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Heritage to the Next Generation: Winter 2009

Bonnybooks for Literacy

Rob Alexander

The generous support of the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation [AHRF] supports Heritage to the Next Generation in Legacy for 2009 and on our web site [www.legacymagazine.ab.ca]. Stories focus on outstanding heritage projects of special interest to teachers and students.

Their motto is Finding Good Homes for Orphan Books, and their mission is to save as many gently-used children's books as possible. Rose Reid and Bonnie Ryan, librarians at Bighorn Library Services in Exshaw, will quickly admit, however, that their motto and their mission are really fronts for improving literacy.

Going by the premise that children who have books to call their own are more likely to become readers, Ryan and Reid have used their informal program, Bonnybooks, to distribute more than 22,000 orphan books over the past four years to at least 1,000 children, many of whom are members of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation attending school at Exshaw, Ta-Otha, Eden Valley, and Morley.

"It's really just a coincidence that these are mostly children from a reserve, but we're thinking in any area there are going to be children of poverty, children of immigrants, children with illiterate parents. . . . These groups are in every community. You don't have to live next door to a reserve to find kids who need this kind of service," says Reid.

Bonnybooks operates with no budget, no overhead, and no board of directors. Instead, it relies on literacy champions such as the Bighorn librarians and their group of passionate scroungers who spend numerous hours searching for gently-used children's books that might otherwise go to waste.

The program got its start as Ryan and Reid weeded books from the library's collection, deciding what to keep and what to discard. Ryan, who was then new to the Bighorn library, suggested giving them to children who may not have their own libraries at home, instead of recycling discarded books or sending them to book sales. As they talked, the pair realized that many families and the Bighorn library had a common problem: too many books.

"And then we just started thinking about it. There are families out there with no books and there are families out there with way too many books. This bridges the gap. Children like mine and Bonnie's have hundreds of books on their bookshelves and they don't read them anymore; they sit there and gather dust. This gives a second life to all of those orphaned books," says Reid.

With orphan books in hand, they started with the Exshaw School. This small school, with its mix of Nakoda, Canmore, and Exshaw children, sits across a field from the library. As many of the students speak Nakoda first and English second, they tended to read below their grade levels.

The Fraser Institute listed the Exshaw School, with its then 170 students, as one of the lowest achieving schools in the province. Well aware of the deficiencies within the school, staff, administrators, and the Canadian Rockies Public Schools Board had already been working on a strategic plan to improve the abilities and results of the students. Literacy was the first target.

As teachers and parents worked towards improving the school's literacy rates, Ryan and Reid happened to walk in with their idea of giving books to students. In the first year of the program, reading specialist Sheila Klein says anything Ryan put out for the Exshaw School students vanished.

"If you've got a starving child and you give them food they're going to eat it all. The kids were starving for books so they weren't discriminating," says Klein.

Jump forward four years and Klein will attest that Exshaw School has seen a positive change in literacy rates. Perhaps more importantly, she has seen the 150 students in Grades 1 through 8 become readers and, like any readers who love books, they have also become picky about the books they choose,"They are discriminating and they choose from what is put out there. I would say in general the reading levels of the children have increased by two years."

Grade 3 students Josie Daniels, 8, Alieka Kaquitts, 9, and Jade Lefthand, 8, all agree Bonnybooks has helped them to develop a love for books.

"They give us a lot of books so we can read over the summer and holidays," says Kaquitts. "They're interesting . . . and they're fun and you get to learn."

Daniels, who says she now has about 60 books, likes to read to her younger sister, while Lefthand says she collects books. "When I bring books home I put them in the bookshelf and what I do is I grab my favourite books and put them on the table and get ready to read them," she says.

All three admit life would be boring and frustrating if they could not read the books they have received from Bonnybooks over the past four years.

Ryan and Reid plan to continue finding homes for orphan books. They also hope to help other groups establish their own Bonnybooks literacy program. They share their ideas with eager audiences, most recently at the Alberta Library Conference held in Jasper last April.

"If Bighorn Library can give away over 22,000 books in four years," says Reid, "imagine how many could be given away if five or 10 or 20 groups were doing the same thing."

The only real requirements for Bonnybooks are storage and volunteers, and the program can be anything organizers want it to be, says Ryan. "Just keep a free book shelf stocked and let the kids take them. It can be as simple as that."

Winter 2009
Complete Contents of Current Issue

After 14 years, Winter 2009 is our 56th issue of Legacy and our last.

As Legacy's publisher/editor/owner, I have been fortunate to work with remarkable people. My sincere thanks to our thoughtful associate publisher Gurston Dacks and encouraging business psychiatrist/music columnist Ron Chalmers. To talented, remarkable designer Mark Dutton. To patient general managers Mary Oakwell, Liz Grieve, and Yoko Sekiya; and determined ad sales manager Andrea Kopylech. And to two of the best, most sensitive associate editors, Eva Radford and Naomi Lewis. Thank you, also, to the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation for supporting school subscriptions and to Enbridge, Elly de Jongh, and Melcor Developments for public library subscriptions. To the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for editorial support. And to our committed advertisers and many loyal readers.

I have looked forward each issue to wonderfully written columns by Paula Simons, Sid Marty, Ron Chalmers, Laurie Greenwood, Johanne Yakula, Dorothy Field, Gordon Morash, and Patricia Myers. And to beautifully crafted prose and poetry by well-known and emerging writers alike.

But I have decided that Legacy's own story will conclude now. Indeed, it has been fun. Thank you all beyond words.

Barb Dacks, Publisher