Read All About It!

Pitchfork was so great for Open Books, I’m not sure I can muster complete sentences about it. So let’s try a list — I love lists! — and photos. (All the pics are on our Flickr page.)

Open Books first-ever volunteering and tabling effort at Pitchfork Music Festival included these illustrious moments and memories:

• signing up more than 100 new members (woohoo!),

• playing Twister with friends, a toddler, a human pencil, and a dog (the dog won!),

• meeting educators from around Chicago and music and book lovers from all over the country,
• any chance to wear the pencil costume!

• indulging our artistic sides by making foil accessories for ourselves and new volunteers,

• dancing to Public Enemy with our froggy friend,

• almost but not quite jumping in the mud,

BEST OF ALL, fabulous Open Books volunteers got in free to the fest for working a half-day shift, and Pitchfork gave us $1,500 for literacy programs in exchange. Thanks to EVERYONE who helped create a wonderful weekend of music, games, and getting the word out — about the literacy cause and about how fun and rewarding volunteering with Open Books can be. Have a great week! - Erin

P.S. - Open Books staff and friends, who were your favorite bands of Pitchfork or your favorite characters spotted passing our table? I’m curious.

Posted on July 21st, 2008 by Erin
Filed under: Events, Out and About, Pitchfork Music Festival | No Comments »

The Open Books team had a blast at our info table last night at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. When we weren’t talking literacy with super CPS teachers, cool new volunteers, and excited visitors from Ann Arbor and Detroit who claimed first dibs on any Michigan franchises of Open Books (nice!), we were discussing our favorite books AND ultimate sandwiches, learning math-based tips for winning big should we ever get whooshed back in time to be contestants on Let’s Make a Deal, and last but not least, busting into a Public Enemy-soundtracked dance off, featuring Lane in the pencil costume and Christine in cahoots with Buster the frog. (I promise pics on Monday.)

Festival volunteers, we hope you’re having fun running the show, too. The gift of time you’re giving is netting Open Books $1,500 from Pitchfork for our reading and writing programs (!!!) and bringing the literacy mission (and some rockin’ music) to tens of thousands of festival fans. (If you take pics this weekend, send ‘em and we’ll post.)

There are two BIG days of Pitchfork still left! To quote The Carpenters, we’ve only just begun!

Please bring your friends and come see us at the table. We’re right by Windy City rollergirls and our literacy friends, 826CHI (what could be cooler?). You’ll also find two Open Books Buddies from our Bucktown site, Michael and Kristin, working at the Chicago Independent Radio Project’s record fair in the big tent. (You may recall CHIRP co-sponsored the Hidden Mitten’s Spring Sock Hop with Open Books in May.)

Finally, since I don’t have the cord to upload yesterday’s pics, I’ll share the one below from the Open Books Reading Garden at Schiller Elementary (by photographer Ryan Brown):

I learned from this pic that “hair pulled back, trying to look serious” is NOT a good look for me. However, if you can tell me why I sacrificed vanity to post it here and name the painting that inspired the pose, you can choose free books from my office next you’re at Open Books. . . . See you at Pitchfork, rain or shine! - Erin

Posted on July 21st, 2008 by Erin
Filed under: 826CHI, Events, Out and About, Pitchfork Music Festival | No Comments »

Perhaps I should say “A Biiiiiiig Week for Buddies!” The Open Books team just returned from Stanton Park, where we had 12 Big Buddies reading one-on-one with their Little Buddies, and 9 more Little Buddies reading with each in pairs and with our hosts from the Chicago Park District. It was the best-behaved, most book-tastic Buddies yet at Stanton Park. Thanks again to the intern team and to Liz, Mina, Deanna, Cindy, and Jane.

Here are some favorite pics:
Deon and Jane

(Jane is visiting Chicago this month from Wisconsin and has wasted no time making a difference in our community. Consider that a challenge, Chicagoans! If Jane can be a buddy, you can, too.)

Jasmine & Yasmine, peer buddies

Check out two things in this next pic: 1) The awesome scene of 40+ people reading! 2) The fabulous title of the girls’ book. (I hope they get to run a school someday!)

(*If you can’t see the title, it’s If I Ran the School. Cute!)

The only thing that would have made today better would have been more MALE volunteers. Kids absolutely go bonkers with joy for male role models and our ratios of men to women at buddies sites these days tend to be 1:11, 5:14, and 2:8. So, calling all guys! Tell your friends! - Erin

P.S. — For more fabulous buddies photos, check out our Flickr sets! Maybe you’ll see yourself!

Posted on July 21st, 2008 by Erin
Filed under: Buddies | No Comments »

My heart is even fuller than usual as I write today. All I can say is “WOW!” Really, WOW!

Hee. That was fun.

Anyway, as the literacy director, it’s my duty to say more than those three letters. So I’ll share this about yesterday’s Open Books Buddies programs:

• We had 29 adult Big Buddies reading with 41 Little Buddies in one morning in North Lawndale and Irving Park! It was our biggest day yet!

• It was our first day in North Lawndale at Holy Family Lutheran School, and we couldn’t have asked for a better time. Despite flat tires, stranded CTA trains, and lost interns, everyone still made it on time to the site, including 3 brand new Big Buddies. The kids and staff were wonderful and we can’t wait to be back next week. Way to go, everyone!

• The Irving Park volunteer roster almost doubled in size from the previous week (10 to 19!), and an administrator at Chicago International Charter School - Irving Park told me: “Open Books is our most popular summer program! Kids keep coming up and begging me to join!” In the spring, the Irving Park group started with just a couple dedicated volunteers, so this explosion of participation is extra heartening. I hope many of those Big Buddies will stick with us during the school year.

• We’re thrilled to have several teenagers as Big Buddies this summer, some of whom are brand new to Open Books and others whose parents are volunteers. How cool! Thanks to those guys for making community service part of their summer — and hopefully the rest of their lives! Keep it up.

• I heard from two Big Buddies that our program is leading them to teaching! (As a former 1st grade teacher in Texas public schools, that news couldn’t possibly make me happier.) A Bucktown and Stanton Park buddy wrote to me: “I had a BLAST last week! So much of a blast that I’m now seriously considering getting my teaching certification if the next few sessions go that well . . .” (I will do everything I can to make sure they do, Deanna!)

• Most of all, it’s been overwhelmingly inspiring to see the bond forming between buddies — and between the little buddies and the books. My North Lawndale buddy Donovan, though only 5, made up a story to go along with a picture book that was even better than the one the books’ author wrote. I can tell someday our Little Buddies will grow up to be writers, educators, and so much more.

BIG THANKS TO ALL THE BIG BUDDIES & OPEN BOOKS INTERNS FOR MAKING YESTERDAY’S BIG DAY SO VERY . . .

I’ll be back this afternoon with a report from Stanton Park. Let’s keep all the great reading going! And if you haven’t joined us yet, it’s not too late! Check out our Volunteer page and get in on the fun.
- Erin

Posted on July 17th, 2008 by Erin
Filed under: Buddies, Volunteers | 1 Comment »

A few weeks ago I found this New York Times article titled Reading into the Future that got me thinking about the changes to come in the book industry and, more specifically, the medium through which we read. To hold those soft pages in your hand that often leave their mark on you in both literal — paper cuts, ink smudges on your thumbs — and abstract ways; to smell that distinct, musty odor that can only emit from chapters yellowed with age. These experiences are unique to reading done the way most of us have grown up with: holding the remnants of a chopped up tree in your hands.

Whenever I browse through my local Borders, I usually play with the Kindle-like device on display. Kindle is a “wireless reading device” that allows you to carry around over 200 books in a contraption about the size of an iPhone. From the information I’ve gathered online, the electronic version of a book that can be uploaded to your Kindle (or similar device) is less expensive than purchasing the book brand new. (The latest titles are usually around $10.) In addition to the lower cost, another benefit is the fact that I could carry multiple books on a trip without taking up much space in my luggage. Thanks to American Airlines’s new policy to charge $15 to check a bag, I need all the space I can get.

However, I do have a few issues with the Kindle concept. First of all, I enjoy the idea of books — on top of what I described before, the bulkiness, the cover, flipping through the pages and, when finished, having a visual of all the pages I read are all part of my mental category of reading. Most importantly, though, is the fact that the use of such a device would require me to stare at a screen for long periods of time. Last summer when I interned for Obama I was on the computer all day. Nearly every one of my tasks involved the Internet and after a few weeks I started to come home from work with a migraine almost everyday. So much of our world has become electronic already that I fear my life will actually be a constant headache only a decade from now.

So to me the negatives of this new device outweigh the positives. Reading is an activity that I enjoy and it would be a shame if I had to suffer through migraines in order to do it. For now, I will stick to the good old-fashioned way of reading. (Poor trees!) But what do you think of this “revolutionary” way of reading? Leave a comment and let us know!

Posted on July 15th, 2008 by Jasett
Filed under: Books | No Comments »