kin.n. 3 out ofof 4 people e achieved% clearerer skin at t 4 month. and skyrizizi is j just 4 doseses a year after r 2 starter doses. seriouous allergicic reactios and d an increasased risksk of infectctions or a l lower abilility to figight them mamay occur. tell your r doctor if f you he an infectition or sympmptom, had a vavaccine, or r plan t. nothining on my skskin means everythihing! ♪ nothingng is everytything♪ ask yourur dermatolologist ababout skyrizizi. lelearn how ababbvie cocould help y you save. (upbeat music) good morning. welcome to mosaic. honored to be here this

morning. the world is so complex. one of the ways we interact with the complexity is by developing the skill of reading. the way we learn from books and books teach us and the way in which we are able to interact in the world from what we learn from reading. we would like to invite you to a conversation with very much very january, the program coordinator of library and howard. welcome. >> thank you very much. >> let's jump in. vivian, what is pj library. >> pj library, that stands for pajamas. a program of the jewish community federation of san francisco and provides free jewish children books and music to kids in the bay area starting at six months through the age of 8. we have another program that is relatively new called pj our way which are chapter books and graphic

novels that are also free with jewish content for kids 9 to 11 years of age. >> fantastic. is pj library a local program tore something that -- >> it's an international program. it was started in the u.s. but it currently is in 12 different countries and in the past 10 years has given away over 12 million books in the united states and canada. >> fantastic. i know we will come back to pj library. howard, what is the jewish community library in san francisco. >> the jewish community library is a full-service library like any other except that we are basically only dealing with jewish topics. but with that said, it's with the whole gamut of the jewish experience, not only religion but culture, history and ever perspective imagineable. we have a small branch at palo alto jcc and san

francisco jcc and the main branch in san francisco. >> i was thinking that we can in some ways take reading for granted, something that we have a luxury of in the bay area, not immune from issues of illiteracy but we have a high degree of illiteracy and interaction with books and readings. something that we take for granted. can each of you talk about the kinds of programs that you offer, the ways in which people interact with your books with reading and what that does for folks. so, i wonder, howard, if you can talk about the programs that the jewish community library and then ask vivian? >> sure. from my angle, i certainly don't take it for granted that we read and actually maybe we can talk later that we are having a lot of challenges both with time and technology, having an impact on the degree to which we read. one of the things that we really try to do at the library is to promote reading in book groups and a lot of the

programming is to get people together to read books and interact with authors and lecturers. a goal of stimulating reading as an activity. >> vivian? >> for pj library, what we know is that reading has such a huge impact on brain development and emotional development and language development in kids, especially in the critical ages, 5 and under. so, pj library really wants to enhance that sacred time of parents reading to their children at bedtime. that's why we call it pj. you are in your pajamas, listening to stories from your parents and really infuse those moments with jewish content and stories. there is really jewish values are universal values that so many people can relate to. and when you read to a child, you really connect with them in a different way. it's

so important for bonding and for really for children to just appreciate stories and have their imagination go different places and really -- just with the busy day to just be calm and be in a story and be taken away. it's a beautiful time for families. >> we will take a quick break in a moment. before you do, say in a concrete way how does somebody just sign up for pj library? >> in a variety of ways. the easiest is online. we have a website at pj library.org. you can easily enroll for any child in your family. each child gets their own book delivered to their home in the mail and it's entirely free. so, it's children are thrilled to get their own books. the envelope comes with their name on it and 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 that children can relate to and learn from. >> wonderful. vivian, howard, we will take a quick break and come back to mosaic in a moment.

good morning. welcome back

to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful and important conversation about reading and all the ways in which reading functions in our lives, especially in a complex world. i would like to reintroduce you to vivian, the program coordinator of the pj library, pj meaning pajamas and howard, the director of the library in san francisco. howard we were talking before the break about the negotiations of taking reading for granted and how reading is changing and how that impacts, perhaps, the way we even understand the world. i wonder if you can speak more to that and the ways in which the programming at the jewish community library in the most basic sense encourages reading? >> sure. from my perspective, you know, i sometimes judge it by my experience on the bus. 15 years ago, a lot of people were reading physical books on the

bus. 10 years ago a lot of them switched to kind letters. nowadays most people have their head in their phones. what that tells me and speaking to a lot of people is that there is less reading of fix and nonfix, more sustained reading among adults than there was a lot of people are doing facebook, a lot of people are doing -- communicating on their phones. the truth is that our time is less than what it once was. many of us, especially in the bay area that is tech savvy bring our office home to us, home at night. we have the e-mail, documents in the cloud. we are not making the same kind of leisure time for reading that we once did. i think our reading is suffering. one of the things that we do in the library is to try to call attention to the importance of reading and i think it's quite important. and create opportunities for people to want to read, to read in order to share their experiences, to learn about the books they read

from other people's perspective and to share experience with authors. we have lots of opportunities for people to make reading more central to their lives. that is a priority. >> interesting. you said sustained reading. so, meaning part of what you observe is that maybe i'm just sort of thinking out loud that because we have a focus for an e-mail duration that that is not sustained reading and sustained reading is a novel, a book, chapter after chapter. is that what you mean by sustained reading? >> correct. a lot of research is being done -- one of the issues that we have with the digital age, a lot of our habits have changed faster than we had a sense of what the research tells us and the research that is happening now is telling us that the kind of reading that we do, that is more leisurely, taking information in a more -- a deeper way, affects our brain. it enters us in a different way

than the articles we read when we are referred to and looking at our tablet and our phone and sort of substituting one kind of reading for that other kind of reading. our encounter with the world is changing as a result. >> interesting. >> pj library, literally when you sign up, your child gets a book, perhaps one of the books that is here on the table, literally gets a book in the mail. so, the assumption is that that child will be sitting down with an adult in their lives, typically a parent but maybe 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. so, babies get board books and so on. they grow as the child grows. in the very early ages, those books would be read to kids and i would just say on

howard's point about attention span and technology, it's really important to have books in your home that kids see that. that they see that you are reading as a parent, reading is important to you and not only reading to your child but reading in general. kids need to see that and parents off the cell phones at home and off their computers. we at pj are struggling the idea of putting books on kindles because many families use conditioned also now than paper books. what we come back to, there is something magical about having no technology and having that just -- a paper book in front of you that you can turn the pages together and pointed at the different illustrations and talk about the story. it really is a way to engage your child on a different level and have undivided attention as a parent and as a child. each pj library book has informational flops on either side that talks about the content of the story. what the jewish holiday may be that

is being celebrated or the value that the book illustrates. it has recipes or online links, if you want to learn more. but the idea is to do hands-on activities at home with your kid based on the story that is being told. so, it really encourages down time. down time and a time to exclusively -- that is meant for learning. >> interesting. we will come back and continue this conversation in just a moment here on mosaic.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle

of a wonderful conversation. we are talking about reading and the importance of reading in a complex world. howard, why don't you talk about some of the programs that the library has such as the one bay one book book club program? >> sure. the library does a lot to support book clubs. book clubs are wonderful. one of the great parts about being in the bay area, so many people are involved in informal experiences like book clubs. we try to support them by providing through our book club in a box program, 12 copies of a given title. we have 120 title for people to choose from and they are available free to any book club interested to borrow from for a month or two. then we have one bay, 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 shire shiras. it is about a family stuck in iran after the revolution and the father is unfairly imprisoned. the author will be coming to speak in palo alto and san francisco in june with all the people who have been reading the book this year. >> if somebody hasn't been part of a book club or interested in starting a book club. what kind of services would that person get for constructing their own book club and closing a book. >> we have a drop in book club at the library for people not part of a book group and don't want that level of commitment but we help people set up their own and help people connect to other people and have a guide to holding discussions making it easy to start up. >> the contact information for the jewish community library is to go on the web at jewish

community library.org or to call you at 415-567-3327. >> one thing i want to mention, we have done book clubs with kids with a number of the books that are available in pj our way with vivian, the program that vivian runs. for me, this is wonderful because when kids are at that age we are talking about the late elementary grades primarily, they can now engage with jewish history, aspects of the jewish experience that are harder to share when a kid is younger. we had rich discussions, for instance in a book called the house -- the secrets of the house of delgado about experiences during the spanish inquisition. a book called blade radishes about a boy in the 1930s in france. they are

fantastic ways to start exploring the jewish historical experience that doesn't get shared generally in school or religious school often. >> vivian, when somebody for example has a child and they sign up for pj library, that child gets their own book once a month from, say, birth until -- >> they can sign up at birth. they start at six months and they go all the way through the age of 8. a child that signs up as a baby could get a free book a month until they are through the age of 8. at that point we want to continue this beautiful pj library experience and they can sign up for the pj our way program which howard mentioned which is geared toward kids 9 to 11 years of age. they sign up online at pj our way.org and what is nice about that program is they can choose the book that they get every month for free. so, they can really read

reviews of the books and figure out what subject they are interested in. there is also book clubs online and you can review the books online. it's a nice way for your kids to connect online in a safe environment to discuss the books. >> the bay area is so diverse. >> yes. >> one of the things about the bay area, so many of us are interconnected with family nationally and internationally. if somebody in the bay area is listening about pj library but they have a young member of the family in a different state, a different country even, then can they access pj library? >> absolutely. pj library is available in over 200 communities across the u.s. and in canada, australia, united kingdom, russia, latin america and, so, is they can sign up online and google pj library and find the country in which

their child is and they can sign them up. in fact, if they go on the website and put in the zip code of the child, it will pop up which community they can sign up in. >> fantastic. >> we will take another quick break.

good morning. welcome to mosaic. we are about to end unfortunately a wonderful conversation about reading in a complex world with vivian braly, program corrector of pj library and howard friedman. welcome back. we have been talking so much about the power of reading and trends in reading and the diversity of the books that are both certainly in the library itself but within the context of pj library and the books that a child from six months to 8 years old and beyond can receive every month. i wonder if you can talk about what trends you see in children's literature in the kinds of books that are written and the kind of books that are read and people are interested in. i'm wondering, maybe, howard we can start with you and vivian you can chime in and we can talk about the diversity of the books available.

>> absolutely. >> howard? >> it's an important question. we had a survey of the bay area jewish community that found that about a quarter of bay area jews live in households with people of color who may be jewish themselves, may not be. it's important that we realize and act on the knowledge that we are a very diverse community. the truth is i know jewish children's books well and they have not historically reflected that fact. it's a wonderful thing to see that we are really starting to see the emergence of many more jewish children's books that reflect the ethnic, national and religious diversity of jews so kids can grow up with a sense that dark skinned jews are no different from jews with light skin. that is a very important thing for people to grow up with and we are seeing that now. i'm very happy. >> for pj library, absolutely

we embrace the diverse jewish community reflected across the country but no more so than in want bay area. we know this is our community. we welcome in and embrace it. so, we want that reflected in the books as well. so, it's a priority to not only have diverse families but female driven main characters which is something that families are looking for. they always looked for it but especially now when we embrace the power of women. to have little girls read about bravery and these wonderful jewish role models in history of women that stepped up. in terms of diversity, there was a book that came out in november in honor of hanukkah, brand-new. i received several e-mails about it from local families about this book called the queen of the hanukkah dosas. it's a wonderful book about a hindu jewish family that incorporates

the indian dosas which are similar to latkes into their holiday plans. in this story there is a little sister that ends up saving the day. it reflects this lovely family that represents all of the different skin colors and what makes up the family. no family is alike these days. it's important for parents and kids to see themselves reflected in our books. they feel valued and a part of the community. we want that. it's important for families to know that the jewish community embraces them. >> it seems important when we talk about children's books that -- when we talk about diversity, that is a big word. it seems when we get really concrete about it, what it breaks down to is that an

illustration reflects a child of color, a jew of color and diversity of skin collar in a family but reflects different behaviors so there are ways in which we give signals diversity, the way the story reflects cooking and food or a celebration or an outing or something that they go do in terms of interacting with the world around them. are there other ways in which you think the books reflect diversity for a child's mind that build the building blocks of inclusion. >> absolutely. i can think of a certain book that i love from pj library called the only one club. it's about a girl that goes to public school. she feels that she is the only jew in the class. what she soon discovers, yes, she may be the only jewish child but there are other children who are the only ones with red hair or freckles. everyone has their own uniqueness and to embrace it in

a real way. >> howard and vivian, believe it or not, we came to the end of the conversation. we put a coma in so to speak. please pay attention to reading and books and the children in your lives. thank you for being here with us on mosaic.

from cbs news bay area , this is the morning edition. san francisco's pride parade is now just a few hours away and the party was in full swing in parts of the city on saturday. >> we are happy to be out