Click here to read the Concord Monitor article about Duncan’s visit to Boscawen Elementary School.

Before dawn on a recent Thursday morning, I pulled out of my driveway and pointed my car south toward Boscawen, a rural community in central New Hampshire. The purpose of my visit was to kick off of CLiF’s Year of the Book at Boscawen Elementary School (BES).

This $25,000 grant, awarded to 14 New Hampshire and Vermont communities this year, creates a culture of literacy in a school through multiple visits by authors, illustrators, poets and storytellers; new high-quality books for the classrooms, school and public libraries; a special event for the parents and caregivers; and literacy mini-grants for teachers. Last but not least, every child in the school is able to select eight new books of their choice from hundreds of inspiring titles.

In 2024, roughly half of all BES 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders, and 66 percent of their 6th graders were not reaching literacy standards. BES is exactly the kind of school CLiF loves to serve.

I’ve visited BES several times over the years, and have always enjoyed my visits. This day was no exception. Before I could get out of my car, Jen Kusnarowis (CLiF advisory board member, school reading specialist and the BES Year of the Book coordinator) burst out of the school entrance with a big hug and a dolly to help me unload the 20 boxes of new children’s books that crammed the back of my EV. Principal Jeff Drouin greeted me warmly at the door, and every staff member who passed by said how much they were looking forward to working with CLiF.

Jen and I ferried the pile of boxes into the school library, a large room encircled by windows that serves as a perfect storytelling space. We spent almost an hour setting up hundreds of books on tables, the floor, and window sills until we had created a solid wall of color, images, and adventures. Every time a new group of kids entered the room we heard “Oh my gosh!” and “Look at those books!”

Here’s what I remember most from the six literacy and storytelling presentations I gave to 250 BES kids that day:

• Singing songs with bouncy Pre-K students, seeing their unalloyed joy when I pulled out a Pete the Cat tale to share, and watching them select new board books to keep. Almost every 3-year-old promptly plopped down beside me, held out their new treasure, and said “Read this!”
• Watching eyes widen while I wove tales of magic pebbles, flying rabbits, wire walkers, and singing cats. Kids love storytelling, and I always have the best seat in the house as I watch the evolving expressions in a sea of curious, eager faces. Seeing a forest of hands go up as students eagerly participated in the storytelling or mentioned their favorite books.
• Book-talking many of the hundreds of compelling titles about ballet dancers, coral reefs, space, musicians, dinosaurs, art, wild horses, and people from all walks of life and every part of the world. I wish many of these cool titles had been around when I was a kid!
• Helping a young girl search the hundreds of titles, finding just the kind of book she was seeking, and watching her clutch it to her chest before she plopped on the ground and turned to page 1.
• Noticing a slight look of surprise on teachers’ faces as their students sat silently, not fidgeting, and intent on hearing what happens next in a story.

A journalist and photographer from the Concord Monitor attended one of the presentations to write a story about the CLiF sponsorship. As they departed, one of them remarked, “Duncan, you sure have a great job!” I couldn’t agree more–being a CLiF presenter is truly a privilege.