Book "Haves" and "Have-Nots"

There was an article by Chip Johnson in the San Francisco Chronicle Friday (1/28/11) about the opening of a beautiful new public library branch in a "beleaguered" part of Oakland. This library will serve, among others, two nearby elementary schools. As Johnson tells it, students "couldn't contain their joy when librarian Derrick DeMay opened up a box and showed them the new [books] inside." The article points out that many of the students do not have books in their homes. This is a feel-good story in that these kids will now have more access to books. But it also underlines the sad truth that the U.S. is increasingly a country of "haves" and "have-nots" in more ways than one. There is not only a huge and increasing economic gap, but there is a gap even in something as seemingly basic as access to books. Kids in middle-class families have casual, easy access to hundreds of books, at home and from bookstores and libraries; children from poor families, often immigrant families where the parents speak little English, may have very few such opportunities to hold, read, borrow, or own books. I am thrilled to hear of children's enthusiasm for books, but it breaks my heart that it is such a rare event for them to hold books in their hands. It is also shameful that a country that has billions to spend on wars, and that enacts increasingly generous tax breaks for the rich, cannot ensure that all children have ample access to books, which are the portal to knowledge, expansion of horizons, and a better future, and which should be a birthright for every child.