Board seeks help to give away books to kids

The local First Book program is desperately trying to give away books to underpriveliged children, but having a hard time finding takers.

The program is sponsored by the Mountain Home Public Library but operates as an independent board, headed by Robin Murphy, covering all of Elmore and eastern Owyhee Counties.

The national program was started 13 years ago by a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who had been volunteering in the schools there. "She realized that a majority of the kids from low-income families had no books at all in their homes," Murphy said. "So she started First Book and since then the program has given away 13 million books."

The local First Book advisory board has raised more than $5,000 to help purchase books for children, from pre-school through high school, and using publishers' catalogues provided by the national organization can acquire books at an average cost of just $2.50 each. The advisory board and the library have handed out hundreds of books on their own, but the purpose of the board is to get other groups and organizations involved in doing it themselves, using grants provided by the local board to acquire the books they will give away.

"The money we've raised will buy a lot of books," Murphy said.

"Any groups in our area that serve at-risk children can apply for a grant," Murphy explained. "The basic criteria essentially is that 80 percent of the people they serve has to be low-income," which in Elmore and eastern Owyhee counties represents better than one in ten households. Any child eligible for the school districts' free and reduced lunch program, for example, is considered to come from a low-income home.

Any Title I school, or an instructor at those schools, can qualify, and all of the local schools meet that criteria.

So do a large number of local groups, organizations and agencies.

To get a grant, "all you need is a plan," about how you are going to distribute the books, Murphy said. "any group that sees a need and wants to give out books, they can do that."

But nobody has been taking the advisory board members up on their offer.

The local board will celebrate its first anniversary in November, but while it has handed out 450 books on its own in the last year, "nobody has applied for a grant," Murphy said, despite the fact that board members have made a number of presentations to local agencies and groups that serve the poor in this area. "I think some people are daunted by the paperwork, but we can help. It's not that scarey."

Any group obtaining a grant from the local First Book advisory board must agree to hand out a minimum of 4-6 books per child per year "although we prefer that they give out a book a month," Robin said.

"We can help them with the paperwork, ordering the books, and the programming. Anything they don't understand, we'll be there to help them," she said.

Reading, Murphy noted, is a vital skill required for success in the world, and the earlier a child learns to enjoy reading the more success that child likely will have in life.

"The school district's reading program calls for 90 minutes of reading every day. It touches every subject they teach," Murphy said. "I believe in math and science skills, but you have to be able to read the book, first."

Murphy said most children actually want to read.

"We have a habit of thinking that kids don't want to read, that they'd rather watch TV or do a video game.

"But when we give these books away, you should see how excited they are to have their own book."

Murphy, a librarian at the Mountain Home Public Library, said in her own experience, her parents didn't have any books in her house when she was a child. She didn't get her first book until she entered school, "and it took me a long time to discover I liked to read. Now I read all the time."

Books can be obtained in languages other than English, and at reading levels ranging from pre-readers (books parents can read to their children) all the way up to high school-level reading skills.

A new grant cycle is beginning and Murphy said she would like to have applications in during October.

To find out more about how to obtain a grant to help children obtain free books, call Murphy at the library at 587-4716, or e-mail her at elmoreowyhee_id@firstbook.org.