Un Libro, Mil Mundos (One Book, A Thousand Worlds): Celebrates A Year of Success!

 In a study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, they found that teens and young adults read less often and for shorter amounts of time when compared with other age groups. According to the National Endowment for the Arts, “[…] in 2004 NEA reported and identified a critical decline in reading for pleasure among American adults”. In addition, according to the California Department of Education over 21% of high school students drop-out of school. Leer Es Triunfar, a project of the Riverside County Library System aimed to promote library users and services amongst the Latino community, decided to do something about these statistics. Our goal was to create a program that revitalized the role of literacy and reading in American popular culture with a special focus on our youth. We wanted to formulate a teen book program, specifically reading non-traditional books (life, culture, teenage issues) for pleasure and have a meaningful discussion on the books chosen.
 
A proposal was drafted and a meeting was scheduled with award-winning author, poet, and educator Juan Felipe Herrera a long-time friend and literacy advocate. In this particular meeting ideas were shared, phone calls were made, and then came the pilot program which launched on July 2009 at the Coachella Library. The program would be called Un Libro, Mil Mundos (One Book, A Thousand Worlds), as coined by Juan Felipe Herrera with specific goals to inspire our youth, raise teen reading levels, get our teens to become active library users, promote higher education, and the love of reading. The program was intended to be a six-week summer reading program but it evolved into something more. With five committed teens, we made the decision to continue this program for another quarter.
 
The program runs for six weeks with the final week used for a celebration of our quarterly accomplishments. We meet at the library once a week for an hour. The participating teens are given a book bag to keep, a program packet with information regarding our plans for the upcoming six weeks, college information, and a novel. The novel is chosen based on the needs of our community, in this case we have chosen empowering novels about the Latino community; novels that our teens can relate to. We do not require reading logs but instead have our teens keep a journal to make entries at least once a week about the novel and/or anything else they would like to jot down. We receive a new novel every quarter. Unfortunately, our teens do not get to keep the novels they return them at the end of the quarter. This allows our program to share these works with other teens; therefore our novels rotate to different Un Libro, Mil Mundo clubs throughout our system.  
 
Our weekly meetings include journal submissions, novel discussion, snacks, activities, and on some instances guest speakers. Our discussions have become the core of our meetings; we spend a lot of our time going over the novel. In addition to the novel, we talk about other issues our teens bring up. Having this freedom to speak their mind is part of the reason our teens really enjoy this program. “For one hour, once a week teens matter. This really means a lot to me,” shares Ashley Rojas a member of the Un Libro, Mil Mundos club at the Coachella Library. Our activities range from writing exercises, reading exercises, skill building, and group exercises. Our guest speakers include: Members from Pathways to Success a college-bound program in the Coachella Valley, College Recruiters from UC Riverside Palm Desert Campus, Author Juan Felipe Herrera and local community members who share their inspiring personal stories about the power of books.     
 
With a larger audience our program has evolved into what it is today, a teen book club. We continue to have our weekly meetings as scheduled and have added other components to our club. Our teens now do community service as part of our program and have chosen to fundraise for additional items for our clubs. Our teens have taken ownership of the program making it their own. After each quarter comes to a sad end, our teens cannot wait for the next quarter and the next novel to come. We have not only created a space, once a week, where we focus on teens; but we have created a mentoring relationship with each of our participants. We embarked on a six-week journey that turned into a year and it is our hope that the program will continue for a long time.
 
Now in July we celebrate our one-year anniversary and our success! We have three Un Libro, Mil Mundos clubs (Coachella, Mecca, and Lakeside Libraries), with 32 participants overall five of which have started college. We have read three novels at each site and have purchased three more for the upcoming quarters. We are launching two additional clubs in September 2010 which would mean 5 clubs in total, we are very grateful for those who have been a part of our success especially our teens whom have committed their time and positive energy to our program. Thanks to our dedicated site coordinators Sue Duran, Coachella Library,  Leticia Gamez, Mecca Library along with the branch Managers Veronica Evans, Coachella Library; Miguel Guitron-Rodriguez, Mecca Library; and Ellen Holt, Lakeside Library for all of their efforts in making this program so successful.
 
I celebrate, with tremedous joy I might add, our anniversary because of our teens, our committed staff, and the power of books! Look for Un Libro, Mil Mundos teen club at a library near you!
 
 Arlene
 
For more information on how you can start this innovative program at your library contact Arlene Cano at (951) 826-7901 or email arlene.cano@lssi.com