The small eastern Washington town of Colton boasted about 200 people when Joan and I were growing up in it. Everything about Colton was small: the grocery store our dad owned, the post office/soda fountain/candy store, the two-teller bank, and the four-room school. The school library was made up of old Dick and Jane readers and donated National Geographic magazines. 

One thing that was small but seemed huge was the bookmobile that came to school once every two weeks. The days when the rolling library came to school were by far the best days. It transformed our little school library and town into a world of opportunities. In the early 1950s the county recognized the need to provide services to the public schools and sent mobile libraries into our rural towns for over 40 years. 

Now, 60 years later, Jenny Wall Granger from Snohomish, Washington, has found a way to provide books to students who don't have easy access in her own community. She converted a school bus into a summer bookmobile for students in her district to help stop the summer reading slump. 

Jenny shares the process she went through, resources she used, and press from the local paper and news station (see attachment below). 

Maybe you will take Jenny's idea and ruminate on it or come up with your own idea and take action now. Whatever you decide, there are children everywhere learning from our actions. Harold and the Purple Crayon was the first book I remember borrowing, thanks to the bookmobile.

This article might be missing links that were included at the time of publication.