PEOPLE MAKING A DIFFERENCE

LitLinks

Mission: To foster enthusiasm for reading, especially among minority children, using multicultural literature.

Children’s Book Press, based in San Francisco, specializes in publishing multicultural books for children. It started the outreach program in 1998, and LitLinks now reaches more than 1,000 elementary and middle school students at 12 sites, mostly in California inner cities.

Children read books donated by the publisher as inspiration for creative projects. Students “publish” their writings, paint murals or develop Web sites, and meet authors and artists.

The venture is a public service, according to the nonprofit publishing company, though some schools end up purchasing more copies of donated books.

Three classes at Corona Avenue Elementary in Bell were the first in Los Angeles to participate. This past semester, fourth-graders transformed their classroom into a mock radio station. Teacher Howard Johnston interviewed students playing the roles of people documented in “Honoring Our Ancestors,” a book in which artists pay tribute to their roots.

The students also wrote first-person essays in character and worked on a paper mural of a painting by Chicana artist Patssi Valdez, who visited their class.

For LitLinks information, call (415) 995-2200 or e-mail cbookpress@cbookpress.org.

* Quote: “This program gives [children] the opportunity to meet people in a field they never would have before. It may cause them to think, ‘Maybe I can do this.’ ”

--Howard Johnston, teacher, Corona Avenue Elementary School