Haili Smith， 16， says she and hersibling， Brooke， “have very differenttastes in books”. Haili likes spinetinglers2.Brooke， 13， prefers fantasy3.What they share is the belief that kids aremore motivated4 to read if they relate toa book’s characters. That’s why， in 2020，they started Books Like Me. Thenonprofit5 group supplies teachers withculturally diverse6 children’s books.

“We didn’t really like reading，”Haili said. “Then we started to look forbooks that had characters we sawourselves in. It made us want to readmore. We thought we could share thatwith students， because we knew that thiswasn’t just something that affected us.”

So far， Haili and Brooke have givenaway more than 16，000 books. As wordabout their organization has spread，requests have come in from schoolsnationwide.

Educators say it’s important forstudents to have access7 to children’s bookswith different characters. A book can be amirror， letting kids see themselves reflectedin its characters. Or it can be a window，helping kids see from the perspective8 ofcharacters with backgrounds and experiencesdifferent from their own.

Over the years， Haili and Brooke havebeen invited to speak with educators aboutthe importance of culturally diverse books.They’ve also taken books directly tostudents.“At a book fair in Florida， I was ata table showing kids the books and theywere picking them out，” Haili recalls.“They all looked so happy when they founda book that really resonated9 with them.”

That， of course， is the goal.

16 歲的海莉·史密斯說(shuō)，她和她的妹妹布魯克“對(duì)書(shū)的品味截然不同”。海莉喜歡“大吃一驚”系列。13 歲的布魯克更喜歡奇幻小說(shuō)。她們的共同點(diǎn)是相信如果孩子們與書(shū)中的人物產(chǎn)生共鳴，他們就會(huì)更有動(dòng)力閱讀。這就是為什么在2020 年，她們創(chuàng)辦了“像我的書(shū)”的原因。這家非營(yíng)利組織為教師提供文化多樣的兒童書(shū)籍。

海莉說(shuō)：“我們其實(shí)并不喜歡讀書(shū)。然后我們開(kāi)始尋找那些在角色身上能看到我們自己影子的書(shū)。這讓我們更想要閱讀。我們想可以與學(xué)生分享這一點(diǎn)，因?yàn)槲覀冎肋@不僅只是影響我們的事情。”

到目前為止，海莉和布魯克已經(jīng)贈(zèng)送了16000 多本書(shū)。隨著有關(guān)他們組織的消息傳開(kāi)，各地的學(xué)校紛紛提出請(qǐng)求。

教育工作者表示，讓學(xué)生接觸到有不同角色的兒童讀物是很重要的。一本書(shū)可以是一面鏡子，讓孩子們從書(shū)中的人物身上看到自己?；蛘咚梢允且粋€(gè)窗口，幫助孩子們從與自己背景和經(jīng)歷不同的人物的角度來(lái)看待問(wèn)題。

多年來(lái)，海莉和布魯克一直受邀與教育工作者談?wù)撐幕鄻有詴?shū)籍的重要性。她們還直接把書(shū)帶給學(xué)生?！霸诜鹆_里達(dá)州的一次書(shū)展上，我坐在一張桌子旁，給孩子們展示書(shū)籍， 他們正在挑選?！焙＠蚧貞浾f(shuō)，“當(dāng)他們發(fā)現(xiàn)一本能引起他們共鳴的書(shū)時(shí)，他們看起來(lái)都很高興?！?/p>

當(dāng)然，這就是目標(biāo)。

▏Notes

1. sibling. 兄弟姐妹

2. spine-tinglers 大吃一驚、驚險(xiǎn)魔幻系列小說(shuō)

3. fantasy. 幻想作品

4. motivated . 積極的，主動(dòng)的

5. nonprofit. 非營(yíng)利的

6. diverse . 不同的，各式各樣的

7. access. 獲得的機(jī)會(huì)

8. perspective . 視角，觀點(diǎn)

9. resonate. 引起共鳴