2020 has been a difficult year for all, and with limits on gatherings in place, FOSEL was unable to lighten the mood with its annual Holiday Party. Instead, we aimed to spread a little much-needed cheer by making gifts of books to neighborhood children. Despite a gray and rainy day on Saturday, December 12th, the event opened with a line of parents and their children, masked and socially distanced, waiting to be the first recipients of the Library’s gift books. Tables with new, carefully selected titles, organized according to age, were set up in Library Park and children were invited to choose their favorites to take home in brightly colored book bags emblazoned with the FOSEL logo. A handful of chocolate kisses were tossed in with each bag, adding a touch more sweetness to the treat of reading.
Among the books on offer were classics for the very young, including board book versions of Corduroy, Pete’s a Pizza, The Snowy Day and Snowmen at Night, and popular picture books for 4-10 year-olds including Library Lion, Strega Nona, and A Bad Case of Stripes. Also available was artist/activist Faith Ringgold’s beautifully illustrated Tar Beach, loved by adults as well as children. For slightly older kids, there were two chapter books, Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot and The Unicorn Rescue Society’s The Creature of the Pines (described as “the perfect fit for newly independent readers”). And for kids who prefer to read in Spanish, the program offered No dejes Que La Paloma Conduzca el Autobus by beloved children’s book author and former Sesame Street writer Mo Willems, and Un Caso Grave de Rayas.
Tracey Bolotnick, FOSEL board member and one of the organizers of the program, notes that the gifting of books to children living in the South End is a first for our Library. “It’s been a tough year for our community. An event like this brings us together, gives us something we can all joyfully anticipate, and promotes reading to boot.”
Regretfully, the planned second weekend of the Holiday Book Giveaway had to be cancelled due to Boston’s intensified Covid restrictions, but FOSEL is committed to distributing the remaining books to neighborhood kids and plans to partner with the Boston Public Schools to do so. The librarians will hold back a portion of the remaining gift books to hand out to families who come by the Library while supplies last.
All images courtesy of Hermine Muskat