Debby Block, Librarian at Levine-Sklut Judaic Library
Books are a treasure to keep forever!
By Debby Block
Librarian, Levine-Sklut Judaic Library
Owning, reading, and treasuring your very own special books is an experience many of us know and value. I still remember the first books I ever purchased for myself in third grade. As a matter of fact, I still own that small set of books by Maurice Sendak! We wanted the children at Shalom Park Freedom School to be able to experience the joy of beginning their very own collection of beloved books, so a new program was developed for the summer of 2013.
The new initiative is called “Six Weeks! Six Books!” and allows each child who attended Freedom School to choose six books, one each week of the six week Freedom School literacy-based program. Each week, the scholars came to the Levine-Sklut Library and selected a gently used book. Each book was then personalized by adding a bookplate with their name. During the last week of camp one student said “I love Freedom School because I get a new book every week.”
“Six Weeks! Six Books!” was truly a big success and we are proud to say that Shalom Park Freedom School is the first to develop this initiative. Harriet Meetz, 2013 SPFS Volunteer Coordinator, believes that “this program will become a ‘best practice’ that other Freedom School sites will want to emulate.” Thanks go to Amy Lefkof for creating the concept and to the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library for managing the program. Many thanks go to those of you who generously donated books. Your contributions made a lot of faces light up with joy. And working with the Shalom Park Freedom School scholars was the highlight of my summer!
