New Organization Hopes To Get Students Reading, One Book at a Time

When Larissa Steele and Paulette Greenfield envisioned Gift A Book Foundation, they sought to address the literacy needs of children who have little access to owning books.

That vision finally came to its first degree of fruition this week, when the foundation distributed boxes of brand new books to fourth grade classes at last Wednesday. The foundation has also distributed books to other schools in the Lawrence School District and to students of Far Rockaway schools. 

“We can do so much good by reaching out to children who don’t have the money to own books in their homes,” said Greenfield, who along with Steele co-founded the foundation. “We’re confident that it will make a difference in children’s lives that don’t have this opportunity.”

Each student is entitled to one book, and then has to fill out a “reader response” sheet, where they are given different options to express their feelings about the literature. Once the students complete the form, it becomes their “ticket” to selecting the next book of their choice. They can make this exchange at , located at 334 Central Ave. in Lawrence.

Greenfield said that the foundation hopes to sustain itself solely on donations.

“It’s very different from going to the library,” said Greenfield, who mentioned that a Lawrence fifth grade student, who was given a book on Monday, had already shown up at the bookstore with his completed response sheet in hand. “It’s designed to build their library at home and just get them reading.”

Steele, an assistant principal of in Inwood, echoed these sentiments and expressed how invaluable the foundation could be.

“If you can make these students readers before they move into middle school and give them more academic skills, you’ve turned their world around,” Steele said. “Once they start reading, it opens every door to them.”

The children seemed more than excited and thankful at the opportunity to read new books.

“It’s nice to not just read school books and be able to have a laugh with them,” said Munji Adman, a fourth grader at Number Five School. “Sometimes when you have nothing to do, you can just read and get carried into the books.”

Munji’s classmate, Ezgi Uigan, who plans to spend a lot of time reading this summer, said that she has some books, but not many.

“It’s really good because I like to read a lot,” Ezgi said. “I don’t have to pay for them so I hope there's a big one that I can read.”

Steele, along with incoming Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall and school staff member Joanne Sallie, visited different classrooms in the elementary school and explained the way the system works to all of the students.

“The fact that we’re able to put hard cover books on their bookshelves means these kids are going home with a real treasure,” Schall said. “These are beautiful books that they will have on their bookshelves forever.”

Along with the educational impact, Schall said that the partnership between Steele and Greenfield, a former parent of Lawrence School District students, represents progress in the relationship between public schools and yeshivas in the community.

“An administrator from a yeshiva working with a former public school parent to give these gifts to students is highly significant on a community level,” Schall said.

For now, Greenfield and Steele are focusing the project on a local level. However, Greenfield said that her dream would be to have the Gift A Book foundation help all communities where children could use a little help buying and owning books.

“I would love to have it in all areas where children would be able to benefit from it,” Greenfield said. “We can really help these kids, and by having adults who care about this, it translates into a better society.”

To make a donation towards Gift a Book Foundation, Inc., send to 361 Yale Ave., Woodmere, NY 11598. To find out more information, e-mail giftabookfoundation@aol.com