Free Books!

Thanks to Rebecca Janowitz for donating four boxes of leftover books from the Hyde Park Children's Book Fair for distribution around the neighborhood. Yes, the Bradys eagerly picked up a few. So did Ms. Ribs' grandson, who is an avid reader in second grade. Grandma Ribs suggested he write a paragraph for her when he finishes each book so she'll know what it's about, too. (Grandma was on the LSC at Gage Park High School back in the day, can you tell?)

Little Grandbaby Ribs informed me he is cutting his video game time back to just 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night. He heard too much gaming messes up your hands.

The Ribs' next-door neighbors have two grandsons, who happened to be out front of their grandparents' house when I was about to ring the Ribs' bell. Those boys picked out some books for themselves, too.

Of course the Bradys have had an initial raid, but when they stopped by yesterday I had only brought the first box in. Junior and his brother were here then, too. They all picked out books and the younger kids played a version of Memory with really pretty animal cards while I worked with Junior on his history fair report. Junior and bro came back today for more report research, and they both picked out more books. There was even a baby book in Spanish for their soon-to-arrive little brother.

I'll save some for the Bradys, School Lady's kids, a couple more kids on the next block up, and the little guy a couple of houses north. His aunt is worried about him. She saw me on Ashland last night and told me, "He's not learning anything in school." Looks like we'll talk on Wednesday, when she's off work.

The rest I think can be split up among Chavez, Big Picture, San Miguel and Second Chance. I think there's enough books for people of all different ages and reading levels to go around.