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Wonderopolis is Changing Lives

Posted by Erin on 05.24.2012 at 9:00 am

The following story is from our partners at the National Center for Family Literacy. It is one of many examples that show how you help children and families around America and the world just by buying and donating your books with Better World Books.

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Crystal and Cindy are both fourth graders at Pleasant View Elementary, a small rural school located in southeast Kentucky.

The school meets many of the community’s challenges with a dedicated staff and innovative approaches to education. A third of the population in the rural town lives in poverty; eighty-eight percent of the children at the school are poor. The school struggles with low parent involvement in school activities; many parents seem intimidated when they do visit the school.

Crystal and Cindy also share tragic circumstances: both of their mothers died recently. Because of the project funded by Better World Books, they are learning together after school. They also are forming a powerful bond and helping each other overcome a very difficult loss.

The girls are participating in a unique after-school reading and learning project featuring the age-old art of quilt making that is inspired by Wonderopolis®, an award-winning daily learning website launched in October 2010 by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). The quilt is one of the program’s offline activities taking place during reading nights at the school, and closely connected to the students’ exploration and learning through Wonderopolis; the quilt-making activity offered many teaching opportunities, particularly as explored in Wonder of the Day #124, How Do Quilts Tell Stories?
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3 Comments » | Tagged From our Friends, Impact, Impact Vignette

You Buy a Book. Fernando Gets an Education.

Posted by Erin on 03.22.2012 at 8:47 am

“I like to write about the stars and how I see my family in them,” 2nd grader Fernando Augusto Gonzalez says wistfully. “I know that, no matter where we are or how far apart we live, we can look up at the sky and see the same thing.”

Fernando is talking about his parents. He thinks about them all the time. He wonders where they are; he imagines what they might be doing in that particular moment. Fernando’s parents migrated to the United States (from the rural community of Santiago Sacatepéquez, Guatemala) when he was a baby, in search of jobs that could support their family. Indigenous and illiterate, Fernando’s parents had few prospects at home, where over than half of the region’s residents live in chronic poverty and compete for limited resources.

The young, hopeful Guatemalan’s grandparents put a roof over his head and give him plenty to eat. They even saved up their meager earnings for several months to buy him a uniform – without which he would not be able to attend school.

1 Comment » | Tagged Impact, Impact Vignette

Hardships Cannot Keep this Cambodian 2nd Grader out of the Library

Posted by Erin on 03.08.2012 at 9:45 am

“I want to be a doctor, so that I can help people,“ says the bright, smiling second grader, Narin. “ I am working hard to get there and I am confident that I will be able to fulfill my dreams.” She says these things in Khmer, the language of Cambodia and also the familiar and frightening name of the Khmer Rouge.

From 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia. They ruled by genocide, killing every educated person they could. You would even be killed if you wore glasses, because they assumed you knew how to read. The Khmer regime wanted to rebuild Cambodia as a completely agrarian society empty of books, schools and educational progress.

Just 30 years later, Cambodians like little Narin are falling in love with learning thanks in part to our partners at Room to Read.

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Meet Daniela: From a dust-covered face to a self-assured young girl

Posted by Erin on 01.25.2012 at 9:14 am

Six year old Daniela’s face never used to be clean. Her eyes seemed vacant and she rarely uttered a word. She only ever sketched single colored empty bubbles with the crayons and paper they gave her. Daniela had trouble concentrating and often sought refuge in “no puedo” (“I can’t do it”). When there were group activities she would wander off alone. Daniela spent her days wandering the streets of Quito, Ecaudor. She had no way to discover her own imagination and free her mind to the endless opportunities six-year-olds around the world should be granted. Daniela did not even have one book, let alone a chance to learn the fundamental skill of reading.

2 Comments » | Tagged Impact, Impact Vignette, LEAP

Maria & Antonio’s Story

Posted by Erin on 12.21.2011 at 2:09 pm

Maria looked deeply into her heart and said, “Now I feel like a person.”

In 2000, Maria legally immigrated to the United States from Spain and it took ten years for her to feel whole here. She could not speak with her older son’s soccer coach because her English was not fluent enough. Maria could not even visit the OBGYN alone to get a mammography when she had a breast cancer scare. She could not help her younger son with his homework because she did not understand the words.

“It was really hard when my mom couldn’t help me with my homework. And my dad has to go to work at night and so it was really hard,” her 10-year-old son Antonio told us.