Read All About It!

Neci Riley has been an inspiration to all of us at Open Books! She is not only a fantastic writing coach, but also helped us out with Chicago Reads Day, where she introduced an audacious group of pre-K students to the magic of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (an Open Books favorite).  From all of us: thanks, Neci!

Volunteer All-Star Stats

Name: Neci Riley

Neighborhood: Tri-Taylor/Little Italy

Job or school: Government Relations Professional

Open Books programs and events you’ve participated in: Chicago Reads Day and Adventures in Creative Writing Field Trips

The 10 questions We Always Ask!

How would you spend your last 24 hours if you knew the world would end in the morning?

I’d travel with my family & friends to Brazil and spend the day at the beach.

What was your dream job when you were 5?

When I was younger I wanted to be a lawmaker.  I’ve always been fascinated with politics and the legislative process.

If you could have dinner with 3 people (real or fictional), who would you invite and what would you eat?

I’d invite motivational speaker Jack Canfield; Ursla Burns, CEO of Xerox and the first black woman to be CEO of a Fortune 500 company; and President Obama.  We’d have Puerto Rican food. Everything is fried & good!

What was your favorite childhood toy or game?

Uno & Connect Four. I still play every chance I get.

If you had one superpower, what would it be?

Hmmm. Good question.  I don’t know. I guess to have healing powers.  I’d go around touching everyone & making them all better.

What secret obsession do you have that no one knew about before this interview?

Lip balm! I can’t go anywhere without it.

What makes you laugh uncontrollably?

Seinfeld & Golden Girls.  I think I have seen every episode.  I can watch those shows over & over again and crack up each time.

What book are you reading right now?

No Matter What by Lisa Nichols, Cooking with Grease by Donna Brazile, and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.  I’m always reading 2-3 books at the same time.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

I love, love, love chocolate ice cream & Snickers from Cold Stone.

What is playing on your iPod/record player these days?

Ledisi’s “Turn Me Loose.” She’s awesome!

GreatNonprofits.org – a site like Yelp – is conducting a contest to find the top-rated youth-focused nonprofits around the country. We’re asking our volunteers, donors, friends, and partners to post a quick review of your experience with us.

Reviews are easy, take about 3 minutes, and will help us recruit new donors and volunteers. Plus, if you write a review, you have a chance to win prizes from Birkenstock, Cliff Bars, Wild Planet Toys, Greyson Bakery and more!

The organization with the most reviews in September will be featured on GreatNonprofits and Guidestar, a key site for philanthropic research on the web. Please go to “Find Reviews” at
greatnonprofits.org and search for OPEN BOOKS LTD to post a review to our page!

A Funny Day

By Kyree

One day I was eating a sub and a pop. Then my brother Kiel told me to come here in the hallway to Snowy’s cat bowl and told me to eat some cat food. I ate it and it was dry, crunchy, and it made me throw up. Then I had some of the cat water and it tasted funny. Then I told my brother to go eat my bulldog food and see how it feels to eat pet food. The reason I did do it was because my brother told me if I don’t do it he will dump my head in the dumpster where it was full of bats. Then when all fell down laughing on the floor. The end.

A Good Day

By Dominique

One day it was my cousins’ birthdays. Their names are Doryan and Taryana. They had it at Foster Park in the indoor pool. It smelled like chlorine. I was scared to get in the water so my brothers picked me up and threw me in the water. It was cold. After we got out of the pool we went to the park and were playing on the swings and it was getting dark so we went to their house. There were a lot of balloons and confetti. They had the music on. We were listening to hip hop and R&B. It was loud. Then we ate cake and ice cream. Then I went home and went to sleep. I only went to sleep for 1 hour. Then I had to make me a lunch. I made a sandwich, pop, candy, cookies, and chips so I could go to Open Books.

Sometimes I find the comments kids leave after the field trip to be as adorable as their stories. My favorite from today was “This was the best field I ever went to!”

As much as we hate to say good-bye to summer, we love having our regular field trip schedule back up and running! This week, we had the pleasure of working with some tenacious fourth grade students from Morgan School in Chatham. We know you’ll love these stories as much as we did.

By Khrishawnda

One day I went bowling with my dad. I was so excited to go bowling with him. When we got there, I saw my mother and my grandmother were already there, so I ran to my grandmother and hugged her while my mother and father talked to each other. My dad started to get nervous because of what had happened last time. I walked over to my dad and said, “Please don’t be nervous, Dad.” He said, “I know.” But he still was nervous. I told my mother to talk to him while I went to talk to my grandmother. My grandmother told me, “A long time ago, your dad came to this same bowling contest. When he ran up and got the ball he swung it, and his pants fell down.” I asked my dad if that’s why he was nervous all that time, and I gave him a big hug. He said, “I’m not nervous any more.”

The Bad Day
By Janisha

My cousin’s birthday was on April 10th. She went to the mall to get a birthday outfit. She was at my aunt’s house while she was waiting for her dad and sister to come get her so that they could spend her birthday together. Their mom came in crying because their dad had just gotten shot and he was in the hospital. A few minutes later, the hospital called and said that he had died because he got shot in his head. So my cousins, my aunts, my mom, my brothers, and I started crying. But the saddest part was that they did not get a chance to say bye.

Yesterday morning, for Chicago Reads Day, 40 Open Books staffers, interns, and volunteers read with 400 Head Start pre-K students at six community centers around the city. As you can imagine, it was quite the adorable, action-packed morning! We enjoyed stories about skeletons and dinosaurs, numbers and colors, and just about anything you would imagine three- and four-year-olds clamor to read about. Check out all the great pics on our Flickr page.

Open Books co-sponsored the event with City of Chicago, which sent an official or staff member to each of 40 sites around the city to serve as special readers for the morning. We had the pleasure of sharing reading time with Commissioner Mary Ellen Caron of the Department of Family and Support Services, Deputy Commissioner Elise Mann of the Department of Children and Youth Services, 3rd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell, and more.

Thank you so much to all the volunteers who attended and shared their love of reading with the (very excited, welcoming, and of course, wiggly) pre-K kids. And thanks also to the welcoming administrators of the community centers we visited: Erie Neighborhood House in West Town, YMCA in Garfield Park, Onward Neighborhood House in Belmont-Craigin, Gads Hill Center in North Lawndale, Center for New Horizons in Bronzeville, and Chicago Commons in Humboldt Park. We hope to see you soon and partner on literacy programs whenever possible!

Chicago Reads Day was a fun warm-up for the fall session of Open Books Buddies. Keep an eye on our web site and e-mails in the coming weeks. We’ll be ecstatically announcing start dates, sites, and times.

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone! — Erin Walter, Literacy Director