New Books, New Readers partners with adult basic education and literacy volunteers to share a powerful humanities experience with adults just learning to read, beginning to read and speak English, or working to improve reading skills. Using children’s literature at a variety of reading levels, a scholar/facilitator leads discussions and ensures that every participant is listened to. For many low-literacy adults, this kind of encouragement is new, and the books are the first books they have ever read all the way through.
“I’ve been a reader since the time I was tiny,” muses Bernadette Farrar, Instructor and Adult Basic Education Coordinator at the Houlton Higher Education Center. She recalls the importance of books early in her life, and how difficult it was to gain access to them in a rural community where the nearest library was 20 miles away. The bookmobile, which came every two weeks, was, Bernadette remembers, “a highlight.” Bernadette credits her mother, who loved to read, for her own love of books. She hopes to see this love blossom in her students, who face many of the challenges she did as a rural resident.
Feeling that this program is crucial for students who are parents, Bernadette works hard to encourage them to attend New Books, New Readers. “The spill-over for this program is incredible,” she says. Books commonly end up not only in the hands of students’ children, but in the hands of their nephews or a girlfriend’s child.
Houlton Higher Education students include people of all ages. Some are long-time adult basic education learners, and some are working toward GEDs. Others are taking classes as part of a college transition program—and Bernadette tells these students that the discussion they are experiencing in New Books, New Readers is equivalent to the quality of discussion they would have in a college classroom.
For all of its participants, the program has made a difference. “I’ve seen students who were really quiet and would not speak up in a group setting become comfortable. These are quiet people who I didn’t think would ever speak out in a group.” It also offers people a valuable connection with stories that they may not get in any other part of their lives.
“People still like to be read to,” Bernadette says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a child or an adult. You still like to hear stories. It takes you outside of yourself. It allows you to think of something else beyond your own troubles. It teaches self-awareness, that you’re not the first person, or the last, to go through this.”
New Books New Readers is offered with support from The Sam L. Cohen Foundation, Edward H. Daveis Benevolent Fund, Davis Family Foundation, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Maine Community Foundation’s Western Mountains Fund, and The Vincent B. & Barbara G. Welch Foundation.
