3 . After high school English teacher Larry Abrams started his teaching career in a far suburb outside of Philadelphia, he found he taught in a book desert (荒漠). Many of the kids in school simply struggled (挣扎) with reading and then writing .

In 2017, when one of his students told him she had no book to read to her 2-year-old daughter, Abrams took action. He put forward a call to friends and family asking for gently used children’s books, and in no time, he had more than 1, 000 of them. He began handing out the books to young moms and local elementary schools. That was the start of his nonprofit, BookSmiles, which has since collected, sorted, and handed out hundreds of thousands of books throughout New Jersey and the Philadelphia area — and will soon reach 1 million.

BookSmiles calls on people to help collect books and drop them off in the group’s large collection boxes, which are painted with literary-themed artwork and put outside local businesses, houses of worship, schools, and people’s homes. Books are often handed out through teachers, who come to the book bank and choose as many books as they want.

Larry Abrams thinks children should be read to because it’s something joyful that creates a bond (纽带) between the parent and the child in such an important way. Reading books creates a moment that will never die off and always stay with the child. And what’s more, reading books to kids gives them power. The most important tool that they get is words. There are some kids who grow up hearing lots of words because they’re read to every single night. They are used to hearing sentences connected together when they’re babies. And then there are other kids who never get that. Reading and books help level that playing field. It gives words, millions of words, to these babies who really, really need them.

4 . My son wants to be as funny as his father, but a lof of jokes he told are full of meanness and disrespect. Could I, as the responsible, supportive, and patient parent, find just the right book for my son? A book encourages my son to tell a joke that won’t demand having his mouth washed out with soap? I have to admit that I wasn’t confident.

Now, I have a book Jake the Fake Keeps It Real at hand. In fact, Jake is not a perfect kid. The first book in the series opens with Jake at first explaining how he cheated in an interview into a selective school and cheated on the academic admission marks.

The book is so funny and Jake’s behaviour attracts my son. As a matter of fact, my son thinks the entirety of the book is strangely mad. The book makes my boy forget his joke for a while and he begins to do the same thing as Jake. He chews the same piece of gum for six hours and writes a play about it, instead of turning the sprayer (喷雾器) on family members.

Though Jake looks like a bad boy, he is afraid of being the lonely weirdo, thinks he’s not good enough, and feels bad about cheating. His inner thoughts are not the same with his action. At the end of the book, Jake, with no talent, has to perform in the school talent show which is a final project and is worth a lot of credits. If he blows it, he has to quit the school and work on a fishing boat. Jake has nothing and knows he is a failure. Finally he looks into the blinding light and stands up from the piano.

The book taught my son a lot. He realized his problems. So I succeeded in one thing: Finding a funny role model for my son.

6 . Today, we study literature from a young age—learning about our histories, faraway worlds and influential people. Whether we notice or not, these stories—both fiction and non-fiction—guide us throughout our lives. They allow us to see the world through another’s eyes, open up our world and teach us about every subject known to man.

Despite their importance, many people throw out their old books—laying waste the wisdom that lies on each page. In an effort to save this knowledge and share it with those less fortunate, a garbage man in, Bogota, Colombia has been saving thrown-away books for 20 years and sharing them with those in need.

“I hated to see all the books in the dustbins of wealthier neighborhoods. So I started to rescue them,’’ said Gutierrez. The first book he found was a copy of the classic novel Anna Karenina. The Tolstoy book was later joined by The Little Prince, Sophie's World, The Iliad and a number of novels. Today, he has collected around 25,000 books.

His growing collection didn’t go unnoticed. Gutierrez’s neighbors were soon borrowing the books to help with their children’s homework. “There was a lack of them in our neighborhood, so we started to help,”said Gutierrez.

The ground floor of Gutierrez’s home is now filled with books, from floor to ceiling. Over spilling with books, he opened it up as a free library, with the help of his wife Luz Gutierrez and their three children.

Word eventually spread around about Gutierrez and his books. Most of the books now come from donations. He now travels around the country, delivering free books to poor and remote districts. The library, named “The Strength of Words", has donated books to some 235 schools, institutions and community libraries across Colombia.