>> you are watching booktv on c-span2. if you are of a certain age, you have one of these on your shelves, a dictionary and you've probably looked up words throughout your lifetime but if you are a little bit younger, chances are you've done it digitally. mary french is trying to change that. she is the founder and director of something called the dictionary project. mary french, what are you trying to do? >> we want everyone to have a dictionary to enjoy the benefits and when he tried to give them out so they get into the habit of looking at the words

technology is what drives the word.t' that's where the words come from so it's what holds us together and as a world how we communicate and we have to be able to use different tools to access information and the young at theyoung age of eight or nine distribute these two children in

school they are more apt to learn from a book than a computer or electronic device. it's more accessible to them and it benefits them in many different ways and has a lot of information. >> what is the importance of the third grade in this case? >> when i started this i tried second grade, fourth, i tried everything andfi i even tried a different set of dictionaries and i found third grade was the optimal age because at that point they are learning to read and reading to learn so if you can encourage children and give them this tool, they have such an advantage in terms of expanding their education.

where did the idea for the dictionary project come from? >> she was a woman who dropped out of school in the tenth grade in savannah georgia and she understood the limits of her ability to earn money and understand the world around her and what people were saying because she dropped out of school and when she was working at theki crossing guard at the martin luther king exit off of 95, she sold the children were not bringing books back and forth to school and she asked him why and they said because they were not allowed to take the books home from school so she got everybody a dictionary and told them to use it to help them because she didn't want their life opportunities to be i

guess diminished because they didn't have a large vocabulary. i know that area and then she died in 2000 of breast cancer. it's had a huge impact on people and it was a great idea to make sure everybody has a dictionary. >> since 1995, when you founded the dictionary project along with our low french, how many dictionaries have gone out to children? >> over 33,700,000. >> how do you get them out there?

>> through civic organizations. this project started out with running grants and then i spoke to different organizations about this idea because they were intrigued and the ideae of the dictionaries and of course literacy is so important and everyone is always trying to keep people learning new words and basically from becoming ill literate in school so they took it on as a literacy project. they have to have a literacy program that they implement and this was an easy program to do and really you get the best bang for your buck you can reach the most people for the amount of money that it costs and it has a long-term impact. i've been doing this for 25 years.

so they've gone through college already who initially received dictionaries and people to see if they are still using dictionaries or if they are worthwhile. those children say that they still have their dictionaries and they know where it is. not 100% of them, but when you ask them, they appreciate the gift and still use it. so, for two or three dollars it had an amazing impact on them, on their lives. >> so you have several different versions of the dictionaries you send out and the front page on every onee has this. this dictionary belongs to, and you can write your name right there. why are there aid to different versions? go green is one of them and the students dictionary and thesaurus. a students dictionary and animac

does that. why so many different versions? >> we want options for people. when i first started this and i was writing grants, i was handing out a book that i found at the dollar store and a lot of teachers didn't like it because it didn't have the words they were looking for and some had sample sentences and they thought they were too violent so we started looking at other options. i asked merriam-webster to create books for the program so and i created my own. the animal was my favorite.

we needed to do more to protect animals in our world and so we created that a book to help children understand animals and there's a lot of numbers in that. that was created by some students who were available. their father wanted them to have a summer job. >> one of the books in the back you have each state listed. i opened this to indiana and then you have the population and some of the stats about the states but then it's locations and children listed there at the top. can anyone contribute to the project? >> yes. >> how do t they do so?

>> they can call our office. we answer the phone. and any way that you want to contribute or participate, we have thousands of people who volunteer. we are so proud to be part of the work they do in the community. this is just one thing that they do and we are very grateful for all thatat they are doing. >> and can anyone get the dictionary? >> we get phone calls every day. i send them dictionaries when i read the letters there's a specific type that they are looking for and i have grandmothers who want to give it to their grandchildren. we have all kinds of people who want to get dictionaries and we

are happy to help them. anyone that wants a dictionary, we will make sure they get one. >> mary french as the director of the dictionary project. thanks for your time and for joining us on booktv. >> my pleasure. thank you, peter.

i honestly don't remember how long we were in that situation between the time they barricaded the door and when we finally got out. they told me it was like 20 minutes. it could have been two hours or five minutes. i have no sense of time whatsoever. but i remember when i got off the phone with my kids i felt as though my heart was pounding out of my chest and i felt i was very worried i was having a heart attack. i've never had a heart attack but my father had a heart attack. we've got a family history so i was kind of worried about that. i must have put my hand up to my chest because that photograph shows me lying almost on my back with my hand up to my chest.

i don't remember lying on my back but i do remember jason taking my hand and just kind of comforting me and telling me i was going to be okay and being a little perplexed he was reassuring me because i didn't realize that i was showing how upset i was. >> this week you will also here from massachusetts democrat jim mcgovern. january 6 views from the house sunday at 10 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. good evening everyone. welcome to the providence. i'm the executive director. for nearly 200 years this independent library has been at the heart and our mission is to lenrich the mind, inspired the spirit and elevate the discoursi and these have been careful to do just that. i'd like to thank the generous