Read Books

When Dr. Diana Fertsch hands her young patients a prescription, it may be for books rather than medicine. And patients who follow the doctor's orders go home with more than a free lollipop.Since January, doctors from Dundalk Pediatrics have been cooperating with area preschools and librarians at Baltimore County's North Point Library to promote reading and a love of books among young children through a program called Prescription to Read.Doctors write prescriptions for children between 15 months and 6 years of age to "take four books a month" from the library.

Veteran Baltimore County teacher Helen Zeitzoff may have retired from her day job, but these days she keeps busy writing books that help elementary-school teachers enhance their students' reading skills. Upon her retirement, Zeitzoff, who taught third grade for 32 years, introduced a school-based tutorial program for first-graders to reinforce their developing early literacy skills. In addition, Zeitzoff started her own private tutoring practice where she has worked with children from first to sixth grade.

When Howard County judges throw the book at defendants, they really mean it. For the past few years, two District Court judges have been treating defendants like grade-school pupils, sentencing them to read books and write book reports. Most of the assignments are aimed at drunken drivers. But the judges have occasionally ordered heroin addicts to read "The Corner," a tome about life on the streets in Baltimore, and one judge has sentenced thieves to read "Les Miserables," the classic novel about justice and injustice in 19th-century France.

I have something for you. In June 2010, I wrote in this space about a book, "The New Jim Crow," by Michelle Alexander, which I called a "troubling and profoundly necessary" work. Ms. Alexander promulgated an explosive argument. Namely, that the so-called "War on Drugs" amounts to a war on African-American men and, more to the point, to a racial caste system nearly as restrictive, oppressive and omnipresent as Jim Crow itself. This because, although white Americans are far and away the nation's biggest dealers and users of illegal drugs, African-Americans are far and away the ones most likely to be jailed for drug crimes.

''Last year, 60 per cent of U.S. households did not buy a single book, says a study by the American Booksellers Association and two other publishing groups.'' --News itemAngelina County, Texas. -- Most everybody has some opinion or another as to why America's education system is foundering. I have mine.It's simply this: Enough parents don't buy books.It gets even simpler. If you have books in your home, you tend to read books. If your children see you reading books, they'll tend to read books.

" 'If I Ran the Zoo' by Dr. Seuss is my favorite book. This book is all about zoo animals with funny rhyming words and imagination of weird structure of the animals like the 10-legged lion. This book is for children of all ages who really like poems."-- Sathvik BalaramElkridge Elementary School"My favorite book is 'Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales' by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. I like the part where the prince kissed her and she awoke. This is a good fairy tale book."-- Rebecca ReitmeyerSolley Elementary"I enjoyed reading 'My Teacher Glows in the Dark' by Bruce Coville, because I love to read books that are scary and amazing.

Because I am a writer who's been published by small presses, I tend to read books by university and small presses. Those publishers are giving something - some great literary works - we can't get elsewhere.I'm re-reading Josephine Jacobsen's "Collected Works," which is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. ... There's one story I particularly like, "Nel bagno." It's about a women who's going on a trip but gets stuck in a bathroom before she departs. There's this moment when she realizes that everyone will think she's already left, so no one will rescue her. It's an intense story; it really shows Jacobsen's talent.

The National Endowment for the Arts has good news for authors, at least those who write fiction. For the first time in 26 years, the number of Americans who read literature for pleasure has risen, according to its latest survey. More young adults are reading than ever, even if they're now getting their fiction and poetry online. Call it an astonishing reversal of decades-old cultural decline or just good old-fashioned escapism - the survey counts supermarket pulp fiction as well as classics like War and Peace - but the fact that recreational reading is growing again offers hope for the continued life of the mind.

Over the last several decades, rapid changes in the configuration of families have taken place. The traditional family consisting of a working father and a mother at home raising a son and a daughter, is no longer the norm. The number of families in which both parents work outside the home is on the rise, and families move more often than previously. Busy schedules create a challenge for maintaining a strong family environment, and the extended family plays an important role in the lives of children.

In Baltimore County Elmwood pupils use theme of `Oz' to boost reading ROSEDALE -- It's more slapstick than "Wizard of Oz," but pupils at Elmwood Elementary School are looking forward to April 26, when the two who have read the most minutes in each grade will throw pies in the faces of Principal Sharon Attaway and Vice Principal Peggy Schafer. The event is part of the school's "Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Good Reading" contest, in which each grade represents a character in the movie "The Wizard of Oz" and moves along the Yellow Brick Road as the number of minutes they read increases.

This Christmas, don't give your wine lover the standard issue 750ml. Give him or her another type of mind-expanding experience: books. There are wine books that are didactic in nature and books that read like novels and books that are novels that incorporate wine, food, culture and a spicy intrigue. Then, there are those books that upset conventional belief and challenge the status quo. Here are my picks for each category: "A History of the World in Six Glasses" by Tom Standage, $25 (didactic)

Our bookshelf is looking a bit sad lately. So we enlisted some of the young staff at Enoch Pratt Free Library branches to give us their picks for books they're loving right now.

All week on Read Street, folks have been describing their polygamous reading habits. I was shocked - shocked - to learn that some people are reading three, five, even 10 books at once. I'm a one-book man, the kind of guy who makes a commitment to a book and doesn't abandon it when the next pretty cover happens by. I can imagine this scene, when one of the polygamist readers comes home: "So where have you been all night? I've been here, with that Barnes & Noble bookmark stuck on page 135, just waiting for you to come back."

The National Endowment for the Arts has good news for authors, at least those who write fiction. For the first time in 26 years, the number of Americans who read literature for pleasure has risen, according to its latest survey. More young adults are reading than ever, even if they're now getting their fiction and poetry online. Call it an astonishing reversal of decades-old cultural decline or just good old-fashioned escapism - the survey counts supermarket pulp fiction as well as classics like War and Peace - but the fact that recreational reading is growing again offers hope for the continued life of the mind.

I had thought it was just me. In reading the cover story in the new issue of The Atlantic, however, I learned that I am not alone. There are at least two of us who have forgotten how to read. I do not mean that I have lost the ability to decode letters into words. I mean, rather, that I am finding it increasingly difficult to read deeply, to muster the focus and concentration necessary to wrestle any text longer than a paragraph or more intellectually demanding than a TV listing. You're talking to a fellow whose idea of fun has always been to retire to a quiet corner with a thick newspaper or a thicker book and disappear inside.

The Tempest Tales Stand the Storm By Breena Clarke Little Brown and Co. / July 2008 / $24.99 After achieving international success with her debut novel, River, Cross My Heart, which was an Oprah book-club pick, Washington native Breena Clarke has returned with a gripping novel about a family's heart-wrenching journey out of slavery. The Coatses managed to purchase their freedom only to face seemingly insurmountable obstacles trying to establish a new life in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood.

"Poppy by Avi is a great book. It's about a cute mouse on an adventure to find a new home. On the way, he has to go through some hard and scary things. When you finish the book, you can read the next book: Poppy and Rye. I really recommend these books." -- Martha Plack Bryn Mawr Elementary "I read a good book called Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. The characters are Pooh, Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore and Owl. Pooh goes on silly and funny adventures because he wants honey. I like this book because it is interesting to me. I hope you like this book, too."

If you are the parent of a high school student and would like to ruin his or her summer, here's a good way to do it: Make the kid read books. This is what my wife and I did to our 15-year-old, and it really worked. He says we made his life miserable. He says none of his friends have to read books during the summer, so why should he? He says we're the meanest parents in the whole world. So the other day, we decided to level with him. "The only reason we had kids," we told him, "was to make them miserable.

If you are the parent of a high school student and would like to ruin his or her summer, here's a good way to do it: Make the kid read books. This is what my wife and I did to our 15-year-old, and it really worked. He says we made his life miserable. He says none of his friends have to read books during the summer, so why should he? He says we're the meanest parents in the whole world. So the other day, we decided to level with him. "The only reason we had kids," we told him, "was to make them miserable.

THE WORLD AS I KNEW IT CHANGED IN JULY 2003 when my wife and I learned that she was pregnant. We had prayed and wished and hoped (and tried) for a baby, and now those prayers were answered. Indeed, there was the joy, excitement and sheer exhilaration at the idea of bringing a new life into the world. At the same time, we were somewhat overwhelmed by the thought of reorganizing our schedules, reprioritizing our lives and navigating the fields of work and home. As lawyers, we were used to the demands of client service and late-night motions drafting, but less familiar with the demands of diaper changing and late-night feeding and burping.