The Des Moines Register – Lauren Kastner
“At Lennox Park it was gray and damp except for the Burlington Public Library’s bookmobile, whose eccentric decal provide a splash of color to the landscape. Songs by bands such as One Direction and Selena Gomez resonated from the truck’s speakers as Burlington School District librarian Donna Carlson lowered the entrance to the truck, the Burlington Hawk Eye reported. Carlson has been driving the bookmobile through neighborhoods in Burlington and West Burlington each Wednesday for the past month. Her goal is to bring books into neighborhoods where children have difficulty getting to the library themselves. “That summer slide is what we’re trying to prevent,” Carlson said. Schools must plan time into their first quarter curriculum to review skills taught during the previous school year, but lost during the summer months. That loss is referred to as the summer slide. This slide can be more drastic for children of low-income families, the culprit of this being less access to books.”(more)