Coffee House Press will be donating 5% of all website sales through the holiday season to Room to Read. Below Mary Hogg, Chapter Leader at Room to Read Minneapolis/St. Paul, explains what this amazing organization does to foster reading and literacy around the world.
Several years ago, I read about Minnesota Book Award-winning author, Kao Kalia Yang. Although I was somewhat familiar with Kalia’s book, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir, published by Coffee House Press, I hadn’t had the chance to read it. A few months later, I received a call from publisher Chris Fischbach. Because of my role as volunteer leader for the Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter of Room to Read, he suggested we meet.
Over coffee with Chris at Turtle Bread in South Minneapolis, I learned that a generous but anonymous couple in New York City was so moved by Kalia’s story that they funded construction of a Room to Read library in Kalia’s honor and dedicated it in the memory of her grandmother. The Ladxang Lower Secondary School library now exists in a remote village in the mountainous region of northern Laos. Most of the villagers in this area live in extreme poverty and are unable to produce sufficient rice to feed themselves and their families throughout the year. The school serves students from 50 villages. Some students live in areas too far away to travel back and forth each day, so they must leave their homes and stay with other relatives in order to attend school.
Since that first conversation with Chris, I have also had the pleasure of getting acquainted with Kalia and the opportunity to read her book, The Latehomecomer.
However, I must confess, I barely made it to the first chapter. Allow me to explain the reason why.
First, as usual when starting a new book, I read the dedication page. I was nearly paralyzed by the powerful words that were so poetically written:
For my grandmother, Youa Lee, who never learned how to write.
To my baby brother, Maxwell Hwm Yang, who will read the things she never wrote.
The weight of this truth struck me like a lightning bolt! Kalia had the foresight to record the stories, legends and dreams that her Hmong grandmother shared with her in order to pass them on in written form for her siblings, future children and grandchildren, and everyday readers like me. This beautiful legacy explains perfectly why I do what I do for Room to Read. Our goal is to ensure that children in far away places like Laos, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Zambia not only learn to read and write but to also guarantee that their own children and grandchildren will have that same birthright.
A library is a tremendous gift for a community. It provides a safe and nurturing environment for children to develop literacy skills and a lifelong habit of reading.
At Room to Read, we believe every child has the right to become an independent reader and that one day, regardless of where or when they were born, that child will have an opportunity to share this gift with future generations.
Kalia’s story, The Latehomecomer, is a compelling tale that also serves as an excellent reminder of how fortunate we are to have access to books and the ability to read the words written within them.
The Latehomecomer book trailer
—Mary Hogg, Room to Read Minneapolis/St. Paul
All photos courtesy of Room To Read.
