Special delivery for underserved readers

Jonathan Dasani has added a chapter to his summer of dog-walking, babysitting, rock climbing, cycling, and tutoring.

He's become a bookstore on wheels.

Two days a week, he crisscrosses North Philadelphia, hauling a satchel packed with fiction and nonfiction that he distributes to children who tend to come from bookless homes.

At $10 an hour, the Temple University physics-education major works for a novel program called Words on Wheels, started this year by a local organization called Tree House Books.

Donning a tie-dyed bandanna and bright-orange shirt that bore the words "Read! Read! Read!" Dasani set out beneath the warm Tuesday sun on his last few routes of the summer.

Bike delivery may be the only way that some of the children, from toddlers to high school juniors, can gain access to books in the summer.

Without books, says the program's executive director, Vashti DuBois, many children can slip behind on their reading skills in the long months before school resumes.

"I know how important it is for students and kids to have books available to them to read over the summer," said Dasani, who sports a tattoo of seven bells on his left arm - a tribute to one of his favorite series of books, the Old Kingdom by Garth Nix.

Reading, he said, "allows them to stay at their grade level in reading and literacy, or even get ahead of the game when the academic year starts in September."

Dasani typically hauls between 12 and 36 books on each trip, at least two for each of the 79 children enrolled in the program. By himself, it would take Dasani about five hours to complete his rounds.

While Tree House cannot afford to pay another bicyclist to work regularly, a few volunteers fill in the gaps.

Andrew Ciampa, 22 and a recent University of Pennsylvania graduate, is a first-time volunteer who returned to the Susquehanna Avenue bookstore after a Tuesday delivery with a smile on his face and a light sweat on his brow.

Words on Wheels expects to have delivered nearly 2,500 books by the end of summer, either to children's homes or in bulk, through the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

Most books arrive via First Book, a national nonprofit dedicated to providing children in underserved areas with literature. Dasani picks others from the shelves of Tree House, all donated.

Pairing readers with good reads requires some guesswork. Dasani only knows the age and first name of each client, so sometimes he isn't even sure if he's picking for a boy or a girl. He pairs science fiction with historical fiction, a Judy Blume book with an autobiography of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He cherishes the smiles that welcome some of his choices.

DuBois said the program does more than just give away books. She said there is something special about waiting for a package. She hopes the special deliveries trigger something deeper in young readers.

"We want to get in the heart of young folks," DuBois said. "There's TV, there's video games, but the summer is a magical time to be with a book."