CAN children's books save the world?

This Thursday evening, May 13 at 7 p.m., The Riverside County Library System and the UC Riverside Libraries will be hosting the 2010 Arbuthnot Lecture featuring nationally known children’s literature expert, Kathleen T. Horning. The topic of her lecture is this: “Can Children’s Books Save the World?”  We think they can.
 
 
This is not just talk. We really believe they can. And we are betting that Kathleen T. Horning will agree with us. How, you ask, can something as simple as stories for children change the world? Well, first of all, it’s about the act of reading. When an adult sits down to read with a child, a certain kind of magic happens. There is a bonding around the traditions of language and cultural heritage that a child understands intuitively, profoundly, and immediately. Any parent who has read to a child knows this. And the act of reading a book with a child helps break the cycles of illiteracy and conditions the child that the act reading is a deeply pleasurable experience. Since 2002, the Riverside County Library System has operated a program with support from First Five Riverside called Project Read With Me, that encourages children to discover books and reading with their parents in the critical pre-school years. The staff of Project Read With Me know that children who are read to in their pre-school years start school with a huge advantage over those who do not and that advantage carries through the school years and into later life.
 
But children’s books can save the world in another way. Great children’s books open young people to a larger world, a world that exposes children to other cultures and people from other experiences. The best children’s books teach tolerance toward these diverse people and cultures. The good children’s books prepare a child for a world that is broader and more varied than his or her own immediate experiences.  We think that children exposed to these ideas at an early age will grow up to be adults free from hatred, fear, and anger. 
 
And that’s how children’s books can save the world. 
 
We hope you can join us Thursday night at the UCR Extension Center for the 2010 Arbuthnot Lecture.