[Today’s topic adheres to four of ALA’s core values: diversity; education and lifelong learning; public good; social responsibility]
Went to the ALA website once again and performed a little retrospective review of Dia, which is an annual “celebration of children, families, and reading” that “emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.”
Here’s one of the many wonderful books written by Dia Founder, Pat Mora:
The book was published just a few short months after Mora founded Dia and is highly reflective of the celebration’s central purpose. Tomas and the Libary Lady is about a librarian instilling the love of reading in the child of migrant workers by (wait for it. . . .) loaning him books to read. The appreciative little bookworm takes the tomes home and shares them with his family. The tale is loosely based on the childhood of Tomas Rivera, who went on to earn a Ph.D. from OU and eventually became Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside.
I like to believe that my future will include such community enhancing encounters as Mora’s tale describes; however, with legislators like these, there appears to be as much advocacy in my future as mentoring:
Linda Summers
Letters from the Library 