Make local authors part of happy books project

THE EDITOR: I highly commend and congratulate the National Library and Information System Authority (Nalis) and McDonald’s for the launch of the Happy Meals Books programme earlier this month.

I cannot endorse this initiative more for its timeliness, since it is likely that the dangerously escalating misdemeanours in our secondary schools could have had their genesis in students who would have passed the SEA Examination with barely 30 per cent of the total marks.

It is obvious that they have been shunted into secondary schools without having acquired the rudiments of reading, much more having some of the skills of functional literacy.

As articulated by Kalifa Duncan, market supervisor of McDonald’s TT, “...this programme provides children and their families with the opportunity to enjoy a truly enriching experience which will stimulate children’s learning and creativity and inspire their imaginations...”

I dearly hope that this project would continue for as long as possible so that children would become self-motivated to read more toward achieving functional literacy, and that it could be expanded to other locations and branch libraries as well.

I am not sure whether this endeavour is solely the collaboration of McDonald’s and Harper Collins Publishers, whose books provided the stories such as Amelia Bedelia’s First Day in School, Pete the Cat’s Got Class, Just a School Project and If You Take a Mouse to School that were read by members of our TT volleyball team.

However, my humble suggestion is that Nalis, actively involved in this venture, also include stories by our own Dr Merle Hodge, Michael Anthony, Earl Lovelace and others whose works can easily compare with the ones read at the launch.

Moreover, the target audience would more readily be able to identify with the protagonists, local settings and voice of these additional stories, even though the stories read at the launch were enjoyed by all.

Having recently published two books of age-appropriate local short stories, Mammie’s Folklore Stories and Caribbean Sunshine For Mammie’s Children, which incorporate and foster positive values, mores, family life, respect for the elderly and the differently-abled, I would like to offer some free copies to both Duncan of McDonald’s and Kamella Carmino of Nalis toward this worthwhile and vitally important labour of love.

EVA DAVID PETERSON SWAIN, Sangre Grande

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"Make local authors part of happy books project"

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