Oh, cool! I thought, a new book! And then I asked myself; Oh, does this mean that Brazilians don't normally read to their children? Apparently not. According to a study done by the Mobilização Social da Fundação Itaú, on average Brazilians read about 4 books a year, but only finish about two, and although 96% of Brazilians believe that it's important to read to children less than 5 years of age, only 37% read to their children.
Only 37%? It seems unbelievable! My earliest memories are bulging with books, story time, visits in the snow to the local library with my brown cardboard library card with my name typed on it, bags filled to the brim, cuddling up with my mom or my dad and reading "Red Tag" the story of a migrating salmon over and over again. In fact, my whole life, I've loved reading books and finding a quiet spot at the library to enjoy them. Who wouldn't love to do that?
Okay, so until now I never thought about this, but maybe my family was different, maybe the majority of Canadians didn't read to their kids, but certainly the standing room only at the local library for "story-time" would suggest that it's popular now. But maybe not. What about campaigns like the Vancouver Sun's "Raise-a-Reader" that raises funds for literacy and reading programs across Canada? That would suggest that there are lots of kids out there without access to books. It seems however a lot easier to find out how many thousands of dollars the campaign raises every year than to find out who the benefactors are. I failed to get my hands on this information which leaves me wondering, who are these kids? Children that live in remote cities or small cities without libraries? Immigrant children? Children of illiterate parents?
Back to the results of the study in Brazil, respondents in the study claimed that it was not because books are expensive or for lack of libraries that they didn't read to their children but because they didn't find reading interesting and didn't have the time. I asked a few Brazilian friends if their parents read to them, and they said no. They also said that not all primary or secondary schools had libraries and if they did, they were only allowed to use it for specific book reports.
As for public libraries, I failed to find one in our neighborhood. One article mentioned a library that opened and closed three times because of rent and space issues, and I'm still not sure if it exist, no one answers the phone and there is no answering service or website. It's sad because Barra da Tijuca has 135 thousand potential patrons. (2010)
It's seems it's also mostly a matter of class, and education; educated Brazilians of higher social standing, read and promote reading at home with their children. Because of the results of this study and others like it, the initiative "Educar Para Crescer" was launched to encourage parents to start early and to teach them that reading can only be fun but extremely important in the development of Brazilian children. Here are other interesting results of the study:
75% of children under 5 have never been to a library.
67% of respondents knew there was a library in their community, but barely 24% of them visited.
70% of respondents with books at home wouldn't frequent a library.
The Bible is the most read book by Brazilians
I've always suspected that Canadians are extremely lucky to have public libraries available to us. Think about it. How many things are free in life anymore? I contacted the Vancouver Public Library and they promptly sent me their 2011 annual report filled with interesting facts. It's obvious to see how the library is much more than a place to store books, it succeeds in reaching out, supporting, and educating the community.
- Materials borrowed: 9,983,426
- Number of visits: 6,523,630
- VPL holdings over 2.8 million items (2,834,475)
- Reference questions answered: 901,585
- Library programs: 7,447 (with a total of 240,233 attendees)
- 41,147 Vancouver residents registered for a VPL library card
- VPL has collections in 15 languages in addition to English and French: Chinese, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian/Farsi, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese
- New items added to the collection in 2011: 215,927
- 7,659 school-aged children participated in the Library’s Summer Reading Club
- 569 public Internet stations are available at branches across the city
My husband's cousin half jokes that the Brazilian government doesn't want to invest in public libraries because the people might become smart enough to overthrow them! But all joking aside, all this started with "Max and the dragon t-shirt" in my son's schoolbag, and it has reminded me again that Canadians are very, very lucky to have libraries. I miss going to the library with my boy. We've had to buy overpriced books from the bookstore and to buy them online. It's just not the same. I'm not sure what makes one culture read more than another, but I'm sure that access to books is a major part of it, so this year, be part of the 6 million people who visit the library and take a kid with you!
 |
| Reading in the nook at the bookstore. |
No comments:
Post a Comment