One of the most life-changing gifts you can give a young person
during the holiday season is a book. In our modern age of high-tech
toys and electronic gadgets, there’s still something magic for many
children in receiving on Christmas morning a beautifully bound
story book.
One of the most life-changing gifts you can give a young person during the holiday season is a book. In our modern age of high-tech toys and electronic gadgets, there’s still something magic for many children in receiving on Christmas morning a beautifully bound story book. The gift of a book gives a young person the power to step into the amazing world of words that can spin in their fertile imaginations many exciting adventures they can partake in.
The books I received as gifts in my younger days still impact me. I fondly recall the hilarious fun of P.D. Eastman’s “Go, Dog. Go!” which features anthropomorphic canines driving cars to some mysterious location – at the end, you find out it’s a pup party in an immense tree. The Oz and Narnia adventures also took me on imaginative tours of fantasy worlds where it seemed anything might be possible.
At the end of E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web”, I found myself emotionally devastated by the death of a fictional character – a friendly spider that uses her web-writing talents to save the life of a farm pig. Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” provides readers with macabre fun at the expense of spoiled children who receive their comeuppances one by one when they misbehave in Willie Wonka’s fantastic factory of confectionary delights. In a similar vein is the German children’s book “Der Struweelpeter” published in 1845 by Heinrich Hoffman, where misbehaving brats face disastrous consequences – including one thumb-sucking boy who has his fingers snipped off by a malicious tailor with a pair of immense scissors.
Books provide children with much more than good, clean fun. They can also provide young people with opportunities for a successful future. By giving a book to a child during the holiday season, you give him or her the message that reading is important for success and happiness in life. It’s important to instill this lesson of literacy’s significance as soon as possible, because the early years are when a child first learns to appreciate the value of books. And there are plenty of statistics to show why reading is a vital skill to learn early on.
According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), the fourth grade is the “watershed” year in literacy. As many as two-thirds of children who lack proficient reading skills by the end of the fourth grade will end up later in life in a jail cell or on government welfare. Of all the young people who find themselves in the juvenile court system, 85 percent of them are functionally illiterate. As much as 60 percent of the inmates in America’s prisons are considered functionally illiterate and 70 percent of these people cannot read above a fourth grade level.
The lack of reading skills closely links with crime. According to the Department of Justice, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.” There is hope, however, for the incarcerated. Inmates who receive help in developing their proficient reading skills have a 16 percent likelihood of returning to jail, compared to 70 percent who receive no help.
It makes economic sense to raise the literacy rates of prisoners. Teaching reading skills to adult inmates can save taxpayers as much as $25,000 per prisoner each year. That figure rises to about $50,000 per juvenile offender each year by teaching reading skills.
Literacy can also help the economy in other ways. People who can read at a proficient level are better able to build good-paying careers and not require government assistance. And readers are leaders. People who read are better informed to make decisions, such as what candidate and initiatives to vote for during elections.
If you do decide to purchase a gift of a book to give a child this holiday season, consider purchasing a second one or two to give to a child who might not be lucky enough to receive such a literary largess. Community Solutions is running the “Gift of Reading” project that intends to gather donations of books – preferably new or in good shape – to give to young people, many of whom might not receive any other present during this holiday season. Morgan Hill’s BookSmart serves as a collection point for these donated books, so if you happen to be shopping there, consider making an additional purchase of a book for a child in need.
The skill of reading is a factor that determines how successful and happy a person will be in their life. By encouraging this skill – especially by giving the gift of a book to a young child – you might make a major difference in some youngster’s future.
