Newspaper clippings · January 18, 2000

Sandy Banks on Rebecca Constantino and Access Books

Los Angeles Times column describes disparities between school libraries and Constantino’s book distribution work. The surviving clipping ends at the jump to E3.

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Sandy Banks She's Trying to Make a Difference, Book by Book She remembers the moment of her epiphany. She was a college student surveying local campuses for her dissertation on school libraries. As she walked the halls of a Brentwood elementary, her eye was drawn to a collection of student-made posters, marking the semester's 100th day. Almost every one was decorated with food . . . hundreds of Cheerios and kidney beans and pieces of macaroni, glued to posters to tally the days. "And I thought about the school in Watts that I'd just come from, and how the children there would never dream of using food to make an art project," recalled Rebecca Constantino. "And I realized that the gap between these two communities was as wide as the Grand Canyon." With serendipity, her chance to help narrow that gap came later that day, when she learned that the Brentwood school had hundreds of books to dispose of, to make way for new ones in its library. She loaded the discards in the back of her car and ferried them down to the Watts school she'd left, to stock its beleaguered library. And Project Access Books was born. There are 1,040 students—all of them so poor, they qualify for free lunches—at South Gate's Independence Elementary. The 2-year-old campus is pleasant enough, with air-conditioning, bright lights, new playground equipment . . . and less than one library book for every student. The children are not allowed to take books home—there are not enough to go around. So reading for pleasure is confined to one 40-minute library visit every two weeks. Is it any wonder, Constantino says, that our children are having trouble learning to read? "The best predictor of reading achievement is the number of books you have available to you," she says. Yet California ranks last in the nation in its financial support for school libraries. The average school library nationwide is stocked with 18 books per student. In California, our libraries average 13. In Los Angeles, the average is only five . . . and even that fails to reflect the inequities between suburban schools and those in the inner city. Research shows that children in poor neighborhoods have fewer Please see Banks, E3

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Sandy Banks
She's Trying
to Make
a Difference,
Book by Book
he remembers the moment
S
of her epiphany.
She was a college student
surveying local campuses for her dissertation on school li-
braries. As she walked the halls of
a Brentwood elementary, her eye was drawn to a collection of stu-
dent-made posters, marking the
semester's 100th day.
Almost every one was decorated
with food. hundreds of Cheer-
ios and kidney beans and pieces of
macaroni, glued to posters to tally
the days.
"And I thought about the school
in Watts that I'd just come from,
and how the children there would
never dream of using food to make
an art project," recalled Rebecca
Constantino.
"And I realized that the gap be-
tween these two communities was
as wide as the Grand Canyon."
With serendipity, her chance to
help narrow that gap came later
that day, when she learned that
the Brentwood school had hun-
dreds of books to dispose of, to
make way for new ones in its li-
brary.
She loaded the discards in the
back of her car and ferried them
down to the Watts school she'd
left, to stock its beleaguered li-
brary.
And Project Access Books was
born.
There are 1,040 students?all of
them so poor, they qualify for free
lunches-at South Gate's Inde-
pendence Elementary.
The 2-year-old campus is pleas-
ant enough, with air-conditioning,
bright lights, new playground
equipment... and less than one
library book for every student.
The children are not allowed to
take books home-there are not
enough to go around. So reading
for pleasure is confined to one 40-
minute library visit every two
weeks.
Is it any wonder, Constantino
says, that our children are having
trouble learning to read?
"The best predictor of reading
achievement is the number of
books you have available to you,"
she says. Yet California ranks last
in the nation in its financial sup-
port for school libraries.
The average school library
nationwide is stocked with 18
books per student. In California,
our libraries average 13. In Los An-
geles, the average is only five...
and even that fails to reflect the in-
equities between suburban
schools and those in the inner city.
Research shows that children in
poor neighborhoods have fewer
Please see Banks, E3