Iqaluit (Jan 22/07) - Ontario's lieutenant governor has launched a book drive in his home province and communities in Nunavut stand to benefit.

James Bartleman has emerged as a friend of Nunavut, especially after he donated two dozen acoustic guitars to Nuiyak School in Sanikiluaq last month.

It was that visit the spurred Bartleman's desire to let isolated communities in Nunavut and Nunavik in on a book drive that will also benefit "fly-in" aboriginal communities in northern Ontario.

"What people were saying to me was that too many kids were not learning to read and write at an early age," Bartleman said from his Toronto office. "One of the problems was that they didn't have any books or magazines in English in their houses."

It's a problem Bartleman, whose mother was Ojibwa, finds across the northern regions of his home province.

He recently told the Toronto Star "without books, children will never develop the self-esteem that comes from an education, and will never escape the despair that fuels the suicide epidemic."

John Jamieson, principal of Nuiyak School in Sanikiluaq, said he's already received a shipment of books and magazines from Bartleman, and the school has been using them as prizes and awards for good attendance, for example.

"It's a great way of getting books into houses," he said. "That's especially important in the North where books are expensive and hard to come by."

"So when we give them out as awards we know that they're going to going to go into the house and various people inside the house are going to read them.," said Jamieson.

Kim Crockatt, executive director of the Nunavut Literacy Council, said Bartleman's windfall of words is "generous" and a "really great idea."

What is still needed, she said, is programs from the federal and territorial governments, as well as hamlets, to ensure access to those books, since many communities in Nunavut lack public libraries.

The drive continues until Jan. 31.

Bartleman has invited Ontarians to donate books that would be of interest to youth. Every Ontario Provincial Police detachment in the province is a drop-off centre.

Canadian Forces staff based in Ontario will help ship the books North.