Group spreads the joy of reading
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Duncan McDougall reads to youngsters in Georgia. Toby Talbot/Associated Press |
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By LISA RATHKE The Associated Press - Published: December 14, 2009
FAIRFAX — Weeks before Christmas, Duncan McDougall sweeps into a rural Vermont day care facility, dropping off a stack of shiny new children's books.
But he really gets the attention of the 2- and 3-year-olds when he reads two stories to them — gesturing, raising his voice, then lowering it to a whisper, now asking questions, pointing to the pictures.
When one girl clamors for more, he tells the children they can pick out two new books to keep, not just for an hour, or a day, or a week, but forever.
Unlike Santa, the Children's Literacy Foundation doles out free new books to libraries, shelter, schools and housing projects across Vermont and New Hampshire all year long in an effort to promote reading and writing among children.
It's a personal mission for McDougall, a former management consultant, teacher and freelance writer, who started the nonprofit 12 years ago out of his home.
"We believe so strongly that inspiring kids to become strong readers and writers opens so many doors for them," he said. "Children who grow up without strong literacy skills have difficulty in school, have difficulty finding jobs, have difficulty in life for a variety of reasons. And those challenges get harder and harder every year."
So the Children's Literacy Foundation — and the 60 local authors, poets and storytellers who work with it — try to inspire kids to read and write by sharing their own excitement about reading and their craft.
Last Monday, Leclerc Family Daycare in Fairfax was his second stop.
First, he spent the morning at an elementary school in Georgia, where he unveiled more than $2,000 worth of new hardcover children's books being donated to the local public library. He went to the school, instead of the library, so he could reach every student in the community.
Book donation efforts are repeated around the country, but the Vermont nonprofit takes literacy a step further with storytelling and writing workshops, and by involving authors and parents.
"We find that a lot of programs (that) focus on book donations seek to just give out a book, and that's a nice endeavor, but insufficient," said Emily Kirkpatrick, vice president of the National Center for Family Literacy. "It's what happens once a book gets in their hands and how they're used," she said.
McDougall tells the fourth and fifth graders in Georgia that just six days ago, he was in New Guinea, in search of an animal that was like a bear but climbed like a monkey.
"How did I get from New Guinea to Georgia?" he asked. "By plane?" "Helicopter?" "Ship?" the kids thought.
"I traveled by book," he told them.
It was the "Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea" by Sy Montgomery that took him into the rain forest, he said.
He's "traveled" all around the world — was the first person to climb Mount Everest, to fly across the Atlantic and has explored New Guinea — all through books. In his life, he's been 4,000 people or so — through reading.
"I can do anything, because I am a reader and you guys are, too," he said.
He asks what kind of books they like. Animal books? Small hands shoot up. Scary books? More hands. Adventure books, magical, science books?
He points out his favorites by local authors that they might like, instilling in them that they, too, could become writers.
He goes on to read "Mirette on the High Wire," about a girl who learns from a famous tightrope walker, acting out as he goes.
Sometimes, children sign up for their first library cards at his events, and take the books out on the spot. This time, the books will be circulated in the school before they end up on the shelves.
One girl can't wait. She asks when she'll be able to check them out.
At a time when budgets are being slashed at libraries and schools, book donations are a huge help.
"Community based book donation programs, such as the Children's Literacy Foundation, fill in the gaps, getting interesting and vital books into kids' hands, creating lifelong readers, and spreading joy," said Mary Brigid Barrett, president and executive director of The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance.
Nearly 100 parents and kids — many of them refugees from Iraq, Bhutan, Nepal, Somalia, and other countries — turned out for McDougall's presentation in November at the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes, a magnet school in Burlington.
His message was simple.
"Get your children involved with books, and that doesn't mean that you have to know how to read English," said principal Abigail Sessions. "And he demonstrated, so beautifully, the telling of a story using a book as a prop but telling of a story with lots of gestures, lots of acting out, lots of facial expressions."
Kids at the Andover, N.H., elementary and middle school got to meet Montgomery — a New Hampshire author — through the foundation's writer-in-residency program. Now they all want to be authors, said Principal Jane Slayton.
Girls who weren't thinking that much about science, realize now they can combine science and writing, she said.
"She connected with the kids," Slayton said. "She didn't ... talk down to them. She almost talked to them like they were fellow writers."
The foundation raises its money for its annual $308,000 budget from individual donors, companies, foundations and social organizations.
What started as a library donation program has grown to 16 free programs serving refugee children, children of prison inmates and those in low-income housing developments, as well as homeless shelters, child care centers and Head Start programs.
It has made donations to 75 percent of the rural public libraries in New Hampshire and Vermont, serving 15,000 kids a year.
"It just seems like it's Duncan McDougall's personal mission," said Sessions. "He's clearly a man who is driven by the love of kids, love of families, a love of literature, and he's really an effective communicator of that passion."
Children's Literacy Foundation: www.clifonline.org
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