5K Races with a Twist in Indonesia

Posted on April 9, 2012 by admin

On March 25th, our 2nd Annual 5K was held — in Los Angeles on the U. of Southern California campus, and in Indonesia, in both Sidoarjo AND Padang!  We love our dual-continent 5K’s, and all the global effort it takes to make these events happen on behalf of The World Is Just A Book Away (WIJABA).

Below is a terrfic report from Indonesia — they have a rather different and creative take on making their run fun and engaging.  Enjoy, and our next report is from a Los Angeles participant!

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Padang participants!

Two hundred and seventy (270) children participated in 5K events held in Sidoarjo and Padang on the same day, March 25th, as the one held in Los Angeles.

In Padang, this was the first time for the kids to participate in the event, which was a relay race format where all 24 libraries entered a team of six student representatives.  One student from each library simultaneously sprinted 50 m across a field at the sound of the starting bell, and once across, the next team member was allowed to take off.  They continued like this until finished and collectively the students ran 6.3 km with prizes for all involved.   “This was a very fun event for the kids and even for me too,” says Wawan, WIJABA Regional Manager in Padang.

In Sidoarjo, students came out for the second annual 5K event, which was of a Jeopardy/race format.  This was a new idea initiated by WIJABA Regional Program Managers, Fufah and Luki.  Each team of six students from 21 different libraries had a set of clues strategically placed along the race course.  They had to physically and mentally race to the finish by finding clues and answering the questions along the way.  One example of the clues and answer is:

Who am I?

Clue #1: I am a national hero of Indonesia
Clue #2: I was born in Jepara, Central Java on April 21, 1879
Clue #3: I am a woman
Clue #4: I use KEBAYA and SANGGULAnswer: RA. Kartini

Sidoarjo: And their OFF!

 

“Everything was very amazing for 5K in Sidoarjo.  All of us really love the new format of 5K and all of us have fun!” says Arif, WIJABA Regional Manager in Sidoarjo.  ”All of us here in Indonesia really look forward to the 5K event next year!”

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Posted in 5K, Indonesia, Libraries, Padang, Sidoarjo, USC, WIJABA | Leave a comment

Choosing Books & Our Unsung Heroes…the Librarians!

Posted on March 31, 2012 by admin

It’s been too long!  We’ve missed you, and we hope you’ve missed us.  We apologize for the space of time since our last post, and since then we’ve had our 2nd Annual 5K event, on March 25th, both in Indonesia (where it was sunny) and in Los Angeles (where we all got happily soaked).  But more on that in a future post.

Today we thought we’d share with you something about how books are selected, and…our fantastic librarians that manage our The World Is Just a Book Away (WIJABA) school libraries.  Those unsung heroes…  Of course, we turned to our highly informative and active Executive Director Robert Lucas, who was just in Indonesia in February, and he’s given us a bit of a rundown and some photos about our Librarian Training Program.  We hope you enjoy and choose to share this with at least one friend or colleague!

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Isn’t there more to it than just giving books to the kids? Yes. For those of you wondering what else goes on with the books we provide, this is the blog post for you.

To start, the books have to be selected from local publishing catalogs and a foundational element of WIJABA is that the selection process involves the children, parents, and schools. Before starting in a new region, we visit schools to hold focus groups with the children to determine what their interests are, based on the available choices. We then take their requests and verify them with experts in education in the U.S., whereupon the parents and schools approve the final selection.

What happens once the kids have the books in their hands? Isn’t there more? Yes. One of the most important pieces of this whole process is to verify the initial interests of the children through collecting data on how the books are actually being used.

To do this, WIJABA created a unique two-pronged system using color-coding and numerical coding to track the books. These systems allow us to monitor the various trends over time in book genre and language by gender and age. For example, we can see that the new Indonesian science books are not so popular with the younger girls, but the English storybooks are. From this we can better provide for the children and their interests as observed in each library. Being able to collect this data gives us a powerful tool to continuously improve the book collections and libraries.

It’s been a joy to initiate these systems for WIJABA, which were launched through the Librarian Training Program in Sidoarjo this past February. Initially, I thought that the librarians would be apprehensive towards the new ideas and that the dry topics of the Dewey Decimal System wouldn’t catch on very fast. I was pleasantly surprised. We all gathered at SDN Kalisampurno I in Sidoarjo to take steps toward the implementations of these new ideas and systems and there was no grumbling, only gratitude.

I learned something very valuable through the launch of the Librarian Training Program and that is librarians are some of the most generous and humble people you will ever meet. They safeguard the world’s store of knowledge and willingly offer any curious mind access upon request. Their lives are devoted to sharing stories with others and they certainly don’t do it for the fame or money. To all the librarians around the world, especially those at WIJABA libraries in Indonesia, I salute you for your dedication to books and the magic found between the pages.

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BY THE WAY…don’t forget to check out the new book by Board member AGS Johnson, “The Sausage Maker’s Daughters”, as part of WIJABA‘s Authors for Books program. A portion of the proceeds from the book go to WIJABA, so read a great book and make a donation in the process!

Follow WIJABA on Facebook, or Twitter (@justabookaway) and invite your friends, too! If you would like to get involved in WIJABA, and support all these creative, educational programs and efforts, please visit www.justabookaway.org or email info@justabookaway.org. To DONATE, please click HERE. Thank you!

Posted in 5K, AGS Johnson, Authors for Books, Board, Books, Indonesia, Librarian, Libraries, Sidoarjo, Uncategorized, WIJABA | Leave a comment

WIJABA ‘Authors for Books’ Program launches with Board member and Author AGS Johnson

Posted on March 6, 2012 by admin

This month, The World Is Just a Book Away (WIJABA), launches a new program, “Authors for Books”, through which authors choose to donate a portion of their books’ proceeds to WIJABA. We are completely in awe of and grateful to these people and their gift. To kick off, our inaugural author is AGS Johnson, who has graced our blog before, shares some thoughts about the program. Her debut novel, The Sausage Maker’s Daughter, recently won Honorable Mention in the LA Book Festival’s most crowded category of general fiction! Congratulations, AGS Johnson, and thank you!

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I am so pleased to be the initiating author to launch, in addition to my novel this month, The World Is Just A Book Away’s new program called “Authors for Books”.

I’ve mentioned here, in my book itself, and on agsjohnsonauthor.com, my board memberships on WIJABA as well as on The Council of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles which supports mainly children’s programs in all seventy-three public libraries in Los Angeles. Now, through this new program from WIJABA, my role expands through the launch of “Authors for Books” by which I’ve committed a portion of the proceeds from the sale of The Sausage Maker’s Daughters to the charity’s mission to build libraries for children in developing countries.

Children—both near and far—will have bigger and broader worlds opened to them through books and libraries. Books change lives.

It’s exactly what books did and still do for me. My reading has taken me into the past and future, traveling with amazing characters through unimaginable situations—times and places I could never visit in a hundred lifetimes. I experienced realities well beyond the place and circumstances I happened to be born into, or of those where I happen to live in now.

That is my hope for “Authors for Books”, that children around the globe will have the opportunity through the worlds books open to experience far more than the places where they find themselves. And in expanding their worldview, I hope they as well as all of us will realize how alike we are in our deepest human needs. May children worldwide come to understand our surface differences for what they are, outward differences covering inward similarities. Despite the constant exploitation of our differences, knowledge can at last prevent them from tapping into our human fear of the unknown

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Follow WIJABA on Facebook, or Twitter (@justabookaway) and invite your friends, too! If you would like to get involved in WIJABA, and support all these creative, educational programs and efforts, please visit www.justabookaway.org or email info@justabookaway.org. To DONATE, please click HERE. Thank you!

Posted in AGS Johnson, Authors for Books, Board, Books, Child, Libraries, Reading, WIJABA | Leave a comment

Words, Books, Discovery…Happy New Year from the Blog Editor!

Posted on December 29, 2011 by admin

So here I am, Julie Du Brow, the editor of this blog, as well as the organization’s media relations person, and I’ve been stumped on an angle for writing my own blog contribution! So, I think I’ll simply introduce myself to you all, and tell you why I’m here, proudly working with The World Is Just a Book Away (WIJABA) for the last 3+ years.

The written word, including books and journalism, have always been integral to my life, and I firmly believe that knowledge through reading, and learning to work through one’s own ideas and interpretations of what one has read, is key to creating great people by opening their eyes to what is possible. And giving that opportunity to children is the best place to begin.

Founder James Owens was at my home a few years ago, feeding his tribal art addiction via my beau, a tribal art dealer (and a fellow dedicated reader). I was playing with (aka distracting) James’ young son, and overheard James talking about this book he was working on that gathered contributions from (very) well-known people about ‘why reading was important to them and what books had influenced them’. My ears pricked up. He added that he was planning to start a foundation that would build school libraries, and help spread the love of books and reading. I was hooked, and here we are now . . .

In the interim, the book is not quite out, but WIJABA has rocked the world, or at least Indonesia, to start! Having traveled in the past a few times to Indonesia (prior to my WIJABA involvement), I have an extra-special connection to what WIJABA has accomplished. I know from experience that the Indonesians are warm, giving and grateful people, and seeing the videos (http://www.youtube.com/user/WIJABAtv) of the library Openings just inspires me to do more.

Julie & James

2011 saw WIJABA gain 501(c)(3) status, open many new libraries (including several for parents!), launch the Photography program and annual 5K, install our first Executive Director and incredible new (Advisory) Board members, create new partnerships, refresh our logo, and receive wonderful contributions. 2012 will see many exciting things, including a new website launch, and things I can’t yet reveal!

And I felt very honored this year to be able to keep adding people’s contributions to this Blog. If you haven’t read what people have shared, please take some time in these last few restful days of 2011 to peruse. Every contribution here relates so beautifully the soul of WIJABA’s goals, each in its own way.

I’ll leave you for 2011 with a mix of 10 of my favorite book recommendations—they may not be my Top 10 of all time, but the list hits the sort of mix I love. Would be eager to hear from others what books have had impact on you this year (or in recent memory)! So, in no particular order:

Truman, by David McCullough
The Discoverers, by Daniel J. Boorstin
Levels of the Game, by John McPhee
Banker to the Poor, by Dr. Muhammad Yunus,
Cradle to Cradle, by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
Don’t Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate–The Essential Guide for Progressives, by George Lakoff
War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
Foucault’s Pendulum or The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, by J.D. Salinger

ONE last thought — the below happens to be part of a wonderful year-end editor’s letter. The editor is a beautiful writer, and her message is universal.

“Author G.K. Chesterton said that ‘The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.’

The New Year brings a blank canvass. Opportunity and possibility stand patiently in front of us, offering salvation from what has been and deliverance to what can be. It’s up to us to fill the white space with the vibrant colors of magical living.

While we set benchmarks and resolutions, there is no sojourn in the unfurling of the universe. No breathless moment of silence that determines the transition from last to next. Nonetheless, there is a small pause, a moment of recognition in human consciousness, reminding us that we have the power to abandon last year’s imperfections into the silent limbo of the past and craft a new vision for the future.

Incremental changes can lead to exponential results. Big things happen when small things are perfected. In a time when pleasure has been cheapened, joy has been reduced, and happiness has been computerized, it’s easy to lose sight of the fundamentals that make life so precious.

So this holiday season, I have resolved to remember that the most significant part of writing a book is living the next chapter with authenticity, gratitude, compassion, and love.”
(Credit: http://www.greenbuildermag.com/Blogs/Sara-Gutterman)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Follow WIJABA on Facebook, or Twitter (@justabookaway) and invite your friends, too! If you would like to get involved in WIJABA, and support all these creative, educational programs and efforts, please visit www.justabookaway.org or email info@justabookaway.org. To DONATE, please click HERE. Thank you!

Posted in Board, Books, Child, Indonesia, James J. Owens, Libraries, Parent, Reading, WIJABA | 1 Comment

Photo Students and Their Stories, Part 2

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

Hoping everyone had a good, long weekend and holiday!

Continuing to share insightful stories and pictures from the children who took Robert Lucas’ The World Is Just A Book Away photography class in Indonesia (see Nov. 23 post for Part 1, and older posts for more on this program), below are five more to enjoy and, hopefully, share.

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Photo by Dicky

DICKY
My photo is of a girl who is trying to take a test. The test was on a Thursday morning just before noon. The sun shining through the classroom window and the crowded room makes everything very hot.
I believe that knowledge is very important to fulfill our dreams. The girl in the photo is taking her test, but in a way, she is also telling us how to reach our dreams. She inspires me to study very hard so I can become successful one day, which would be to become a musician and promote the beauty of Indonesia to the rest of the world. Because of this girl and this photo I will do my best to reach my dream.

Photo by Ardi

ARDI
In this photo, there is a very beautiful mountain. Above the mountain, there is a shiny white cloud. There are green trees and many waterways in the paddy field.
That mountain inspires me because that mountain is a gift from God. I also realize that I’m a gift from God too. Together we make our Earth very beautiful. In the paddy field we can also see the seedlings ready for planting, which will make everything even more beautiful. I am very thankful for everything as a gift from God and its beauty.

Photo by Nunuk

NUNUK
This is a photograph of the courtyard in my school. The courtyard is very nice and beautiful and is also the place where I studied. My friends and I would often come together in the courtyard.
During my six years in primary school, that courtyard was an unforgettable memory because it was a meeting place with my friends and teachers. I will never forget my friends, my teachers, and all the people at SDN Kebakalan because at that place, I learned how to be a good person. This place is very special in my heart. This courtyard helped me understand the world through knowledge. At this school, I also learned how to be polite, humble, and to always do good things to everybody. So, that place is very special in my heart.

Photo by Cindy

CINDY
This is my friend`s bicycle at primary school SDN Candipari II. The bicycle is in red and white color. The bicycle is parked under a guava tree and on top of the paving stones that cover the ground.
My friend always uses her bicycle when she goes to photography class and she always puts it in the same place. When I see this bicycle, my dream is to become a famous athlete in Indonesia. That would make my parents very proud of me. They are also proud of me now because I’ve had the opportunity to learn something new in this photography class. I always want to make my parents happy. And it will also be nice to have the same bicycle when I go to junior high school.

Photo by Tiara

TIARA
My friend is standing in front of the kindergarten school with a blue t-shirt and black pants. She’s also wearing a red hat.
I love this photo because it inspires me to become a famous model in the future. My friend is the model in this photo, but some day I hope it will be me. The photo was taken at the school when the sun would sink in the afternoon. I believe if I become a model I will be able to help my country by lifting the spirits of my people. I will never give up my dream to become a model and if I reach it, I promise I will always be humble to others.

Posted in Dream, Indonesia, Photo Project, School official or teacher | Leave a comment

Photo Students & Their Stories, Part 1

Posted on November 23, 2011 by admin

We are THANKFUL for so much this year…and we hope you are, too.

Thought we’d share a few lovely stories and pictures from the children who took The World Is Just A Book Away‘s Executive Director Robert Lucas’ photography class in Indonesia (check older posts for more on this program if you are just joining us, or just wish to review!). Robert also translated their stories for us.

Editor’s Note: I am grateful to all you readers. A Happy Thanksgiving and a restful weekend to all. I truly hope you ENJOY and SHARE these stories with friends and family; they are sure to get you into the giving and grateful spirit of the upcoming holiday season! The children’s messages and hopes are absolutely heartwarming.

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Photo by Sevi

SEVI
In my photo, my friend, who is wearing a red t-shirt, is playing badminton. The reason I took this photo is because I want to be a badminton player when I grow up.
The photo was taken in the front yard of my friend`s home, where she is playing together with her friends and the sun is very bright.
I love this photo because I love to play badminton and I have a dream to become a great and famous badminton player. To reach my dream, I will train very hard and practice every day, so that I can make my country famous and everyone will be proud of me.

Photo by Tasya

TASYA
My photo is of a very big mountain with lots of beautiful blue colors. There is also a big river with not so clean water and an island with a field. Lastly, there is the red and white electicity tower.
I took the photo because it is near my home and the beautiful scenery also reminds me of my childhood. When I was young, I enjoyed playing in the field where my friends and I would play jump rope. I also loved going out on the boat with my father to go fishing.
Unfortunately, the water in the river today is not how it used to be when I was young. The water has become dirty since many people have thrown their garbage in the river and it really upsets me. I feel they should keep the river and the environment clean and healthy, so I too promise to keep everything better for the future. I will not throw garbage in the river so our grandchildren can have a clean and safe river to play around just like I did when I was young.

Photo by Vita

VITA
My photo is a portrait of me wearing batik with a jacket. My hair is decorated with ribbons and everything together is very beautiful with the colorful fence and small trees in the background.
My dream is to become a famous and professional photographer. I’m inspired to become a photographer because they capture wonderful moments for other people and that makes a photographer a great person. The best part is that they often use their creativity and imagination to take photographs. Because of this, I want to learn more about how to take photographs and to become a good person by using my creativity. That is my inspiration and I will show the world how great I can be.

Photo by Ninik

NINIK
My photo is of my sister and her friend playing together. My sister is wearing a blue t-shirt with red pants and she’s also carrying a drink in her hand. Her friend is wearing orange and they are very happy to be able to play with each other.
When I see this photo, it makes me happy to see my sister and her friend playing together near the paddy fields. They were also very happy once I took a photo of them because they were so happy when their photo was taken. But after that they became shy to take another photo. That situation and this photo has inspired me to always do my best to make other people happy and to smile by taking their photograph.

Photo by Asri

ASRI
The person standing in the photo is my fifth grade teacher. He is my favorite teacher and he is standing between the school’s fence and in front of the school where I study.
Mr. Samsul has inspired my friends and I to always continue learning and to study hard because he is such and kind and humble person. In our class, he once said, “Respect your friends while they are talking by listening to them quietly. Even if they make a mistake, don’t make fun of them because one day you will make a mistake too. You don’t want to hurt your friends feelings and you don’t want them to hurt yours.” Since that day, our spirit to reach perfection has grown.

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Follow WIJABA on Facebook, or Twitter (@justabookaway) and invite your friends, too! If you would like to get involved in WIJABA, and support all these creative, educational programs and efforts, please visit www.justabookaway.org or email info@justabookaway.org. To DONATE, please click HERE. Thank you!

Posted in Child, Philanthropy, WIJABA | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

All Change is Good – message from WIJABA’s Chairman

Posted on November 7, 2011 by admin

As we start nearing the holiday season, and a new year, our Chairman Emilio Diez Barroso has a poignant and beautiful message to share. Enjoy…

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“All change is good.” This is a quote I recently read from a 114-year-old man as he reflected back on a life lived across three centuries. Reading this caused me to pause and reflect back upon its meaning. At that moment, I thought to myself: Here is this 114-year-old man who had seen his own children die of old age and who lived through more changes than I can even imagine, and the major life lesson that he wanted to share with others at the end of his journey was that “all change is good.”
Perhaps the reason this resonated with me on such a deep level is because I too believe that all change is good. Every instant is a concoction of millions of circumstances that are about to change in the next millisecond. There is not a single moment in life that is identical to another moment, which means that life is ever changing, in other words, life is good.

Knowing and accepting this—that each moment is exactly as it should be—is the embodiment of trust. It is the recognition that this, and exactly this, is Thy will. (Whatever your particular “Thy” may be).

It also means that each of us is playing a part in the world and we are playing it perfectly at this very moment, if we knew how to “play” it differently, we would. This doesn’t mean that we sit back and do nothing; it means that we accept fully what is, and move from a place of creativity and possibility. In my experience, living from this place of acceptance as opposed to living from a place of judgment has the most potential to affect change.

I believe that fully loving and accepting this very moment aligns us with our divine purpose and the universe uses us to be an agent of tranformation. I reflect on this in all areas of my life, including the work we do through The World is Just a Book Away (WIJABA).

Emilio w. James Owens at WIJABA 5K

At The World is Just a Book Away we provide books to children, we build libraries in which kids can expand their world and we create programs that provide a platform for children to explore and express themselves. In essence, we are truly sharing ourselves with them, just as they share themselves with us through their work and through their joy.

We don’t do this work because we think their lives need “fixing” or out of judgment for their life circumstances. We do it because we see the way these children smile when they are holding a book—the joy that these books and the knowledge gained through them brings into their lives. This dispels the illusion of separateness, the thought of an ‘us’ and a ‘them’. At the core, there is no agenda in the work we do at WIJABA; there is no attachment to what our actions translate into. We do what we do because sharing our love with the children makes our hearts sing and when our hearts sing, we can truly be of service in the world.

To me, what we do at The World is Just a Book Away is an outer reflection of the inner work we are all doing; there’s not much difference between bringing joy across the oceans or to those aspects within each of us that need some tending. I enjoy witnessing how the universe uses us from a place of openness to be agents of change for the next millisecond to help bring about transformation, outside and inside.

It is my belief that every book we share with a child and every library we build through The World is Just a Book Away, serves as a reminder of what we are also building inside of ourselves. Let’s all continue to build inner sanctuaries—inner libraries—that can support us in living the life we are meant to live.

I invite us all to check inside of ourselves and see if our hearts are singing, maybe examine those places inside of us that may crave the peace that we are looking for in the world. If we all do our part, that inner harmony cannot be contained, because that peace and that love will be the most powerful instrument of change in the world.

Emilio Diez Barroso
Chairman
The World is Just a Book Away

Posted in Books, Child, Libraries, Reading, WIJABA | Leave a comment

Sense of Kinship through Children’s Art

Posted on October 28, 2011 by admin

On Oct. 13, BlueCanvas Magazine invited WIJABA to host a wall of wonderful photography created by the children in Sidoarjo. Our Executive Director Robert Lucas conceived and ran this project in Indonesia (see earlier posts) and thanks to he and Ryan Latreille for the amazing display. And thank you to everyone at BlueCanvas for a terrific night and for publishing a beautiful article and many of the photos in their current issue! Robert here shares his take on what this project came to embody.

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I don’t think I was capable of beginning to understand what art actually was until I taught photography to a group of ten 5th and 6th graders in Indonesia. Growing up near Los Angeles, art always seemed like a far off concept reserved for the affluent and intellectual and somehow it never found its way into my own life. Only after I had taken a photography class in high school did my appreciation for art begin to emerge. Yet even at that, I considered the camera an obscure box that gave me joy rather than a condition of human existence.

So when I was presented with the opportunity to teach these talented children, I reveled in the thought of extending them the same joys of mystery and discovery rolled into film photography. I wanted the project to be rooted in my own path for curiosity and my nebulous ideas continued to take on different forms until they centered on Sartre’s mantra, “The only way to learn is to question.”

The children searched for answers to their thematic question “Who are you?” while I embarked on my own journey to uncover what this thing called art really was. I came up with words like novel, personal, imaginative, and even scandalous, which were all constituents of what art could be but not of what it actually was. My focus eventually turned towards the children and their work as I found myself at a dead end.

Fast forward a few months and I’m standing in Downtown Los Angeles, staring at the children’s photographs hanging on the wall of the Blue Canvas gallery. Thousands of people had come to see various forms of art curated from an eclectic community of artists worldwide. The young and old paused in front of the photographs to reflect on these children and the amazing story that brought them half a world away.

In that space and in those moments, watching people become engrossed in the children’s photographs, I realized that they came to look at art that night not because it brought them pleasure but because they were hoping to find a sense of kinship. The creation of art and its appreciation resides in this spiritual union, this human bond between two individuals, the artist and the viewer, joining them together, if only for a brief moment, in shared feelings and their collective humanity.

Now that I’m able to look at art as less of an application of abstract theory and technical instruction, I see potential for artwork and artists in everything and everyone. The World is Just a Book Away, its books and programs, provides a breeding ground for artists, hope, and universal love for one another. It starts with $1.

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To see more art by the children please visit http://www.bluecanvas.com/wijaba. All proceeds from purchased artwork is tax deductible and will fund WIJABA programs for children in developing countries.

Posted in Art, Child, Indonesia, Photo Project, Sidoarjo, WIJABA | Leave a comment

Books & Film–Lucky to Have Both

Posted on October 12, 2011 by admin

Wow, we have truly amazing people involved with The World Is Just A Book Away (WIJABA)…it hits me each time I post a fresh item. Today, our Advisory Board member Tim Monich shares about the beautiful connection between books and film. A speech and dialect coach of over 35 years’ experience in theater and film, he trained with Edith Skinner at Carnegie Mellon University, and was on the faculty of The Juilliard School for 12 years. Tim has coached 135 professional theater productions, on and off Broadway, and around the US. He has worked on over 135 feature films, including Thelma and Louise, JFK, The Age of Innocence, Schindler’s List, Six Degrees of Separation, Quiz Show, Dead Man Walking, Cold Mountain, Million Dollar Baby, The Departed, Blood Diamond, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, and True Grit. His upcoming include Hemingway and Gellhorn, Hugo (his seventh collaboration with Martin Scorsese) and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby–which is the film set he writes this from. He was the subject of a November 2009 profile in The New Yorker. And his wonderful daughter Sarah spent time volunteering for WIJABA in Indonesia (lucky us, lucky kids!) — see her post from Dec. 2010. We hope you enjoy and please share your thoughts on books & film!

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It’s October and looking back on my year of film work, I realize that it’s all been about books. In January I finished work in London as dialect coach for Martin Scorsese’s movie of Brian Selznick’s marvelous children’s book THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET. From there I went to San Francisco to coach the cast of Philip Kaufman’s HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. Then it was off to Toronto for a film of Don DeLillo’s COSMOPOLIS, directed by David Cronenberg. Now I’m in Sydney coaching the cast of THE GREAT GATSBY, directed by Baz Luhrmann.

To say that each of these cinema masters is inspired by books goes without saying. What’s been interesting to me is watching firsthand how devoted they are to being faithful to the books in spirit and and in specifics of character, dialogue, and even visual imagery. These four directors, each an acknowledged master of cinematic form and vocabulary, kept their respective books at their sides on set. Scorsese consulted the book frequently, often matching Selznick’s drawings shot-by-shot. Philip Kaufman and screenwriter Jerry Stahl use direct quotes from both Gellhorn and Hemingway’s writings and letters to create dialogue for HEMINGWAY AND GELLHORN. Cronenberg’s version of the DeLillo novel is beautifully faithful to its source and takes the brave move to not open it out in a conventionally cinematic way: most of the book (and the movie) takes place inside a stretch limo. And for all of Baz Luhrmann and designer Catherine Martin’s visual invention and exuberance, Fitzgerald’s own words are consulted constantly. The Gatsby cast and crew, too, have their own copies – in fact we were all issued the same edition so that we could refer to specific sections by page numbers, which we do numerous times each day of shooting.

All of this has made me think of the book-to-movie process as an art of translation into another language. For all the talk about younger generations losing the book habit and turning to the movie habit, filmmakers themselves are still thinking of books and movies as complimentary art forms, and I think will inspire both reading and moviegoing.

Considering the truly essential work being done by The World Is Just A Book Away, I have come up with an alternate name for the organization: The Book Is Not A World Away (BINAWA). Getting libraries to every small community in the world is like getting food to every hungry child on the planet. At this point, getting books to children is easier and more lasting than getting films to them. And they can be re-used and re-loved as long as the paper holds up. I like my iPad and am reading books on it constantly, but it frustrates me terribly that I can’t lend a favorite to a friend, let alone set up a lending or giveaway system. This means there will always be a need for libraries. Thanks to The WIJABA, The BINAWA.

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Follow WIJABA on Facebook, or Twitter (@justabookaway) and invite your friends, too! If you would like to get involved in WIJABA, and support all these creative, educational programs and efforts, please visit www.justabookaway.org or email info@justabookaway.org. To DONATE, please click HERE. Thank you!

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From Skeptical to Humbled and Gratified

Posted on October 4, 2011 by admin

Josiah in Indonesia

Continuing with our series, Josiah Emery is proud to be a Board member of The World Is Just A Book Away (WIJABA). He has been fortunate to have visited Indonesia twice and thinks it’s a beautiful country filled with some of the kindest and generous people he’s ever met. He’s a filmmaker and teacher who is lucky to live in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife and two healthy and growing children.

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When I first thought about traveling with James Owens to Sidoarjo to open some libraries, I imagined a few excited people standing around a newly painted building eager to inspect the space and books. I thought maybe someone would speak, but the point was to meet the students and see them enjoy their new library. I was a little skeptical about just what impact a few hundred books would make on some foreign elementary students. After all I wasn’t very familiar with Indonesian students and knew even less about their educational needs. Having lived and taught in Africa for three years I had seen how decent intentions by foreigners could be twisted by a simple misunderstanding that leads to far more damage than good.

I was not prepared to see hundreds of school children, teachers, district officials and many parents standing patiently in the courtyard as our car pulled into the school’s gates. My immediate thought was we had mistakenly come to the wrong place and somebody important from the government was due here any minute. It took a moment for me to realize that everyone was waiting for us.

Surrounded by boisterous elementary boys in batik shirts and shy smiling girls whose heads were each covered with a scarf, I was overcome by the sense of joy and excitement that these students conveyed in their genuine appreciation for the library and books they were about to receive. Books are something that I have been fortunate enough to take almost for granted. They are in every room of our house, yet seeing these children open new books for the first time was both enormously humbling and gratifying at the same time. To see them read, point, laugh at the imagines on the pages and then share the books with their peers were powerful images that made understanding why we had come thousands of miles all the more easier.

Neither pictures nor words can completely capture what happened at that school or the nine other libraries that were open over the next four days. To say that there was a certain kind of electricity in the air between the anticipation and delight of the students would not be too far off. It is something that I feel lucky to have witness and shall never forget. The World is Just a Book Away helped me see how important books are to children and adults across the globe. It has also help solidify the belief in me that even though language, culture and thousands of miles of ocean separate us, providing engaging, age appropriate books to children can only increase their curiosity in learning about the world we live in together.

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Follow WIJABA on Facebook, or Twitter (@justabookaway) and invite your friends, too! If you would like to get involved in WIJABA, and support all these creative, educational programs and efforts, please visit www.justabookaway.org or email info@justabookaway.org. To DONATE, please click HERE. Thank you!

Posted in Books, Child, Indonesia, James J. Owens, Libraries, Reading, WIJABA | Leave a comment