Building literacy by wagonload
RED Bookshelf co-founders take direct approach to getting books to Albany kids
Their problem was simple: The pandemic had closed many of The RED Bookshelf locations around the city. So the co-founders of the nonprofit figured if children couldn’t come to them to pick up free books, they would go to the children.
Rachel Eveleth and Mary Beth Fowler met Paul Collins-hacket, executive director of The RED (Read Every Day) Bookshelf, recently outside Swinburne Park and neatly loaded 240 books into two red wagons to begin their walking journey around West Hill. They had prioritized the neighborhood since the summer because it is low-income, and the nearest library on Henry Johnson Boulevard isn’t really near at all. The kids here almost always wanted and needed books — especially if they were free and looked brand new.
“This recharges my battery,” Collins-Hacket said. “It doesn’t get more grassroots than this.”
Every Monday at 3 p.m., they set out with their wagons and let kids grab any book they want.
“Just one, right?” asked a boy in a Pikachu shirt on a recent Monday afternoon.
“No, there’s no limit,” Eveleth said. “Get as many as you want.”
A mom pulled her car over on Third Street and asked if she could grab some for her daughters. “Absolutely,” Fowler said.
As Eveleth’s wagon screeched along, people would look over. Research shows that nearly nine in 10 kids who choose their own books are more likely to finish them.
A father grabbed “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” for his daughter. A 6-yearold grabbed a copy of “Rainbow Fish.” The Albany City School District has reported that 69 percent of third-graders were not reading proficiently in 2019.
While that doesn’t mean those children can’t read, it does mean they ’re not reading fluently enough to keep up with the material.
Eveleth asked Jaleesa Pulliam, who was looking for a Spanish language book for her daughter, to take a book from her wagon.
She asked a little girl in a pink dress on First Street, who shrieked with joy after finding “Where the Wild Things Are.”
She asked a shy boy sitting on his home’s porch steps on Third Street, who picked up “The Hardy Boys” and left with a big smile.
They asked everyone, and almost every kid was leaving with several new books.
And then a woman walked toward Eveleth.
“Make sure you’re off the street by 5 p.m.; killings are happening here,” she said.
“Everybody needs books, though,” Eveleth said.
She had seen so many children’s faces light up when the wagons came. She’d been told stories of how the books were helping families stuck at home during the pandemic. She’d noticed how there were barely any grocery stores in the area, let alone affordable bookstores.
She’d seen the studies of how children in lowerincome families were more likely to struggle with reading, and how that could lead to dropping out of high school, which could alter the trajectory of their lives.
“Everybody needs books,” she repeated.
The RED Bookshelf had placed 180 books in the hands of kids by the end of the afternoon. Since the start of the pandemic, they’ve distributed 18,000. They’re currently asking for donations so they can replenish their shelves with 10,000 books by November.
“The kids are the heroes,” Eveleth said. “We’re just giving them books, but they’re the ones doing the reading and succeeding.”