[CALIBK12] Books save lives

[Stephen Krashen]

http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/opinion/jt/comment/books_save_lives/

Baltimore Jewish Times

April 17, 2009

Books Save Lives

Meredith Jacobs
Special to the Jewish Times

I can count on one hand the Jewish books I owned as a child. There was an amazing biblical comic book that had been my dad’s; it had illustrated stories of Cain and Abel, Ruth, Samson and Delilah, and David and Goliath. There was a collection of K’tonton stories and two picture books of a brother and a sister celebratingShabbat and Chanukah.

The small number wasn’t for lack of interest. I was fortunate enough to have an extensive book collection on my shelves and my parents constantly took my sister and me to the library. I was a voracious reader, but there just weren’t a lot of Jewish storybooks published when I was a child.

I still have those two picture books of the brother and sister celebrating the holidays. They weren’t exciting or well-written or illustrated. But I made a point of reading them during holidays and there was something special about having books about children like me. When all my non-Jewish friends could read about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, at least I had David and Ruth.

As my own children grow, I try to buy as many Jewish children’s titles as possible, which means our book collection now spans from “Matzo Ball Moon” to “You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.”

While it’s never too early to read to a child, I believe it’s extra special for children to read stories about kids who share their own traditions, history and culture.

That’s why the PJLibrary program caught my attention. While my children were too old to participate in the Harold S. Grinspoon Foundation-funded program, families with children under age 8 simply sign up and books are mailed to their home each month.

Baltimore is a PJLibrary community and, if you have young children, I strongly encourage you to call the Center for Jewish Education and sign up for these free books. Natalie Blitt, head of the PJLibrary Selection Committee, gets to the heart of this important initiative by noting that parents reading these books to their children create “great Jewish family memories.”

But not all children have access to books, Jewish or not. Jeff McQuillan, in his study “The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions,” writes: “The only behavior measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books at home. An analysis of a national data set of nearly 100,000 U.S. children found that access to printed material — not poverty — is the “critical variable affecting reading acquisition.”

Not only that, but ability to read books gives comfort and security. They offer a place to escape and time to dream.

For this reason, Jewish Women International earmarks funds raised from its Mother’s Day Flower Project to building children’s libraries in homeless and battered women’s shelters across the country.

Why? As its literature states, “For a woman fleeing an abusive relationship, the immediacy of danger often means leaving home with only her children and the clothes on their backs. To help ease this traumatic upheaval, JWI’s National Library Initiative transforms a basic shelter space into a library complete with furniture, hundreds of books, a computer and various comfort items — and it quickly becomes both an educational resource and a safe haven for the youngest victims of domestic violence.”

With Mother’s Day this year on May 10, honor the special women in your life through a $25 donation to JWI’s Flower Project. You will help make life a little easier for the 25,000 women in shelters by bringing the gift of books to their children.

Meredith Jacobs is the author of “The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat” and the co-author, with her daughter Sofie, of the upcoming “Just Between Us: A Journal for Mothers and Daughters” (ChronicleBooks, spring 2010).