Maine Humanities Council

The MHC received this note from an adult education teacher who works with our New Books, New Readers program. She tells a story that affirms this work and shows some of the impact this program can have:

“My literacy student and his wife have been attending the New Books New Readers programs for two years. Rachel enjoys the outings and the discussions, but the programs mean the world to Roger. Roger grew up in a poverty-stricken family and was very badly injured as a small child—and in addition, he is the most severely dyslexic student of the several hundred I have worked with. Yet he is a very bright, intellectual man who devours the History channel and science documentaries; he can really make connections. The New Books New Readers programs have given him a chance to take in, think about, and discuss themes in literature–and with the help of another tutor, who diligently reads all of the books to him, he makes the most of this opportunity. Just recently, his other tutor and I have noticed a sudden improvement in his reading ability. Instead of toiling along struggling so hard to decode each word separately that he has no sense of the sentence as a whole, he is suddenly reading in phrases and whole sentences, with good comprehension! He and I both feel that the experience of listening to and discussing the New Books New Readers selections has allowed him to make that leap to comprehension. He is finally truly reading.”

› Continue reading

View of St. John River from Edmundston, New Brunswick toward Frenchville, ME (credit: Daniel Picard)

The St. John Valley in Aroostook County is an area rich in history and culture. When I visited it two years ago for the second time in my life, I saw rural lawns mowed in straight rows, houses painted perfectly, and window boxes full of flowers. Fields of grass, clover, potatoes, and broccoli were everywhere. The landscape spoke of an idyllic life with a shared pride in community, and the people I met reflected this, too.

The MHC has always had programming in the St. John Valley, from a children’s literature seminar last year in Fort Kent to many New Books, New Readers adult literacy groups to several grants awarded to, among other projects, the development of a cultural tour (“Voici the Valley”). And recently, we’ve had Let’s Talk About It library-based reading and discussion groups.

› Continue reading