Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 31/02) - The Nunavut Literacy Council is handing out presents to new mothers in the Kivalliq.

The council's gift is childhood literacy, which it is promoting with the help of about 300 book bags filled with books and crayons. The council sent bags to each community in the Kivalliq earlier this month.

Janet Onalik packs up books to send out to the various communities. The book bags are designed to get books into houses that have none. - Nathan VanderKlippe/NNSL photo

"If children are going to be literate in a language, they need to see print all around them," said Janet Onalik, literacy development coordinator for the council.

But that doesn't always happen. "One of the biggest problems is lack of access to books in homes," she said. "It's just not easy to get books. There's no book stores in this region and books are expensive."

Each bag contains two English and two Inuktitut books, a guide to childhood literacy, some crayons and other goodies added by the individual communities.

Some of the Inuktitut books are by local author Michael Kusugak.

The English books were purchased for about $3,000, funds obtained from the Department of Education. The Inuktitut books were donated by the Kivalliq School Services Teaching and Learning Centre. Calm Air covered the cost of shipping the book bags.

Similar book bags were given to new mothers about five years ago. Simeonie Kopak, the community health representative in Repulse Bay, said the books were well-received. "When they (the books) were gone, some new parents were asking for them," he said.

Literacy among children has been improving in the North, said Kopak. Using a test that measures a child's linguistic abilities, he has seen children as young as four who were able to write their name. "I never saw that before," he said.

Reading to children is especially important when they are young, said Andy Biemiller, a professor of childhood development at the University of Toronto. In one survey of English-speaking children at the end of Grade 2, he found that some children had vocabularies as large as 7,000 words, while others knew about 3,000 words.

"That difference is really huge," he said. "And most of it has to do with the fact that there are huge differences in homes as to how much support there is for vocabulary."

Biemiller said the best way to help kids learn the language is to read and reread books, each day explaining what three to five words mean.

"Really try to make sure the kids understand it," he said.