Book Festival
Robert Thomas, Bobby Patel, Elizabeth Luckett & Alexis Impastato
Comm/215
John Cantlon
April 6, 2015

The gift of reading is the most precious gift anyone can bestow upon a child. Reading opens a child’s imagination, vocabulary and opportunities. Books can provide a new world, an escape and a solid educational foundation. Unfortunately, many children grow up without age appropriate books in their households. A great answer to this tragedy is to hold a book festival, and what better place than Chicago?
Chicago is home to many single parent households that do not have disposable income to spend on children’s reading material. In fact, there are approximately 617,000 children living in Chicago, and 59 percent come from low-income families (Dinan et al., 2007). Statistically speaking, children from single- parent or low-income homes have fewer opportunities to access books and the wonderful world of reading. These children will grow up without a fun and educational past-time unless something is done. An astounding 61 percent of low-income households have absolutely no books for their children! This statistic correlates with lower scores on achievement tests than those from children who come from more financially stable households (Allington & McGill- Franzen, 2009). Alling & McGill- Franzen (2009) go onto say, “Children’s access to printed materials is the critical variable affecting reading acquisition.” A child’s academic achievement can be advantageously impacted by access to age appropriate reading material in the home. In contrast, households without books provide a greater chance for the child to drop out of school or neglect moving onto college. In Chicago, fifteen percent of adults between the ages of 19 and 24 dropped out of high school (Allington & McGill- Franzen, 2009). This outcome will lead to the child