On the next page you will be asked to enter the email address for the friend’s list you are looking for (you might need to scroll down a wee bit to see this prompt.) Enter our email: [email protected]”

There are 900 books on that school’s wishlist. We want to give that many, and more. Read the rest of the Fair details, and see the video the librarian made of the school’s EMPTY SHELVES @ Guys Lit Wire. And, think about the impact of just one book, and what just one book has done for you.

This month in the U.S. is National Mental Health Month. One of the many cures that we Hobbits have found to work, over and over again, when we are stressed and losing our minds is to concentrate on the struggles and troubles of others. While not downplaying the reality of our lives, we often ask ourselves, “Are armies encamped on our streets? Are people going door-to-door arresting dissidents against our government? Are flood waters rising even now and lapping against our doorsteps? Do we have a roof and food and a place to sleep tonight? Then, are things really so bad?”

Please, if you can, look outside of yourself and your own troubles this month, and bolster someone else. Participating in the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair is but one of many supportive options, and a place to start. Thanks.