Program committed to bringing kids new books

When my son Scott was 17, he lugged out a huge box of his old toys to entertain two young kids he was baby-sitting, Levi, 6, and Layla, 4. Levi dove into the pile of toys, pulling out Ninja Turtles and Star Wars characters. “Hey Scott,” he said, standing the figurines in different positions. “Let’s play Harriet Tubman.”

Scott frowned in confusion. “Who’s Harriet Tubman?”

Levi stopped fiddling with the toys. “Harriet Tubman was a black slave who escaped and led hundreds of slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad in 1849.” Naturally, Scott felt a little intimidated that this 6-year-old kid knew such an important piece of history and he didn’t.

Many kids can tell you about the Civil War, name the different dinosaurs, recite poetry and the adventures of Harry Potter as if they were there with him, because they read books. From toddlers who learn about manners, to teenagers who understand themselves better by reading about other teenagers, books are important beyond measure. But not all kids have the opportunity to own books and must rely on the library for their reading material, always having to return it by the due date.

Now, there is a national program called First Book that gives books to kids who might not have a chance to own them. For the past four years, Susan Wall of Sandpoint, along with the support of her husband, John, have been heading First Book-Northern Idaho in Bonner and Boundary Counties.

“I was a librarian at Kootenai Elementary School when I read in The Spokesman-Review about First Book giving out 4,000 books to children,” said Wall. “I thought this was something I could do, and contacted them to start putting it together.

“Our goal is to put books into the hands of children from low-income families. The sole goal of First Book is to eradicate illiteracy in children. First Book-Northern Idaho has funded children’s books for the North Idaho Head Start in the five northern counties (Benewah, Shoshone, Kootenai, Bonner and Boundary) for several years as well as Mountain States Early Head Start. This year First Book-Northern Idaho also funded a book grant for University of Idaho Parents as Teachers in Boundary County.”

First Book-Northern Idaho writes grants and holds fundraisers to earn the money required to purchase books at an incredible discount. These aren’t “gently used,” but new books packed with knowledge and wonder, stories and dreams. First Book doesn’t just give a kid one book and forget about him. They make a real commitment.

“We give a book a month for a year, if we have the funding,” said Susan. “Sometimes we have to scale it down to six or eight months worth of books, if we don’t have enough money to cover all the books for a year.”

First Book-Northern Idaho pays $2.50 per book to the national office for each book awarded through the grant. The organization receiving the grant chooses the books that are appropriate for their program. “The program goes up through high school, but we haven’t had a request on the high school level,” said Susan. “Each organization must meet a criteria of eighty percent of the children involved in the low-income program have to be at or below the poverty level.”

There is one catch: the books must go home with the child. They aren’t to build up the organization’s library, but become the property of the children.

First Book-Northern Idaho is trying to find corporate businesses willing to be annual sponsors. It takes $1,500 to fund books for 50 children per year. One of their biggest supporters is Verizon, which recently gave a grant for $5,880 which will fund books for North Idaho Head Start for the 2007-08 school year. They also received a $500 donation from Borders Books, which does a nationwide promotion where 10 percent of everything they sell goes to First Book.

“In the spring of 2006 we were able to use $500 to purchase books for a Lake Pend Oreille School District Title One program (a program to help low-achieving students from falling behind) at one of the elementary schools. Each of those children got to take the books home,” said Susan. “First Book-Northern Idaho has just awarded $500 to the Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School day care for the children of the teenage mothers attending school there.”