November 15, 2023 | 12:00 pm
Opinion: Ideas that turn into books
Luiz Carlos Amorim *
Some time ago, I saw a practice that caught my attention. In a distant country – don’t ask me which one, because unfortunately I don’t remember – baby showers have a little different detail from the one we know and practice here in Brazil. The guests who attend the shower give gifts to the unborn baby and the parents – guess what? Books! That’s right: guests give books as gifts, books that represented a lot in the life of the person giving them, those considered the best and most important, and that could add something to the life of the upcoming child. Isn’t it fantastic?
Instead of just taking a pack of diapers, a piece of clothing, a toy – which will be consumed quickly – you give a gift that will last a lifetime.
In Brazil, a group of people gather books – ask for donations, collect them here and there – and gather works of various genres to take to the streets, early in the morning, and distribute to those who work at night or live on the street.
These are brilliant ideas to encourage reading, start training new readers and, consequently, make access to knowledge and travel on the wings of fantasy and imagination easier.
“While libraries are not a reality in
all the places where there are children studying,
there is a need for some of us to take
these children where there are books”
I would dare to dream more, to spread these good ideas, catching children on the outskirts of our cities, in the most deprived areas, where not even schools have libraries, to take them to discover and visit a real library. It is true that it would be much better to take the library to them, and I have already done that – I took my books, from my private collection and also the many children’s and young adult books and the textbooks of my daughters who have already grown up, – to start libraries in schools in the interior, where they did not exist. But while libraries are not a reality everywhere there are children studying, there is a need for some of us to take these children to where there are books so they can enjoy them.
The ideas are good, both to donate the books we have at home and that no one opens, to start a library in a school that doesn’t have one, and to take children who don’t have access to books to where they are. What is needed to improve them is to put them into practice, like those pioneering people, who during the day ask for books from anyone who wants to donate them and in the early morning take them to those people who work at night or who live on the streets.
* Writer, editor and reviewer, chair 19 at the Academia SulBrasileira de Letras, Founder and president of the Literary Group A ILHA, with 43 years of experience. http://luizcarlosamorim.blogspot.com.br
Note: Signed articles do not necessarily reproduce the opinion of the newspaper Diário do Aço
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