Dear Members and Friends of The Center,
This month, more than 200 children from one of our partner NYC public schools welcomed KidsRead / KidsWrite author Samantha Clark, a copy of whose book Arrow they had each received, read, and written about. With considerable emotion, their teacher called to thank us, saying that in all her years of teaching at this school, where so many children live below the poverty line and 14% live in shelters, she had never seen her students relate to a story with such fervor and be so excited to meet the author and share their thoughts and ideas for their own stories.
Through the magic of fiction to spur the imagination, these young people were transported to an enchanted rainforest where a boy raised alone by a Guardian Tree must decide between saving his home from invading humans and joining his own kind. Though these students, like many of us, had not seen a rainforest, the world became that much more connected to them through Samantha's compelling fable. They not only understood the danger of depleted rainforests to everyone on Earth, but made links to what was not right in their own environment, exploring what they might do to help. KidsRead / KidsWrite finds dynamic authors who use the power of storytelling to help young people better know themselves and who they can be, and I could not be prouder to contribute to this alchemy through my work at The Center for Fiction.
Sincerely,
Allison Escoto
Director
KidsRead / KidsWrite
|
|
Your kind support of KidsRead / KidsWrite will help develop a love of reading and writing among children and young people in 2022 that will last their whole lives long. A contribution of any amount will help us reach more NYC public schools and more grades within the schools, conduct more Writing Workshops for middle grade and high school students, and develop more creative writing contests for young people in different age groups.
Please consider a gift of $25, $50, or $100. We will thank you with a special Center for Fiction KidsRead / KidsWrite bookmark and a book for a special child in your life.
We thank you enormously for this consideration!
|
|
The Center for Fiction annually serves 2,500 students from under-resourced New York City public schools in grades 3 through 12 with author-led reading and writing events and workshops. In these divisive times, we believe that our guiding educational and artistic vision for KidsRead / KidsWrite, based on the power of storytelling to show us who we are and who we imagine we could be, has heightened value. Creating interest in telling stories for children and young people of all backgrounds who hunger to see their lives reflected in print has never been more important. To be able to tell their own stories and have their voices heard, young people need to read stories that evoke a shared humanity in which they see themselves. They need to read authors representing immigrants, people of color, ethnic minorities, and those with different sexual orientations and gender identities, and they benefit from listening and engaging with these authors, who inspire them to act on their dreams of becoming and making a difference in this world. Fiction and narrative non-fiction are an important means of creating empathy for children and young people, but to do so there must be programs like KidsRead / KidsWrite to spotlight authors and artists who work their magic on both our actual and virtual stage.
For more about The Center for Fiction, please watch the brief video below and visit our website at centerforfiction.org.
|
|
|
|
