Venice was thrilled to win a copy of Dolphins Don’t Fit in a Fish Bowl by TDK (The Daniels Kids) in a special drawing at the end of the People and Pajamas read-a-thon on June 17, 2017.
The Daniels Kids, three African-American siblings from Newark, NJ, were inspired to write Dolphins (with the help of their dad) because of the lack of diversity they found in the characters in books written for children their age.
When Venice’s mom, Wanetta Patton, saw Dolphins Don’t Fit in a Fish Bowl, she told me she was grateful that the book had African-American children as protagonists.
Ms. Patton said that she and Venice read together all the time and that they’ve had several conversations – inspired by Venice’s questions – about the fact that there aren’t many characters like Venice or stories about people like her in the books they read. She said it will be a pleasure for both of them to read Dolphins!
People and Pajamas was the pilot program for a 24-hour read-a-thon called Reading Never Stops that the Wells International Foundation and the Houston Public Library will co-sponsor at a future date.
Through this event, we intend to stop “Summer Slide” – the achievement gap that occurs when children (particularly low-income children) don’t read over summer vacation – by
1. providing an opportunity for children to start or build a home library,
2. inspiring families that aren’t already reading together to begin a new tradition at home, and
3. encouraging children and families to use their neighborhood library by demonstrating that the library can be a place to have fun.
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