Posted on · What are the books that opened your eyes to the world? Which ones helped shape who you are? Today, we discuss the importance of literacy and representation in books, as well as recent challenges to reading materials.
Posted on · We preview Cover to Cover, Houston Public Media’s show about Houstonians and their love of reading.
Posted on · Libraries remain relevant in changing times by adapting to the needs of their surrounding communities.
Posted on · Three more schools are expected to join the “My Home Library” program later this year.
Posted on · We learn more about Gulf Coast Reads, an annual reading initiative where communities across Greater Houston read the same book. Elaine Plotkin of the Harris County Public Library System tells us more.
Posted on · More than 25 years ago, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy was founded to help promote family reading and learning. One of the ways the foundation is hoping to achieve that this year, in conjunction with the McNair Foundation, is by giving away a thousand free books to promote literacy for at-risk children. The […]
Posted on · How does buying a fashionable new cell phone case help a girl in a developing country learn to read? A Houston company called Mrked makes fashionable cell phone cases and shares its profits with Room to Read, an organization that helps provide education for girls in Asian and African countries. We’ll hear from one of […]
Posted on · We meet Edward Melton, the new director of the Harris County Public Library. He talks about why he loves libraries and reading.
Posted on · A Houston-based non-profit called the Good Steward Global Initiative is working to build libraries in areas of the African nation of Malawi experiencing what the initiative calls "book famines." This effort comes on the heels of recent devastating floods displacing hundreds of thousands in the country. While we all tend to respond to damage caused […]
Posted on · A Houston-based nonprofit education program recently published a year-long study looking at an early literacy teacher training program. Neuhaus Education Centerâs project focused on workshops for HISD teachers in order to improve classroom instruction. Marybeth Flachbart, President & CEO of Neuhaus Education Center, tells us more about what the study says regarding the importance of […]
Posted on · President Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union address Tuesday night. He covered a wide range of issues, many of which are especially relevant to Houston and Texas. As a new, Republican-controlled Congress looked on, the President reiterated veto threats should Congress “put the security of families at risk by taking away their health […]
Posted on · In this digital age of ours, some of us will roll our eyes a bit when we see someone print out an article they can just as easily read on their computer or tablet or smart phone. Turns out — at least according to a recent University of Houston study — they might be onto […]
Posted on · After a public hearing Tuesday, the Houston City Council may well vote on a vehicle-for-hire ordinance change that would allow for ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. That vote was initially to take place last month, but was delayed in the hopes that there might be consensus among stakeholders, including ride-sharing services and local cab […]
Posted on · According to a report from the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, roughly 330,000 Houstonians are functionally illiterate. While some 60 percent of Houston’s kids lack requisite reading-readiness skills upon entering kindergarten. And only 20 percent of third graders performed at an advanced level on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading exam. […]
Posted on · National HIV Testing Day is this Friday, and the Texas Department of State Health Services is hosting an HIV/STD Conference later this summer in Austin. The city of Houston is partnering with AIDS Foundation Houston to test 15,000 Houstonians for HIV this summer. About 27,000 Houstonians are HIV positive, and thousands more are believed to […]