Taking up the challenge

Hope Standard: 2009 October 28

You could hear a pin drop at Silver Creek Elementary during the Drop Everything and Read challenge, Monday morning. Students, teachers and even the principal, headed out into the hallways for some silent reading. Austin Christopher, Lindsay Lemay, Lindsay Flexhaug, and Katie Talarico brought their new ball seats out of their classroom - making for a very comfortable read. The B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) challenged everyone in the province to Drop Everything and Read for 20 minutes at exactly 11 a.m.. The Drop Everything and Read challenge began in Surrey in 2007 and became a province-wide event last year.

Simone Rolph

Hansard — House Blues — Monday, October 26, 2009 p.m.

Hansard — House Blues — Monday, October 26, 2009 p.m.

Schools drop everything and read

Victoria News: 2009 October 21

No matter what you’re doing Monday morning, librarians want you to drop everything and read.

As part of National School Library Day, an initiative to promote literacy, Drop Everything and Read hopes to get as many people reading at the same time, on the same day, as possible.

Victorians offer dental help to Ugandans

Victoria Times Colonist: 2009 October 25

Scroll down to Drop everything and read

The acronym is DEAR, short for Drop Everything and Read, and the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association and B.C. Teachers' Federation are hoping people all around the province take it to heart tomorrow.

Drop Everything and Read started in 2007 to help mark National School Library Day. The idea is to stop what you're doing at 11 a.m. and spend the next 20 minutes with your face in a book.

Drop Everything and Read . . .

Report Card: 2009 October 25

Get ready for the Drop Everything and Read event Monday at 11 a.m.

The event is organized by the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association and celebrates International School Library Day.

BC teacher-librarians (BCTLA) challenge the Legislature to Drop Everything and Read

BCTF: 2009 October 20

October 26, 2009 is National School Library Day and the third anniversary of the BC Drop Everything and Read Challenge. DEAR started as a small challenge between BC school libraries in 2007 and has since grown by leaps and bounds. The simple but powerful idea is to promote the importance of literacy by having as many students and adults as possible read at the same time on the same day.

This year, Victoria school librarian Karen Lindsay and the BCTLA are challenging the Legislature to participate in the DEAR Challenge as well. Imagine the message it would send to the entire province about the importance of reading if MLAs took out their books to “Drop Everything and Read” on October 26!

Organizer Karen Lindsay’s dream is to have everyone in BC put down their work, turn off their computer screens, pick up a book, magazine, or newspaper, and read quietly for 20 minutes on October 26 between 11:00 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. The event was a huge success last year. Dozens of schools representing thousands of students participated in the DEAR Challenge. Many schools across BC organized special events. Local celebrities—athletes, firefighters, police officers, politicians, parents—came in to read, “big” kids read to little ones, and group read-ins were held on playing fields. The response was uniformly positive, so positive that several schools decided to make silent, free-choice reading part of their weekly routines.

That is why the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association is so committed to this challenge. It gives kids across the province not only the chance to relax with books of their own choosing, but the opportunity to see the grown-ups around them model how important reading is in their lives.

Want to participate? This year’s blog is at http://bctladear.blogspot.com/2009/02/dear-drop-everything-and-read.html. To take the event “viral” the BCTLA has a Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/ktj3ea. On Twitter, search BCTLADEAR.

To see some of the participation and endorsements from last year go to http://bctladear.blogspot.com/2008/10/bc-school-trustees-association-has.html.

Parkland's librarian presents human books

Victoria Time Colonist: 2009 October 9

...Coming up for Parkland and many other area schools Oct. 26 is the annual Drop Everything and Read Challenge, which will see people in schools, offices and other gathering places stop whatever they're doing at 11 a.m. and read for 15 to 20 minutes.

"We've got the support of the school community," Rutten said. "Everybody for at least 15 minutes, including the office staff and maintenance staff, will drop everything and they will read."

Reynolds Secondary teacher-librarian Karen Lindsay, an executive member of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association, said a challenge has again been issued for MLAs to be part of the event. Last year, Premier Gordon Campbell, then-education minister Shirley Bond and many other provincial politicians agreed to take part.

Drop Everything and Read

Prince George Citizen: 2009 October 1

A challenge has been issued to Drop Everything and Read by the teacher-librarians of B.C.

On Oct. 26 at 11 a.m. everyone is asked to pick up a newspaper, book or magazine and read for 20 minutes.

In its third year, the B.C. teacher-librarians are inviting businesses, students, adults, even the Legislature to participate.

Last year, the premier, MLA Shirley Bond and several other MLAs participated in the challenge and the invitation is extended to everyone in the province.

Organizer Karen Lindsay’s dream is to have everyone in B.C. put down their work, turn off their computer screens, pick up a book, magazine or newspaper, and read. Picture offices where calls go to voice mail just for those few minutes.

"You have reached L & G Real Estate. We are dropping everything to read until 11:20. If this is an emergency, please call (a designated cell number). Otherwise, why don't you read along with us?"

The event was a huge success last year. Dozens of schools representing thousands of students participated in the DEAR Challenge. Many schools across B.C. organized special events. Local celebrities, athletes, firefighters, police officers, politicians, parents came in to read. Big kids read to little ones, and group read-ins were held on playing fields.

B.C. teacher-librarians want to draw attention to the importance of reading in the development of a successful human being. People know the more you read the better you get at it, and the ability to read with understanding is vitally important to success in the world.

Reading improves vocabulary, increases general knowledge about the world, improves one's writing, and is a great way to relax. Not so obvious is its ability to increase the reader's capacity for empathy, stimulate imagination and create new connections in the brain.

Drop Everything and Read

Aldergrove Star: 2009 October 1

October 26 is National School Library Day and the third anniversary of the BC Drop Everything and Read Challenge.

DEAR started as a small challenge between B.C. school libraries in 2007 and has since grown by leaps and bounds. The simple but powerful idea is to promote the importance of literacy by having as many students and adults as possible read at the same time on the same day.

Facebook: Drop Everything and Read BC

Facebook: Drop Everything and Read BC

Please join the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association for the 2009 Drop Everything a Read Challenge. Take 20 minutes on Monday, October 26 to celebrate International School Library Day, and to honour the contribution that school library programs make to students across BC. Take the phone off the hook, put down that mouse, pick up a good book and read for twenty minutes. Read to yourself, read aloud, read fiction, read poetry, read the dictionary, just read. Want to feel part of something bigger? Do your reading from 11:00 am to 11:20 when schools all over BC will be participating. Want to help? Forward the Challenge to your BC Friends. Write to your MPP and ask him or her to encourage the BC Legislature to Drop Everything and Read along with us.

DEAR: Drop Everything and Read

BCLA Browser: 2009

http://bclabrowser.ca/index.php/browser/article/view/7/20

BC drops everything and reads!

BC Teacher: 2008 November
Karen Lindsay

On September 2, 2008, the British Columbia Teacher-librarians’ Association challenged not only students and teachers, but the premier, members of the legislature, and people across BC to “Drop Everything and Read” for 20 minutes on Monday, October 27.

For many years, teacher-librarians have organized special school events to mark National School Library Day on the fourth Monday in October. This was the first year they took their celebration to the general public, and the response was wonderful. Hundreds of people signed up on the Drop Everything and Read Facebook page, and hundreds more on the BCTLA’s DEAR blog. People signed on from across BC and as far away as Israel!

Teacher-librarians agree that making BC the most literate province in Canada is a worthy goal. An educated population makes the province wealthy in so many ways. As teachers, they also know the impact that good modeling has on children. Seeing the adults around them put aside business for a few minutes to let pleasure reading be their priority sent a powerful message.

Originally the brainchild of Surrey teacher-librarian Bonnie Chapman, the Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Challenge was tested in many schools across the province on National School Library Day last year. Hundreds of BC students engaged in silent reading from 11:00 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. that day, and the response was terrific. “You could hear a pin drop!” “Kids didn’t want to stop after 20 minutes.”

This year’s campaign really seemed to capture people’s imaginations. Teachers and teacher-librarians invited their MLA, the mayor, trustees, their superintendent, local athletes and actors to come and read with their students—and they did! Parents took the DEAR challenge into their workplaces where they read quietly for 20 minutes away from the phones. Finance Minister Carole Taylor set aside “some pleasurable reading time in the Vancouver-Langara constituency office.” Premier Campbell commended the BCTLA on the initiative. And Education Minister Shirley Bond celebrated National School Library by taking part in the Drop Everything and Read challenge. At Carson Graham Secondary School in North Vancouver, students, and staff were joined by Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Steven Point in celebration of First Nations literacy.

Responses from schools were the stuff that warms a teacher-librarian’s heart. Several schools wrote to say they were going to Drop Everything and Read every month for the rest of the year. DEAR went well enough in some high schools that they are now willing to pilot a daily silent reading program that could become a permanent part of their timetable.

The BCTLA would love to see the DEAR campaign grow so that in the next few years other provinces take up the challenge as well. Given a few years’ practice, I think BC could take on the whole country in a DEAR challenge! One of the best things about DEAR is the way it puts everyone on the same page, if you’ll excuse the expression. No matter where you are politically, you can get behind the value of a few minutes’ peaceful reading. If your school was not involved this year, do not despair; DEAR will be back to celebrate National School Library Day 2009.

Karen Lindsay is teacher-librarian at Ecole Reynolds Secondary, Richmond.

DID YOU DROP EVERYTHING AND READ?

BCTF E-News
Vol. 8, No.3, November 12, 2008

On Monday, October 27, at 11:00 a.m., the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association was urging everyone to spend at least 20 minutes reading. Fifty reports are in from schools around the province giving numbers of students and staff who participated. At Carson Graham Secondary School in North Vancouver, students and staff were joined by Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Steven Point in celebration of First Nations literacy. MLA Claude Richmond, Mayor Terry Lake, school trustees, and councillors along with members of the Kamloops Blazers WHL Hockey team joined Sahali Secondary School in Kamloops and were featured on the local TV evening news.

You can read more at http://bctladear.blogspot.com/2008/10/send-us-your-numbers.html.

Shirley Bond

Minister Shirley Bond took part in the “Drop Everything and Read” challenge on Monday, October 27. The challenge was an initiative of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association, as part of the National School Library Day. At 11 a.m., people across B.C. were encouraged to drop everything they were doing and read for 20 minutes.

Educational Report

Pacific Newspaper Group employees stand up for literacy

Citizen Gallery

Prince George Citizen: 2008 October 27

http://tinyurl.com/d9fwal

http://tinyurl.com/bbpaqh

Send us your numbers

Just add your school name, district and count to the comments at the end of this entry!

MINISTER BOND DROPS EVERYTHING AND READS

BC Ministry of Education: 2008 October 27

PRINCE GEORGE - Education Minister Shirley Bond celebrated National School Library Day Oct. 27 by taking part in the Drop Everything and Read challenge, issued by the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association.

"Our family loves to read and has always made it a priority. I am happy to 'drop everything and read' to celebrate national school library day," said Bond. "I have also invited my colleagues around the province to do the same thing."

B.C.'s teacher-librarians challenged everyone in the province to Drop Everything and Read for 20 minutes at 11 a.m. today. The event began last year in Surrey but this year the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association took it provincewide and they hope that it will grow to become a national event.

"It's about encouraging young people to read and value literacy," said Karen Lindsay, vice-president of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association. "Studies clearly show that daily silent reading improves vocabulary, spelling, comprehension and much more."

"It is also important to say thank you to teacher-librarians and other educators who work so hard to ensure our students develop a love of reading and excellent literacy skills," said Bond.

Since 2001, government has invested more than $145 million in new literacy initiatives, including pre-literacy and early learning programs, such as $12 million to operate the kindergarten readiness program Ready, Set, Learn and $2.7 million for the ActNow Literacy Education Activity and Play (LEAP BC) program that encourages literacy, physical activity and healthy eating in preschool-aged children.

Set an example: Read today

20-minute reading session stresses importance of literacy

Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun
Monday, October 27, 2008

Drop everything and read.

That's what librarians are asking British Columbians to do today at 11 a.m. to mark National School Library Day and deliver a strong signal to children about the importance of literacy.

"The message it sends could be so powerful," said Karen Lindsay, librarian at Reynolds secondary school in Victoria and chief organizer of the Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) event. "It costs nothing [and] it has that Zen-like simplicity."

The DEAR project began as an experiment last year in Surrey, but this year it's being promoted provincewide and Lindsay is determined to make it a national event. She hopes answering machines everywhere will advise callers to ring back after the 20-minute reading time has lapsed -- unless it's an emergency.

The event also calls attention to the state of school libraries, described several years ago as being on life-support as scarce resources were stretched in different directions and reduced hours for teacher-librarians forced some library closures during the school day.

Whether things have improved since then is a matter of opinion.

Heather Daly, president of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association, said the situation is better than it was five years ago -- after the Liberals changed the teachers' contract and eliminated guaranteed staffing levels for libraries.

Staffing became a school board responsibility and the number of teacher-librarians fell as boards spent scarce dollars elsewhere. "Those were dark times," Daly said. "From that position, we've grown back and we're finally to a position where it feels healthy again.

"Provincially, it feels like things are more positive," she said, crediting the government's decision to give responsibility for all libraries to Education Minister Shirley Bond.

That linked school libraries with public, post-secondary and specialty libraries and allowed them to share resources.

Still, she said there are variations in schools around the province.

Moira Ekdahl, library consultant for Vancouver schools, said staffing in her district hasn't improved dramatically and there are still struggles to keep resources current but there have been some remarkable innovations.

Livingston elementary is leading the way with interactive white boards called Smart Boards, and John Oliver secondary has one of the most vibrant reading communities in the province.

"They have a rock-solid silent reading program," Ekdahl said. "Even the secretaries drop their tools to read every single day."

Kerrisdale elementary also has a well-equipped library, Ekdahl said. Teacher-librarian Michele Farquharson, who won an award of merit from her association this month, said staffing levels are always a challenge.

"It's not a rosy [situation] because it's not a well-understood position," said Farquharson, who has a .8 teacher-librarian position in a school with more than 600 students.

jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com

online: Read more education news at vancouversun.com/reportcard

Set aside Monday to praise libraries

Victoria Times Colonist Letter: 2008 October 26

On Oct. 27, the people of B.C. are called to do one simple thing: "Drop everything and read."

This task seems so easy, so commonplace, yet it is surprising how few of us find time to do it on a regular basis. National School Library Day is a time to examine how the demands of today's competitive and technological society have taken priority over literacy and the library.

However, this day is also a time to appreciate what makes reading and libraries important, what makes them triumphant still.

Every time I enter a library, I am taken back to the first one I experienced, at St. Joseph's Elementary School. The people, and books, I was introduced to there have had a lasting impact on how I view reading, writing and learning about life.

Dreams and ideas grow best in libraries; at least mine did, as I developed my love of literature, especially through the St. Joseph's writing club. Even now, as a Grade 12 student at St. Andrew's High School, I find myself going back through the halls of my memories and into that time and place where imagination came alive.

Raya MacKenzie, Saanich

DEAR Endorsements

• BC School Trustees Association has mentioned DEAR in the latest issue of their journal (You'll have to scroll down a bit.)
• DEAR has been added as an event on the Canadian Library Month website
• Electronic copy of DEAR poster provided to Public Library Services Branch; sent by them to public libraries for posting
• The BC Library Trustees Association has put DEAR in their latest Bulletin. More scrolling required.
• DEAR information & poster added to SD61 and SD43 website; endorsed by Victoria and VSB trustees.
• Media: Interviews with Victoria Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun, Comox Valley Record
• Created this Blog and DEAR Facebook event
• Janet Steffenhagen really heats things up with this posting in her blog, Report Card.
• A second post in the Report Card keeps readers up to date.
• Janet Steffenhagen's writes an article that is published on National School Library Day.

Premier Endorses DEAR

When I got home from the opening of the BCTLA Fall Conference last Thursday evening, I found this in my in box! (I inserted the photo, not Mr. Campbell.)

Dear Ms. Lindsay:

Thank you for sending me the news release highlighting the Drop Everything and Read initiative.

I would like to commend the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association for raising the profile of literacy initiatives. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of being able to read, write and understand numbers, as they are the basic skills everyone needs to be functioning and contributing citizens. The more we as a community can do to help people who slipped through the cracks, and to ensure all students get the time and attention they need to be prolific with language and computation skills, the better off we will all be as a society.

Moving literacy forward is key to a better future for all of us and I wish the Drop Everything and Read initiative every success.

Gordon Campbell

Premier

Drop Everything and Read update

Report Card
Vancouver Sun: 2008 October 26

The countdown has begun towards 11 a.m. Monday when we're all poised to Drop Everything and Read (DEAR). I posted a couple of days ago about this event and noted the organizer's dismay with a lack of response from Premier Gordon Campbell and Education Minister Shirley Bond - both big literacy boosters.

Well, Victoria school librarian Karen Lindsay happily advised me today that both are now on board. Shortly after my post appeared, Campbell sent her an email commending the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association for organizing the event.

"The more we as a community can do to help people who slipped through the cracks, and to ensure all students get the time and attention they need to be prolific with language and computation skills, the better off we will all be as a society," the premier wrote.

"Moving literacy forward is key to a better future for all of us and I wish the Drop Everything and Read initiative every success."

She also got a call from Bond's office, advising that a news release endorsing the event will soon be released.

"The Bond press release comes too late to create more participants for this year, but it is fabulous news nonetheless," Lindsay told me. "It raises awareness and creates a fast lane for next year's campaign . . ."

No surprise, I'll be reading the Vancouver Sun tomorrow morning. There you will find more about DEAR and school libraries.

Drop Everything and Read

The Report Card

Vancouver Sun: 2008 October 22

School librarians have a big event planned for Monday to celebrate National School Library Day. It's called Drop Everything and Read and librarians hope everyone in this province -- not just school kids -- will do exactly that.

The event got started last year in Surrey but this year, the B.C. Teacher Librarians' Association is taking it province-wide and organizer Karen Lindsay hopes it will soon become a national affair. She envisions 20 minutes of silence province-wide as everyone drops the tools of their trade and picks up a book.

"This is not just about an event," she explained "It’s about encouraging young people to read and value literacy.”

"The more that adults model reading, the more kids get it.”

In planning the event, Lindsay had hoped the legislature would be sitting and at 11 a.m., the Speaker would instruct MLAs to grab a book. It would have been a PR sensation. That was not to be, but Lindsay said she is pleased that former finance minister Carole Taylor has offered her support for the initiative.

What about Premier Gordon Campbell and Education Minister Shirley Bond, both of whom are great literacy advocates? (Bond is the minister responsible for the Liberal push to make B.C. the most literate jurisdiction in North America by 2015.)

Lindsay doesn't know what they will be doing at 11 a.m. Monday because neither has responded to her email invitations to participate. She's disappointed, particularly with the premier, saying: "I know he supports literacy. Where is he?"

Mr. Premier?

Way to go, Terrace

Lynn Turner, teacher-librarian extraordinaire, writes to report the following levels of participation in DEAR:

Thornhill Junior Secondary - 250
E T Kenney - 140
Clarence Michiel - 180

Well done, Lynn. Bravo, Terrace!

Reading challenge set to promote literacy across the province

Reynolds students Bret Enemark, 16, and Anna-Maria Trudel, 15, and
librarian Karen Lindsay prepare for the DEAR Challenge.
Debra Brash, Times Colonist

Victoria Times Colonist: 2008 October 20
Jeff Bell

Karen Lindsay is an easy person to read. She loves books, and she loves seeing people use them.

Lindsay, a teacher-librarian at Reynolds Secondary School and vice-president of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians' Association, is leading local efforts in a provincewide push to establish a special day when literacy and reading take centre stage.

The day's big event is being called the DEAR Challenge, short for Drop Everything and Read. Lindsay and her colleagues around B.C. are challenging everyone, from school communities to businesspeople to MLAs, to take 20 minutes out of their schedules on Oct. 27 and relax with some reading material. The occasion corresponds with National School Library Day.

The DEAR project, based on an idea from a teacher-librarian in Surrey, was started last year on a trial basis and was popular with students, Lindsay said.

"This year, we've worked on it a whole lot harder, and it's starting to develop a life of its own. There's a blog on it and there's a Facebook page on it, and there are lots of members on both.

"The big deal for me is the idea of taking it into the public. The government has said that it wants to make B.C. the most literate jurisdiction in Canada, and I just think this is a simple little idea that models something for kids. I get a feeling of purpose and peace when I think about it."

Schools throughout the Greater Victoria school district will be taking part, Lindsay said, and she would like to see things extend as far as possible into the wider community.

"I have a fantasy in my mind where you might call your real-estate office and there's just a message saying 'We've dropped everything and we're reading right now, if it's an emergency call this cell phone number'."

Beyond that, Lindsay envisions other provinces joining in, and B.C. emerging as the champion in a national DEAR event.

Most schools will have their Oct. 27 reading session at 11 a.m.

Reynolds will be a major participant, of course. Lindsay said the school already does something similar with daily "silent reading" times.

"The staff has become creative around the silent reading. Some of them, instead of having silent reading, might have kids bring in poetry or short stories that they love. The teacher might read to them or they might read to the class, and some people have even talked about getting an author in."

Lindsay said studies clearly show that daily silent reading improves vocabulary, spelling, comprehension and much more. Students thrive on having the chance to sit down and read "away from the threat of tests and questions," she said.

Asked if she had any recent favourites on her own bookshelf, Lindsay was quick to answer The Secret Life of Bees, a novel by Sue Monk Kidd set in the civil-rights era in the United States. A movie based on the book was released last week.

"I read it this summer, and it was so important to me that I intend to reread it once a year until I'm tired of it," Lindsay said.

On Facebook: www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=38741982688

Blog address: bctladear.blogspot.com/

MLAs

Have you heard from your MLA or the Premier?

BCTF DEAR Poster

Check your school for a DEAR poster from the BCTF.

Are you taking part?

Tell us about how you organized your school or district by adding a Comment below!

DEAR

The British Columbia Teacher-librarians’ Association has dropped the gauntlet. We are challenging the Premier, members of the legislature, and people across BC to “Drop Everything and Read” for 20 minutes on National School Library Day -- Monday, October 27.

Teacher-librarians strongly support Premier Campbell’s goal of making BC the most literate province in Canada and know the impact that good modeling has on children. Seeing our provincial leaders put aside business for a few minutes to let pleasure reading be their priority will send a powerful message to students and families.

Please invite your friends, organize your workplace to participate, contact your local media, and generally create a buzz about reading in BC. After the event, post your comments and pictures to this page or to our Facebook page.

Why so many are 'reluctant readers' and what to do about it

Melanie Jackson, Special to the Sun
Published: Monday, September 08, 2008

When Bobby O. stood up to read aloud, we all groaned. The next minutes, as Bobby stumbled painfully over texts by Sir Charles G.D. Roberts or some other venerable Canadian writer, were agony.

We were supposed to read along silently, so our eyes would be trapped on every syllable that Bobby mangled. Unsure of what he was reading, Bobby kept his voice to a dull, ambiguous monotone.

Eventually the teacher would cut short Bobby's turn at reading aloud, and pass with ill-concealed relief to the next student.

Bobby, everyone shrugged, was just not a natural reader. Educators would invent the term "reluctant reader" to define kids who reached the intermediate grades and floundered over texts their classmates absorbed with ease. In recent years, however, educators have reconsidered the case of the reluctant reader.

Maybe it's not that these kids don't take to reading. Maybe the way reading is taught doesn't take to them.

The traditional view was that teachers taught primary schoolchildren how to read. From intermediate grades on up, the teachers taught what the kids were reading. The gates to reading comprehension effectively clanged shut to the Bobby O.'s still struggling with the how.

In such new approaches as the Vancouver School Board's Later Literacy Project, students read texts they're comfortable with. Gone is the old idea of across-the-board texts.

"We want to make sure students have appropriate reading activities for their level, and opportunities to write for enjoyment," says Meredyth Grace Kezar, the VSB's later literacy consultant.

"We're looking at all the components of reading: fluency, vocabulary, comprehension."

Thus the advent of the so-called "hi-lo" text, with simple vocabulary, yet a mature enough storyline to appeal to older readers.

In other words, it's no longer an either-or between Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and Dick and Jane. With focused instruction, Kezar insists, all students can learn to read -- and enjoy it.

How do you tell when a reader blossoms into a good reader? Kezar cites the research of P. David Pearson, dean of Berkeley's Graduate School of Education.

According to Pearson, good readers make connections between personal experiences and what they're reading.

They break information down into key ideas and form their own conclusions. Further, they can infer, or fill in, information not overtly presented in a text.

For example, if a character in a novel is being ironic, the other characters may not get it, but the reader will.

Today, with the flow of information increasing and intensifying, we need lots of good readers, says Kezar.

She points to several awareness-raising initiatives in the Lower Mainland this fall.

The Surrey Board of Education has adopted a proposal by its teacher-librarian association that everyone Drop Everything And Read (or DEAR) for five minutes at 1 p.m. on October 22. Two days later, in Vancouver, Kezar co-hosts an International Reading Association conference on the reluctant reader.

A new Vancouver publisher, Gumboot Books, has just released a fictional anthology, The World of Stories, for different elementary-age reading abilities.

The book, with all proceeds going to community literacy efforts, will be launched September 9 at Caulfeild elementary in West Vancouver.

Says Kezar, "We want people to realize that it is never too late to get into reading -- and that it's never been more urgent."

Melanie Jackson, a volunteer with young writers through the VSB, is one of the B.C. authors who donated a story to Gumboot Books' The World of Stories (www.gumbootbooks.macwebsitebuilder.com/page/page/5659839.htm). Gumboot Books sponsors the Raise A Reader Brunch for Books at the Fairmont Waterfront on the last Sunday of each month.