Book drive for Canadian aboriginal youth in remote communities
Science fiction writer Dave Laderoute sez,
If you live in Ontario, or want to (quickly!) send some books to a good cause, the Lieutenant Governor of the province is doing his annual drive for new books for kids living in remote First Nations communities. These are generally small, isolated communities located deep in the northern boreal wilderness. Most have a population under 1000 and are accessible only by aircraft. Kids in these communities often have access to only old books in bad condition, so our province's Lieutenant Governor launched this annual effort several years ago to refresh community libraries with up-to-date titles.Book Drive for Aboriginal Youth (Thanks, Dave!)The deadline, June 21, is only a few days away, unfortunately. If someone from outside Ontario REALLY wants to help out, feel free to get hold of me directly at dglad@sff.net and you can make arrangements to send a book or two to me, and I'll get it into the donation stream. But for those of you who live in Ontario, or nearby (I'm lookin' at you, folks in northern New York, Michigan, Minnesota, etc.!) this is a great chance to get some new reading material into the hands of kids who really, really need it.
For Cory's benefit, I know where my brand-new hardcopy of "Little Brother" is going. I'm quite happy to live with my digital copy and get the dead-tree version into the hands of a young Aboriginal kid.
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Why the need for "brand new" books? I have plenty of used books that are in excellent to near-mint condition, but they won't be welcome? I guess beggers can be choosers.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great cause, and would donate new books if I had them or wasn't broke. I understand they don't want trashed books, but previously enjoyed books can be in great condition.
Two years ago I organized a book collection in my community for this same cause (which i think is an excellent cause). The problem was that people went to their basements and garages and simply dumped all their unwanted books . . . 40 year old magazines, moldy encyclopedias, university science text books and other bizarre publications that no kid anywhere would spend time reading.
This is why they are looking for new books. It's a movement to build kid-friendly libraries, not a junk drive. That being said, I bet they wouldn't say no to a few gently-used, high-quality children's books that your kids no longer read.
It's an open secret that a "used" book that is in such good shape that it can't be distinguished from a new book is always welcome at a book drive.
Good idea! A better idea is to upgrade the ICT infrastructure and provide high-speed internet access to all Canadian communities. Canada was a leader in communication technology at one time but has slipped badly serving the interests of corporate profiteers. Make the terms "remote" and "isolated" obsolete.
I have some recent books that have been read once in perfect condition. I live in Montreal, Quebec and will be contacting you about getting books out to you. If I have time I'll go to the bookstore and kick in a decent YA or two as well.
Thanks for posting this. A very minor quibble: The book drive was not launched by the current Lt.-Gov. (David Onley), but by his predecessor, James Bartleman. Bartleman was the first member of a First Nation to hold the post, and it just so happens there's an article about his portrait in today's paper: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/651346.
Right you are. When I said the Lieutenant-Governor launched this effort several years ago, I was referring to the office, not the individual. But you're quite correct, credit to James Bartleman for starting it up, and David Onley for carrying it on.
And yeah, what Cory said about good-condition used books vs new ones. Technically, the copy of "Little Brother" I dropped off today was "used" (I read it). But it, like many other books on my shelf, are in good enough condition that they lack only that new-book smell. The program says "new" books only to avoid having people send in stuff that should probably be recycled instead.
Thank you Cory! I have dutifully spammed my entire email, Twitter and BF address books.
I plan to donate the following:
The NameSake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The World as I see it by Albert Einstein
Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
I am concerned that these might be a little old for teenagers. Should I be?
That should be FB of course!
One last one: More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman
Same ? Will pre-teens like it?
I wouldn't be. While the "upper age limit" is given as 14, in fact, older teens and even adults in these communities will be thrilled to get whatever they can. I've been to more than a few of these isolated First Nations and they are...shall we say, "difficult" places. In many of them, access to the Internet is limited and there just aren't that many decent books available.
I've now had ten emails from folks from as far away as SoCal, wanting to send me books to donate to this. You folks are awesome.
I heard about the book drive last year (January 2008) and donated a few books. For the rest of the year I went into my favourite second hand bookstores in Toronto ("She Said Boom" and "BMV") every pay day and picked up a couple of Publisher's Remainders children's books and some pristine second hand ones at a fraction of the cost of brand new books. The owner of SSB even tossed in one of the books for free when I told him why I was purchasing them. I stored them at home and waited for the next book drive, by which time I had around thirty thoughtfully chosen, contempary and old classic books to donate. If you want to know more about what is happening regarding literacy for fly in reserves check out http://www.clubamick.ca/contact1.htm
Time flies pretty quickly. What happens to those children who learn to love to read and don't have anything age related when they turn 16, 17 or 18 and so on into adulthood? Are you interested in books for young adults or the women and men of the communities? Myself and 7 other very well read women would love to pass on incredible practically brand new books for folks in remote Canadian communities. How about "Three Day Road" for instance? Let me know, we would love to help. If not, we can send books to the many African charity book drives. Thanks, Susan.