NCCL in the News
Literacy project connects kids to community: At Newark Center for Creative Learning, just leave those books behind
Some children might like to put their books down somewhere and just walk away, leaving their reading behind.
But students at the Newark Center for Creative Learning are doing that this week because they want to promote reading, not walk away from it. They are part of a literacy project called "Leave Your Book," which is designed to spread the written word and spur reading.
Seventh- and eighth-graders at the private school are logging dozens of children's book titles and other information onto a computer Web site and affixing stickers to the books to alert potential readers to the project, now in its second year. They plan to leave the books at public places -- perhaps one on a playground bench or another on a bus depot window ledge -- in the hope that someone will find and read them.
The stickers also ask people who find the books to leave them elsewhere once they're done reading, so another person can find and read. Readers are further encouraged to log onto the Web site, where they can share where they found the book and write a short review if they like. That way, the students at the school can track their books and see which ones are creating the biggest buzz.
Language-arts teacher Kate Kerrane said the idea for the literacy project took root at the end of the last school year. She mentioned to her reading class that she had seen a book at a coffee shop with a note inviting anyone to take the book. The children expressed interest in launching a similar effort.
"I was trying to think of a way to get kids actually involved in a project," she said. "The school is project-oriented. We're trying to build a connection with the community. And we're trying to get other people excited about reading. It was exciting for the kids to see the book traveling around and having sort of a life of its own, and they can sort of track it and see where it goes."
Students in spring and summer scattered about 150 donated books at locations including at Main Street eateries in Newark, at the Olde Tyme Peach Festival in Middletown, Newark Community Day and even Penn Station in New York. Through vacations or parents' business trips, books also made their way to Germany, New Zealand and England, Kerrane said.
"The kids are really excited about the idea of redistributing resources," she said. "This is using something they already have, that they enjoyed and maybe somebody else can enjoy."
Last year's efforts drew a modest number of Web-site reviews or comments from the books that were left behind:
"This is a great book for my 5-year-old daughter," one Newark mother wrote.
"I am going into sixth grade and I thought this book was easy to read and follow," a Newark boy wrote.
Kerrane hopes an earlier start this school year, publicity about the project and more books will help build on what they started. The students distributed about 200 books for readers in pre-school through high school last week, with three more distribution pushes expected in the months ahead.
"Sometimes, when you do volunteer work, you don't know what the response will be," she said. "You may not know what happens. But you have to know the book is out there, and somebody might read it."
Kerrane, who wants to begin leaving books for adults, too, also can take heart that her students are reading more because of the project.
"I wasn't really a fan of books before this," said Tyler Hansen, 13, an eighth-grader. "But this has really gotten me into reading. I have about seven of them in a stack at my home."
The students in the project also can brush up on their writing skills through reviews of their own.
"Rather than write a book report that nobody will ever read, they can write a review that anyone in the world can access," Kerrane said.
The project also has made the students more aware about literacy. They donated 680 books last year to H.B. Wilson Elementary School in Camden, N.J., after they discovered that many of the children there have books at the school but very few books at home.
"I think it's really nice that we can spread literacy," eighth-grader Casey Garvey said.
Note: The “Leave Your Book” program was discontinued in 2011.
