March 19, 2007 (Vol. 5, No. 4)

Bronx Institute and NYPL Launch 'Read to Succeed' Project

It's still true that good things come in small packages. Last month, each eighth grader in the Bronx Institute's GEAR UP Network received a carefully selected work of literature, tucked into a gift bag with a specially designed bookmark. The books were the result of a new "Read to Succeed" collaboration between the Institute and the New York Public Library (NYPL).

Institute staff visited classrooms, distributing books in Spanish or English and giving a brief introductory talk. NYPL staff specializing in "Young Adult" materials provided a master list of recommendations. As the spring term concludes and students complete the eighth grade, they will receive another in a series of books to read over the summer. GEAR UP Network students entering the ninth grade will again receive a well-reviewed work of literature as they begin their school year. The goal is to create, over time, personal libraries of good literature to be enjoyed and shared with family members and friends.

"Until leaving Cuba as an adolescent, my world was filled with books that held adventures from other lands and stories of young people living all kinds of lives vastly different from my own," said Professor Herminio Martinez, executive director of the Bronx Institute, who developed the new initiative. "Reading a good book still remains one of the great pleasures in my life, and one I wanted to share with our GEAR UP Network students."

Along with the gift of good literature, the Bronx Institute GEAR UP Network joined with the NYPL to offer students a spring series of "author talks." On March 15, at the Library's Bronx Center, students attended a reading and talk with author Patricia McCormick and received copies of her book, My Brother's Keeper, which she autographed. Students earlier met and talked with illustrator R. Gregory Christie at the Nathan Straus Teen Central–Donnell Library Center in midtown Manhattan. In coming weeks, they will meet Rita Williams-Garcia, author of Fast Talk on a Slow Track, and Marta Moreno Vega, author of When the Spirits Dance Mambo.

The Bronx Institute and the NYPL also plan a Saturday family "author talk," featuring a panel of local Latino authors. This series of "author talks," along with the distribution of "Read to Succeed" gift books, will be ongoing throughout the course of the GEAR UP Network grant. In 2011, GEAR UP Network students begin heading to college.

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