South Lake Tahoe Friends of the Library Supports Reading at the Juvenile Treatment Center

Lynne Brosch and Rich Fischer, Friends from the South Lake Tahoe Public Library, have been doing book groups on Monday nights with the teens who are incarcerated in the Juvenile Treatment Center in South Lake Tahoe.

This program began in September for the girls with the reading of "The House on Mango Street". Next it was "Age of Miracles". Lynne has been trying to provide a variety of genres to explore the girls’ interests. The teens are mature readers and prefer more adult reading material. They say they want action and suspense while some seem to prefer fantasy and others realistic fiction. The biggest challenge has been to find used books for a reasonable price and also available in paperback.

Books read in book group must be limited in violence, sexually explicit material, promotion of drug or alcohol abuse and vampire stories are also frowned upon. So you can see that finding just the right books that will avoid these topics and yet provide an interesting read for the teens can be difficult.

Boys’ reading group led by Rich Fischer has just begun. Currently, Rich and Lynne are looking for books that will appeal to both the boys and the girls so the titles can be shared. The Friends of the Library has donated funds to the purchase of books for the reading group, many other titles requested for free-time reading, along with dictionaries and other reference materials for the school classrooms in the center.

The students are very appreciative of the volunteers’ time and the funds from the Friends who have helped to provide these programs. That said, more can be done. If anyone wishes to make a donation of either books or financial assistance, there is information at the library. Look for the Wishing Tree and choose a book title to donate or you are welcome to write a check or leave cash to help expand the program. South Lake Tahoe Library, 1000 Rufus Allen Blvd.

Questions can be sent to Tahoe.Programs@gmail.com.

“If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one’s chances of survival increase with each book one reads.” — Sherman Alexie