good morning and welcome to ms.. i am rabbi eric weiss and, honored to be your host this morning. the world is so complex. one of the ways we are able to interact with its complexity is to develop e reading. the way in which we learn from books, the way in which books teach us and the way in which we are able to interact in the world by the way with which we read. we are happy to introduce

lillian bradley and howard friedman. welcome vivian and howard. let's just jump in. vivian, what is pj library? >> pj library, pj stands for pajamas, is a program of the jewish confederation of san francisco. it provides wi children's book and music to kids in the bay area starting by six months to the age of eight. we also have another program low in our community which are chapter books and graphic novels that are free into his content for kids 9 to 11 years of age. >> is pj library a local program? >> it is an international program. it was started in the u.s. but is currently in 12 different countries and in the past 10 years has given away 12 million books in the united states and

canada. >> i know we will come back to pj library. how do we talk about the jewish community library in san francisco? >> it is a full-serwe are basically only dealing with jewish topics. it is really with the whole gamut of the jewish experience. not only religion, but culture, history and from every perspective imaginable. we have a small branch at the palo alto jcc and san francisco jcc in addition to our main branch in san francisco. >> we can, in some ways, take reading from granted. that is something we have a luxury in the bay area. certainly not from issues of illiteracy. in the bay area, we have a high degree of literacy with interaction, books and reading.

i am wondering if each and you can talk a little bit about the kinds of programs that you offer. the ways in which people interact with your books and reading and what that does for if yocalk ab some pro thatewn ask vivian.>> from myangle, i d it for granted that we read. maybe we can talk later that i think we are having a lot of challenges with time and technology that's having an impact on the degree to which we read meaningfully. one of the things we try to do at the lot temporary is promote reading and book groups and a lot of our programming is devoted to helping people get together and read books together. and also to interact with authors and lecturers. . >> vivian? >> for pj library, let me know is that reading has such a huge

impact on brand development, emotional development and language development in kids. especially in critical ages five and under. pj library really wants to enhance that sacred time of parents reading to their children at bedtime. that is call it pj where you are in your pajamas and listening to stories from your parents and really infuse those moments with jewish content and stories. jewish values are universal values that so many people can relate to. when you read to a child, you are really connecting with them in a different way. it is so important for bonding and for children to just appreciate stories and have their imagination go different places. and really just with a busy day to just be calm and be in a story and be taken away.

it is a beautiful time for families. >> we casay how does somebody actually sign up for pj library? >> the easiest way is online. we have a website@pjlibrary.org. you can easily enroll for any child in your family. each child gets their own book delivered straight to their home in the mail. it is entirely free. children are thrilled to get their own books. the envelope comes with their name on it. every month, they have a new story to read about a holiday coming up, or a story about a brave young girl or boy, or something children can relate to and learn from. >> we will take a quick break and come back to mosaic in a moment. please join us back in a moment.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host this morning. we are in the middle of a wonderful and important conversation about reading and all the ways reading functions in our lives. i would like to reintroduce you to vivian bradley, the program coordinator of pj library.

and howard friedman, the director of the jewish community library in san francisco. welcome back, howard and vivian. we were talking about the notions of taking reading for granted intel reading is changing and how that impacts the way he understands the world. i am wondering if you can speak to that and the ways in which the programming of the jewish community library in the most basic sense encourages reading. >> from my perspective, i sometimes judge it by my experience on the bus. a lot of people were reading physical books on the best 15 years ago. 10 years ago a lot of them switched to kindles. nowadays, most people have heads in their phones. part of what that tells me, and what i know speaking from a lot of people, there is less reading of fiction and nonfiction more sustained reading, adults then there was.

a lot of people are doing facebook. a lot of people are doing communicating on their phones. our time is less than what it once was. any of us, especially in the bay area, bring our office home to us at night. we have all of our email and documents on the cloud. we are not making the same kind of leisure time for reading we once did. one of the things we do in the library is call attention to the importance of reading. it is quite important. and create opportunities for people to want to read. to read in order to share experiences. to learn about the books they will learn from other people's perspectives and to share experiences with authors. we have lots of opportunities for people to make more reading essential to their lives. >> you said sustained reading. meaning part of what you observe is that baby i am

thinking you serve out loud, because we have a focus were in a moderation that it is not sustained reading. and sustained reading is a novel or a story, books chapter after chapter. is that what you mean by sustained reading? >> correct. there is a lot of research being done. one of the issues we have as a lot of habits have changed faster than what we have had a sense of what the research tells us. the research that is happening now is telling us the kind of reading that we do that is more leisurely and taking information in a deeper way affects our brain. it enters is in a different way than the articles we read and refer to when looking at our tablet and phone. we are substituting one kind of reading for another kind of reading. our encounter with the world is changing, as a result. signp, your child gea

book. perhaps one of the books here on the table. literally gets a book in the mail. the assumption is that, that child will be sitting down with an adult in their lives. it might be a different adult in their lives, literally reading the full book to them out loud. >> yes. when they sign up, the books are age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate. they grow as the child grows. in the early ages, those books would be read to kids. i would just reach on howard's point about attention span and technology. it is important to have books in your home, that kids see that. that use they see you are reading as parent. streadinto yo ds need to see that an

see parents off r phone d also co havstwith okon kindles, because many families use candles now. what we keep coming back to is there is something magical about having no technology and having a paper book in front of you where you can turn the pages together and point out different illustrations and talk about the story. it really is a way to engage your child and have their undivided attention, both as a parent and child. each pj library book has informational flaps on either side that talks about the content of the story. what the jewish holiday may be that is being celebrated, or the value the book illustrates. it has recipes or online links if you want to learn more. the idea is hands on activities at home with your kid based on the story being told. it really encourages downtime. downtime in a time exclusively >> we will come back and

continue this conversation just a moment here on mosaic.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with vivian brawley is the program coordinator for the pj library and howard who is the director of the library in san francisco. talking about reading and the importance of reading in a complex world. me of the programsthe , such as bay, one book progbook clubs.

one of the great parts about being in the bay area is many people are involved in formal experiences like the clubs. we try to support them by providing our book club for titles. we have 120 titles for people to choose from. they are available for free from any book club. that we have a program called one day, one book in which we select one book for a given year that we invite readers throughout the bay area to read and discuss together. our selection this year is called septembers of shiraz. it is a novel by dahlia so far said in iran after the revolution. it is about a family that is stuck there and if father is imprisoned. it is a fine book. the author will be coming to speak in palo alto and san francisco in june e people who have been reading the book this year.

>> if someone has never been part of a book club, were interested in joining one or c club and choosing a book? >> we have a drop in book club at the library for people who are not part of a book group and maybe don't want that level of commitment. we also help people set up their own and help people connect to other people, and have a guide to holding effective discussions, and of course having books to choose from, making it easy to start out. >> should we say the contact information of the jewish community library is to on the web to jewish community library.work or to call you at 415-567-3327. >> one thing i did want to mentio book clubs with kids with a number of books available in pj are w

vivian runs. for me, this has been wonderful. when kids are at that age, we are talking the late elementary grades, they can now engage with jewish history and aspects of the jewish experience that are harder to share when a kid is younger. we have had ridged discussions, for instance, in a book called the secrets of the house of delgado about the secret in spanish position. a book called black radishes about a boy in the 1930s in france. they are fantastic ways to start exploring the jewish historical experience which doesn't get shared in school or religious school. >> vivian, when somebody has a child and they sign up for pj library, that child gets their own book once a month from birth until -- >> they can sign up at birth.

the books start at six months and go through the age of eight. a child that signs up as a baby could get a free book a month until they are through the age of eight. at that point, we want to continue this beautiful experience and they can sign up for our pj our way program, which is geared toward kids 92 12 years of age. they sign up online at pj are away.work. what is nice about that program is they can choose the book they get every month for free. they can really read reviews of the books and figure out the subjects they are interested in and choose that book. there is also book clubs online and you can review the books online. it is a nice way for kids to connect online and to discuss reading in the books. >> the bay area is so diverse. one of the things that so many of us are interconnected with

family nationally and internationally. if someone in the bay area is listening about pj library, but they have a young member of their family in a different state and different country, can they access pj library? >> absolutely. pj library is available in over 200 communities across the u.s. it is also in canada, australia, the latin kingdom, russia and north america. they can sign up online. they can google pj library and find the country in which the child is and sign them up. if they go on our website and put in the zip code, it will pop up which community they can sign up and. >> we will take another quick break and come back in a moment here on mosaic.

good morning. welcome to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss and on it to be your host. we are about to end a wonderful conversation about reading in a complex world with vivian rally. and howard freeman. come back.

we have been talking about the power of reading and trends in reading and the diversity of the books that are in the library itself, but also within the context of pj library, and a books that child's from six months to eight years and beyond can receive. i am wondering if you can talk about what trends you see in children's literature and the kinds of books being written in the kinds of books being read in the kinds people are interested in. maybe we can speak with you, you can chime in and we can talk about the diversity of books available. howard? >> it is an important question. we just had a survey of the bay area jewish that und a y area se le in r who may be jewish or may not be. it is very important that we realize and act on the

knowledge that we are a very diverse community. i know the jewish children's books are pretty well and they have not reflected that fact. it is a ti to see e emergence of many more jewish children's books that reflect the ethnic, national and religious diversity of choose so kids can go up with a sense that dark skin juice are no different from juice with light skin. that is an important thing for people to grow up with and we are seeing that now and i am very happy. >> for pj library, absolutely, we embrace a diverse jewish community that is really reflected across the country. i would say no more so than the bay area. we know this is our community, we welcome it and want to embrace it. we want that reflected as well. it is a priority priority to have diverse families and fema

driven main characters, which is something families are looking for. especially now when we are embracing the power of women to have little girls read about bravery and these wonderful jewish role models we have had stepped up. in terms of diversity, there was a book that came out in november in honor of hanukkah. i have received several emails about it from local families about this book. it is called the queen of the hanukkah doses. it is a wonderful book about a hindu jewish family that incorporates the indian doses, which are similar to latkes, into their holiday plans. there is a precocious little sister who ends up saving the day. it reflects this kind of lovely family that represents all

different skin colors and what makes up the family. no family is like these days. it is important for parents, but also kids, to see themselves reflected in our books. it makes them feel valued and it makes them feel they are a part of our community. you want that. it is important for families to realize the jewish community embraces them. >> it seems important when talking about children's books that when we talk about diversity, that's a big word. it seems to me when we get concrete about it, what it breaks down to is an illustration reflects a child of color and a family. but also reflects different behaviors so there are ways in which we give signals a diversity is wonderful by the way the story reflects cooking and food or a celebration or an outing or something they could do.

in terms of interacting with the world around them. are there other ways in which books reflect diversity for a child's mind that build building blocks of inclusion? >> i can think of a certain book i absolutely love from pj library called the only one club. it is about a little girl that goes to public school. she feels she is the only and you and the class. what she soon discovers is yes, she may be the only jewish child, but there are other children who are the only ones with red hair, freckles, everyone has their own uniqueness and to embrace that in a real way. >> howard and vivian, we have come to the end of our conversation together. we encourage you to please pay attention to reading and books in particular, the children in your lives. thank you for being with us here on mosaic.

live from the cbs bay area studios this is kpix 5 news . >> five people shot overnight, police cordon off a block in the tenderloin. and the california national guard is on their way to washington, tensions remain high in the capital's streets are blocked off and cars checked, the latest warnings from the dc mayor. the historic swearing-in of bay os justice sonja soto mayor and whose bible she will use for the ceremony, good morning it is sunny day january 17 i'm emily turner, let's check with meteorologist darren peck, a