New Haven Independent

Last Friday was an open house at New Haven Reads’ Book Bank. Kids who came in for a free book also got snacks, fruit and something to drink.The event was a celebration of the center’s new, Yale-donated building at 45 Bristol St. The bright new space resembles a library, minus the call numbers and the one rule that defines all libraries. (Here, you get to keep the book.) This works for the kids who populate the book bank after school and on Saturdays.

“They get out at 2:30, and they’re here by 2:45,” said Christine Alexander, director of New Haven Reads and one half of the two-woman volunteer team that runs the program.

In addition to the free Book Bank, there are tutoring services for children and adults and a weekly kids’ writing club.

At Friday’s writing club, the kids were a little more fidgety than usual, probably due to the festivities (there were balloons), or to the cookies that were within easy reach.

“What’re we writing about?” asked one of the kids, arriving late at the table.
“We’re writing about our dream party,” said Geraldine Gassam, a junior at Yale who has been running the writing club since February.
“I never had a dream party,” said one of the smaller of them.
“What’s a dream party?” asked another.
“It’s the party you best want to have,” said a serious boy already into his essay. “Write who would you invite, what food you would have…”
“Guys, guys. No talking, just writing, OK?”
“How do you spell ‘Orlando’?”
“Sound it out,” said Gassam. “Or. Lan. Do.”

Summer time is crunch time for volunteer tutors, as most of the Yale volunteers leave New Haven for the break. Over 100 people are currently being tutored, but 60 children remain on the waiting list.

The program could also use money.

“We live on donations,” said Maud Sandbo (at far right in photo, with Alexander at far left), the other half of the team that runs the book bank.
“Yale Class of ‘55 has been generous,” she said, as have private donors, local banks, the United Way, Wal-Mart, and others, but the program lacks a corporate sponsor.

In the meantime, books are always welcome. “We take books in good condition. No moldy books, encyclopedias, or Readers’ Digest Condensed Books,” said Sandbo. Cookbooks are popular. So are large-print books. And of course, children’s books are a commodity. Sandbo asks that those who want to donate call in advance, and be sure to bring the books during operating hours (Monday through Friday, 1-6; Saturdays noon to 4).

A 1999 National Assessment of Educational Progress study found that having different types of reading materials around the house had a positive correlation to students’ average reading scores. This is what Maud Sandbo and Christine Alexander hope to influence when they encourage kids to take home a book of their choosing. It’s what they hope for when they hand books out to shoppers at the Shaw’s on Saturday morning, and it is already what they are achieving with their tutoring program, which teams volunteers from Yale and the community with local kids who need homework help.

“A kid who walks in hating reading and thinking he’s stupid will walk out of here and think, ‘maybe I can do this,’” said Sandbo.

New Haven Reads can be reached at (203) 752-1923.