I was raised in a house with full-to-groaning bookshelves,
books on our coffee table and by the sides of our beds.
My daughters are growing up with the same abundance.
So here is a fact that just blows my mind:
In low-income neighborhoods in the U.S., the ratio of books per child is 1 book per every 300 children.
This is a different kind of poverty — maybe a lesser one than the no-health-insurance, no access-to-fresh-and-healthy-food, substandard-housing-and-schools, and prevalent-violence kind of poverty that our activists and politicians and nurses and social workers and teachers are trying to address every day.
But this is not unrelated to those.
This is a poverty of beauty, a poverty of humor, a poverty of surprise.
This is a poverty of imagination and possibility, and honestly, if we don’t have those things how will any of these other issues ever be answered?
So I am thrilled and honored to be part of this year’s Spoonfuls of Stories, a literacy campaign brought to us by Cheerios. This year, Cheerios is making a donation of $300,000 to First Book, a nonprofit that helps get books into the hands of kids who don’t have them. Plus, they’ve put more than six million books in select Cheerios boxes — small, bilingual versions of five different books, including All the World.
I haven’t actually seen a box myself yet, but I’ve got it on good authority that they’ve arrived in stores.
It is my big hope that there is a child tomorrow morning reading at her breakfast table for the very first time.
This breaks my heart, but is so very real. When I was teaching middle school, the impact of a childhood with few or no books was still in play. The effects are far reaching.
So lovely to hear your book will be included in this campaign!
It is just so unbelievably cool that your book was selected to be part of this worth-while program. I can’t wait to open a box of Cheerios and find your book in it.
hokgardner
I also grew up in a house filled with books and so have my 5 kids. This sounds like a great program but what about school libraries and public libraries? Kids who go to the library can have lots of books and different books one after the other for free not just one book given to them by cheerios.
I LOVE libraries and librarians, of course, and cannot believe the support and kindnesses they provide to so many of us. That said:
1. From the same study, 9 out of 10 mothers believe that all kids have access to books through their local school and/or public library, a misconception. Unfortunately, due to unequally located and funded schools and librariess, the need for proof of address, citizenship, etc. in order to check out books, and other issues, even libraries are often out of reach.
2. Plus, and at least as important, there is something unspeakably wonderful about owning a book of your own. I have actually seen this happen at festivals where whole groups of kids were given their own first book — their jaws drop and they stroke the books and hug them to their chests. Is a paperback book in Cheerios the only way to make that happen? Definately not. But it’s one way…
My jaw dropped when I read that number. Some of us live with such outrageous abundance, I think we have 300 books in each of our rooms. I’m tickled that your book will be in Cheerios boxes, I remember how excited our girls got the first time they got a book in a box of cheerios!
Great stuff, Liz, thanks!
Wendy
How great is that??
What a wonderful program and what a wonderful selection of books! My children are growing up in a similar situation to yours with regard to books. I think it may be the best thing we ever did as parents, even though reading occasionally interferes with LIFE-FUNCTION around here. (“Don’t read on the stairs!” “No reading while brushing your teeth!” “You may not read while crossing a crowded parking lot!”)
Hooray, Liz! I was WONDERING when this year’s batch of books would be available.
Cheerios!
What a wonderful thing to be part of. Congratulations!!
HOORAY! I will have to buy some Cheerios!
Cheerios
I hope I get to see one of those boxes, Liz! I love the idea – you must be very proud to be included (well-deserved, by the way.)
Julie
Simply wonderful. The campaign, that is. Certainly not the dearth of books for low-income families.
Jules
7-Imp
We saw it on our box of Cheerios yesterday!
Congrats Liz! We noticed this yesterday morning! Very cool!
ALL THE WORLD sits on my office credenza for me to see many times daily…and I am so very happy many children will now own that title finding it in the Cheerios box, congratulations!