How Hooked on Books! Makes a Difference
Hooked on Books! provides a one-on-one reading experience for 100 children in its after-school program each semester and for over 300 children in its noon-time summer reading program at the Neighborhood Art House.
The importance of one-on-one reading is stressed by reading authority, Jeff McQuillian in The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions, 1998. McQuillian points out that, “Children in low-income families lack essential one-on-one reading time.” He quotes from a recent report by the Packard and Macarthur Foundations that the average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one…reading. The average child growing up in a low-income family, in contrast, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading.”
Hooked on Books! can make a difference in reading scores.
Dr. Karin L. Dahl, a reading specialist of international fame (She has recently been invited to present workshops in Uzbekistan, Hungary, Australia and New Zealand in addition to publishing dozens of papers and books, and delivering many addresses in the United States.) is convinced that there is a direct relationship between what we do in Hooked on Books! and improvement in reading scores [a difficult relationship to prove]. She has offered to visit Erie to conduct a study to prove her thesis . . . and our experience.
Hooked on Books Creates a Book Culture at the Art House and in Children’s Homes.
The children attending the Art House enjoy a cheerful and inviting library of at least 2, 600 quality children’s books. In addition, because people in Erie associate Hooked on Books! with the Neighborhood Art House, hundreds of gently used books are donated annually. This means that we can give our children about 40 books each year to enjoy in their homes.
The authors of Reading Literacy in the United States, 1996, have pointed out that the relationship between literacy skills and the number of children’s books available in the home is essential to reading development. They found that 61 percent of low-income families have no books for children at all in their homes.