Great Barrington — Last week, Berkshire United Way held its 2016 Day of Caring celebration at Hancock Shaker Village; at the heart of this year’s event, dedicated to volunteer engagement and community building, was the installation of 50 Berkshire Book Houses throughout the county. With the help of Jack Geary Builders, dozens of SABIC and JRL Construction volunteers, using materials donated by LP Adams, 50 book houses were built; with volunteer support from Unistress and Dodge Construction, the book houses were installed in high-traffic public places, ostensibly with one goal in mind: meeting children and families where they are as a means of increasing early childhood literacy. This undertaking, while noble in theory, raises an important discussion as to whether or not simply putting books into the hands of the County’s young readers is the key to improving lagging literacy rates.
The Town of Great Barrington is home to four such book houses, a project born of Berkshire County United Way’s setting out to create access and increase quality of life for young children; this project does both beautifully. Various local businesses and faith-based or civic organizations, along with several individuals, have signed on as “caretakers” for the houses, which involves hosting book drives to keep them stocked with age-appropriate materials and conducting regular check-ins to ensure the continued upkeep of the structures.
On a recent sunny afternoon, I caught up with Ed Abrahams, current President of the Friends of the Great Barrington Libraries and former Library Trustee, crossing Castle Street with an armful of books. He was enthusiastic about the project’s reception in town, noting “this is the third time [the book house at Giggle Park has been filled] and it hasn’t been up a week yet; [the books] are going fast.”
Amy Taylor, South County Community Liaison for Berkshire County United Way, coordinates Chapter One, the early childhood literacy initiative in South County. Taylor is very clear when she addresses the thought that went into choosing locations; she notes the importance of, “put[ting] Book Houses in areas where children and families were likely to find them,” she said. She stressed the importance, in particular, of making the Book Houses “accessible to children who may not otherwise have a lot of access to the library or bookstores.” An integral part of meeting children and families where they are is “being aware that there are some children who don’t regularly go to the ice-cream shop, they don’t regularly go to the library.” While these highly visible locations might seem obvious choices, Taylor believes that book houses located off the proverbial beaten path are actually more accessible to the average child who takes an excursion to the park, or comes across a book house on his or her way home through the neighborhood from the bus stop.
While the goal of the whole project is early literacy, it is simultaneously spurring not only community outreach but also involvement. Abrahams went on to note, “There are plenty of books; nobody wants to throw away books so they keep going around. And children’s books don’t go out of style.” It is this enthusiasm that, for the moment, is keeping the Book House at Giggle Park, at the corner of Castle and Main Streets behind Town Hall and sponsored by the Friends of Great Barrington Libraries, stocked; the additional Great Barrington Book House locations are: Muddy Brook Elementary School, 318 Monument Valley Road, and sponsored by the American Institute of Economic Research; Cottage Street at the home of Laura Gratz; and in the village of Housatonic, 207 Meadow Street, which is sponsored by the Pediatric Development Center.
As is the case in bringing any ambitious project to fruition, it takes a village; this is also the case when it comes to raising a community of proficient readers. Initiatives such as the “Berkshire Book Houses” serve to plant the seeds of literacy; at a more fundamental level, my own young daughters, ages 9 and 12, identified the need for two basic necessities to encourage readers: curiosity and connection. I am certainly in agreement, and I visited their school to get more opinions. “Anytime there are more books available and easier access [to them] it’s always a good thing,” says Katinka Jaszai, a reading specialist at Undermountain Elementary School in Sheffield. “The foundation of having a good reader, of having [a child] who is going to be interested in books,” she goes on, “is to have people in [a child’s life] — a teacher, a relative, a friend — showing [him] how to go about reading a book and getting from it what is needed.”
Kathryn Barrett, a sixth grade student at Undermountain Elementary, is optimistic about the role she and her classmates are playing as “Reading Buddies” to the preschool and kindergarten students in the district. This collaboration is ultimately positive as it pairs emerging readers with mentors who, in addition to being young, offer the opportunity for personal connection. Says Barrett, of her pre-school buddy, “she seems happy and interested [when we meet each week]. I think we have formed a bond.”
The importance of this connection is echoed by Carol Ide, a veteran third grade teacher at Undermountain, who cites time as the single most important factor needed to raise strong readers. And, in addition to “real books at all levels,” Ide stresses, “it is imperative that parents follow through with the importance of reading [at home].” Parents, as Ide affectionately calls “the teachers at home,” have a responsibility to promote reading, not only through seeking out resources like lending libraries, often made available through a child’s classroom, but also by promoting libraries and limiting screen time.
Katie Warner, Assistant Children’s Librarian at Mason Library in Great Barrington, worries that those individuals struggling with literacy won’t be reached through these book houses. It’s rather like a kiosk proffering free coffee; while coffee aficionados would likely flock at the opportunity, those not already sold on coffee’s merits might not be enticed to stop. Warner imagines individuals who are already ingrained in the community as benefitting and goes on to cite the need for more community outreach and collaboration to engage on a broader level.
“Sharing between school and the library, between South Berkshire Kids and the library –this creates a network among organizations to address the issues [facing children today],” she notes.
Warner cites a one-on-one connection and culling high interest reading material as being the keys to engaging a reluctant reader; at the Mason Library, where Warner and her colleagues “take an individualistic approach” to reining in such readers all year long, they will once again be participating in the nationwide Collaborative Summer Library Program. This year’s theme, “On Your Mark, Get Set, Read!” encourages young people to stay active in the world by exercising both curiosity and connection to the library and the greater community.
The Berkshire Book Houses are certainly trendy, but are they the answer to creating a book culture in Berkshire County? The availability of books encourages reading; a good book engages its reader with language and thought. It makes sense, then, that the “take a book, leave a book” concept espoused by the Berkshire Book Houses will create interest and promote books all day, every day, despite times when schools and libraries are closed. Furthermore, the novelty of their locations — often at parks and playgrounds — stand to catch a diverse, multi-faceted audience: from non-library readers and bored parents to groups of kids playing outdoors, or young people simply spending time with their friends.
“If you give a child a book, he or she gets really excited,” gushes Ed Abrahams. “It’s their own book.” And perhaps this sense of ownership and participation, coupled with the realization that it does take a veritable village, is just the tonic needed to aid in establishing ours as a culture of young readers — one child and one book [house] at a time.
