At the Food Pantry: Boy and books

Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 by nosleepingdog

There was a gangly boy, perhaps 14 years old, looking through the “Free Books for Kids” at the Food Pantry as I walked over. “Hi, finding anything you like?” I asked. “Well…” he said, ”do you have any comic books? like Spiderman vs. …” “No, the place where I get most of the books doesn’t have any comics, I’m sorry.” He picked up a thick hardback. “This is Harry Potter in Spanish?” “Yes, pretty good way to learn a language once you have some basics.” He made a polite noise and put the book back, but kept looking, telling me that he was moving to North Dakota this summer. That could be real soon, I thought, since tomorrow was the last day of school. “Whoa, that’s going to be a big change from Oregon. Have you ever been there?” “Oh, yeah, a bunch of times, we kinda go back and forth.”

He was a serious young man, with a good smile and a clear gaze. The other two people who’d gotten out of the small car were an older youth, brother I figured—same reddish-blond hair and very fair skin, and a woman who was being “head of household” over at the Food Pantry dock. She looked old enough to be their mom, barely, but then lately everyone seems too young to me.

I rummaged among the books for teens, looking for something he might like. I got few bookseekers his age, mostly my customers were under twelve. At a certain age reading tastes become more individualized, much harder to satisfy from my small stock of secondhand books and library discards. Here, among the chapter books, a fat paperback with a boy hero and “wizard” in the title. And an S.E. Hinton book, Tex, about a boy on his own on a ranch with his siblings after his mother dies and his father leaves to find work. I remembered a line, “I just went on spreading mustard on the baloney and eating it. We were out of bread.” On the cover were a motorcycle, which featured largely in the story, and a rawboned young man wearing a sheepskin jacket and a battered cowboy hat. I put it on the table near him, and looked for more. The (fictional) journal of a boy in the Union Army. One or two more.

The boy bound for North Dakota was still working through the books behind me, arranged in the open back of the car. “What’s this?” he asked, holding out an old grey hardback, a book club edition of Collected Stories of Mowgli. I’d just added it today. “It’s about a boy who’s raised by wolves,” I said, watching his face for signs of recognition. Nothing. “In India,” I added, “and he goes on living in the jungle with the animals. The stories are about his adventures and what he learns from them.” One of my favorite books as a child, I thought to myself, I really should be able to say something more about it. But he was interested. “How much is it?” he asked diffidently. “Oh, it’s free, they’re all free.” His face lightened, and his hand took a firmer hold upon the book. He looked at a few others without choosing any, then turned to the table. The book with “wizard” in the title made the cut, and another. “I’m getting some books for friends,” he said. “Good, that’s good.”

After a bit I ventured to say that he had a long drive ahead of him. “Yeah, three days,” with an air of remembering just how long those days were. “I have some other books to read too, though. Ice Fire and Dark Fire, it’s a series. There’s these two people, they live in a house with a bunch of dragons made out of clay. And a boy comes to live with them, they’re not his family, but he comes to live with them and the clay dragons start speaking to him, they’re not just clay…” Inner voices, not yet silenced, I thought, nodding as he spoke. His head turned quickly, he’d heard his name called though I hadn’t heard. “I’ve got to go now, thanks.” A lot of my interchanges with kids ended this way. “Sure, you’re welcome.”

He made several trips back to the small car with boxes of food, half-gallons of milk, and his brother groaned in a comic fashion under the weight of a large bag of dog kibble. Oh good, they’ve got a dog, hope the dog gets to go, but I won’t ask. Finally they were done, all three coming smiling back to the car; the mother gave me a friendly look, the grey-haired woman with the second-hand books who’d been talking to her son. He veered my way and said, with his open face, “Thanks for the books.” “You’re welcome, I hope you all have a good journey. And good luck in North Dakota.” They smiled and waved and off they went.

More free books for kids: Portland, Oregon

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 by nosleepingdog

Last month I blogged about giving away books to kids at our local food pantry. It’s been an effective way to encourage reading in kids of all ages, and provide parents and grandparents with books they can read with the children. All kids should have books of their very own. I wrote the post hoping to encourage others to get involved in getting books and children together.

As a former Portlander, I am pleased to report that there’s a group in that city dedicated to gathering books and giving them to disadvantaged kids. It’s called The Children’s Book Bank and they are currently concentrating on children under 6, when early habits are formed. They’re doing some creative stuff: one way they gather books is by inviting those who want to help, to have a book drive through their own organization, which could range from Boy Scouts to church to a business or hiking group. They also muster volunteers to help clean and mend books and bundle them up. If you live near Portland, visit their site and think about how you could help.

This offers one model for those who’d like to form an organization for the purpose, as well as for one-time group efforts to gather books and then donate them to some existing organization. I guarantee your community has organizations that would welcome clean usable children’s books. These would include Head Start programs, shelters (ones for women and children, or for homeless families, or for kids on the street), social agency waiting rooms, daycare facilities run by non-profits, Ronald MacDonald Houses, maybe the local Boys and Girls Club. If it’s a place that serves disadvantaged kids or families, they can probably find a good use for your kids’ outgrown books or books your group can gather in a book drive.

And, if you want to do something on your own, like I’ve been doing–showing up each week at the food pantry for 3 hours with a carful of books and two folding tables, I can attest to it being easy, well-received, and very rewarding. I’ve also gotten to read some great kids’ books as I sit by my tables!

Here is a figure from The Children’s Book Bank site:

“Two thirds of low-income families own no books for their children.”

Let’s all do something to change this, now!

Free books for kids at the Food Pantry

Posted on Friday, February 6, 2009 by nosleepingdog

“Free Books for Kids” says the sign that I put up every week at the local food pantry. The boxes of books, and two small folding tables, live in the back of my old Explorer.

This,

quickly becomes this

When I began several years ago I was thinking it would be like a library or book exchange: kids would return the ones they chose last time and get new ones. It didn’t take long to understand the shortcomings of that model. Mostly, there’s too much turnover and uncertainty. Families are only permitted 12 visits a year to the food pantry (a state or federal limitation); they might come three weeks in a row and then not return for months. Some live in cars, campgrounds, or at a series of friends’ houses. And families vanish, moving elsewhere for various reasons or (we hope) experiencing an improvement so that they don’t need the food pantry any more. Kids forget to bring things back. I can’t turn away needy kids that want books; my desire is only to get books into the hands of young people, from infants to high schoolers.

So now my little “Book Bank” (like a “Food Bank”) is as simple as can be. Free books for kids whose families come to the food pantry. Period. I say, “You can bring them back whenever you’re done, or keep them forever.”

That’s the only way it will work, and it also gives kids books of their very own. A dozen favorite books don’t take up much space and may be a help to children who move a lot, and live with constant change and uncertainty.

I had expected my “customers” to be kids and parents, but grandparents have turned out to be an important group too. Some care for grandchildren regularly (or are raising them), some have kids staying over in summer, visiting on weekends, or just dropping in. A few aunts and uncles come by also. Occasionally these books are given by the adults as birthday or Christmas gifts to the kids.

I’ve expanded to include workbooks (printing, arithmetic, shapes and colors, word recognition, etc.) and flash-cards.

This isn’t the Baby Einstein scene, grooming kids for prep school or to impress the parents’ rich friends; the parents and grandparents want their kids to be ready for school, and to do well there. Despite all the worries a family has when they need to come to a food pantry, most of these adults are actively working to help their children succeed in school. And I know the parents read to the children because the kids themselves tell me so.

Cardboard books for infants and toddlers are popular. These sturdy books have bright simple illustrations; parents can point out colors, shapes, animals, noses and ears as the babies are learning language (long before any actual words come out). Children learn how to hold a book right way up, turn the pages, and be comfortable with a book in hand. They get a positive association with books and reading, to go along with the good feelings of being read to from all sorts of books––as well as from being sung to, talked to, and all those other forms of language that flow between adults and young children.

The books are arranged by age of likely readers: in addition to the bins of cardboard books and workbooks, there are two big plastic boxes: one for picture books and simple books, another for longer books with longer words. “Chapter books” (a new term that I learned from the kids, who ask for them that way) go in a smaller box; these are short to medium-length novels for readers up through high school.

Except for the workbooks, I regularly read books from all of the categories while I am sitting alongside my display. There’s some very good writing, and of course the illustrations are often wonderful. Kids’ books must be putting bread in the mouths of quite a few artists. That’s a good thing especially with art in schools having been virtually eliminated; at least children get to see paintings, drawings, and photographs with artistic merit and heart.

Where do the books come from? and other details

Most come from the bookstores operated by Friends of the Library, at local branches and also in Portland (OR). Locally I pay 25￠- 50￠; Portland has higher prices but a huge selection. Twice a year I go there and buy maybe a hundred books, stocking up on the ever-popular dinosaur picture books, ones on science and nature, and others that are hard to find. Then there are garage and yard sales where sometimes kids’ books go for a few bucks per cardboard boxful. Once in a while I find suitable new books at the Dollar Store, where I buy all the workbooks and flash-cards. And occasionally people (at the food pantry or elsewhere) donate books outgrown by their children. I could be more active in soliciting such donations, something to work on.

After I acquire books I do a little processing. I wash the covers and spines with a damp rag and 409 to remove grime and make the books look shiny and more appealing. A few may need a bit of mending, for which I use clear packaging tape. Then I stamp each one inside the back cover: “Free Books for kids/at Ruch Food Pantry./To donate kids’ books/or $ pls call xxx-1234.”

One reason for the stamp is to help books come back, although few do. I have an informal arrangement with the local branch library: if books with my stamp arrive in their bookdrop, they save them for me. That offers a much more accessible return location than the food pantry which is only open 3 hours a week.

Our food pantry is a small one; we average 20 to 25 households each week, though lately it has been getting busier. There are many households that don’t include children. There are times when I go home without having given out a single book, and days when I have half a dozen eager customers. When people arrive I haven’t seen before, I go over and introduce myself; even if there aren’t any children accompanying them, there may be kids at home, or grandchildren in their lives. If kids hang back shyly I talk to them and their parents and invite them to come and look. A lot of these kids are quite wary of how much things cost, so they need reassurance that yes, all the books are free (even though some have old price stickers from the places where I got them). And I let my customers know how pleased I am that they came, which is just the truth.

And when someone comes over to tell me that the books have made a difference—their grandchild is reading better, their kids are enjoying the books or benefitting from the workbooks, do I have more books about horses or dogs because their daughter just loves to read them—well, you can imagine how good that is!

And now, why did I write this?

Only one reason: I’m hoping someone may read it and decide to do something similar. The Food Pantry connexion is a good one, and the project doesn’t take a lot of time. Your Food Pantry or similar organization would probably welcome this addition to their services. “Food for the mind, as well as the body,” was my pitch, but the idea didn’t really need a “pitch” to be accepted. Or perhaps you just have books your kids have outgrown: consider giving them to the local women’s shelter, where women and children often arrive with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and may stay for weeks. Library Friends’ bookstores always welcome donations, and offer cheap books to the community (with proceeds used to support library activities and services). And libraries or schools may need volunteers to read with kids or to kids.

If you’re looking for an organization to get involved with, there seem to be a lot of them. Maybe your area has one like SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) in Oregon that pairs adult volunteers with early readers, to improve children’s ability and their love for reading. There are many local and national groups concerned with kids and reading; I googled “kids reading organizations” [do not use quotation marks if using this as a search term] and came up with a bunch. Look for evidence of actual work done, not just raising money and promoting “awareness of the issue”.

“Give me a place to stand, and I can move the earth.” So said Archimedes, who did not invent the lever but gave the “earliest known rigorous explanation” of how it worked. There are many such places to stand, for anyone who wants to change the world a bit. The promotion of reading for kids, in a direct personal way, is one of them.