Musicians Promote Books for Richmond Students

The San Francisco Chronicle featured a heart-warming front page story on how local musicians are helping Richmond students get books!  Indie pop-rock duo called Pomplamoose is offering a free MP3 download of their holiday album to anyone who buys a book.  Kudos to musicians Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn and their friend English teacher Tyler Hester.

Lots of individually packaged books keep arriving for the kids at Leadership Public School and for other Richmond schools.  Kids need their own books and books to borrow.  Access to books is key to higher literacy and thinking.  Note: Amazon is hard on the environment, but bulk buying via and for school libraries would avoid all the individually packaged books.

Read on a bit more and you will see the tragic reality of too many California schools:  "At Leadership Public, for example, the library now consists of about 500 dog-eared paperbacks housed in a former bathroom. Many were donated by folks cleaning house, which means the selection is fairly random."   And you wonder why kids from poverty don't have high literacy levels -- little or no access to books or a strong school library program! 

The California School Library Association has launched a public awareness campaign to promote California's blueprint for building strong school libraries.  Review the website at librarycampaign.csla.net/.  It would be most excellent if Pomplamoose and friends broaden their focus to rebuild all California school libraries.  Contact the Campaign to offer social networking skills, your voice, or donations.

Baby Come Back (Spoof of GEICO Advertisement)

Nancy Dowd posted this fun library video, saying "This wonderful PSA was created by students from the Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark. It won first place in a PSA contest sponsored by the NJ State Library."  Well done!  Makes you smile, too!