AB Teams Up With Canadian Children's Author for "Air Lift to L.A."

Access Books has scheduled its first library refurbishment of the fall 2010 semester: Bunche Elementary in Compton! On October 2nd, we're partnering with children's author Helaine Becker and the "Air Lift to L.A." team to get new books into Bunche's library. A recent article in School Library Journal highlighted our collaboration. From the article:

"'Canadian authors have banded together to EMBARRASS THE HECK out of the U.S. authorities who have allowed public school libraries in poor neighborhoods to wither and die,' Becker wrote on her blog  earlier this month. 'A functioning library in a school provides learning opportunities like none other. If kids in poor schools don't have a good school library, and the chance to read and learn at school, where exactly will they learn?'

Why Compton? CUSD's book to student ratio in the library averages 8 to 1, according to Access Books, while California's Department of Education has implied that K-12 model school libraries should have 28 books per student, according to the February 2010 draft of its School Library Standards."

Read the full article here, and if you're interested in volunteering for the October 2nd event, be sure to sign up!