Literacy

"Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley has made a rare Los Angeles appearance. On Sept. 26, some 150-odd years after her demise, she dropped by 826LA's Time Travel Mart in Echo Park -- that Sunset Boulevard purveyor of leg warmers, bottled "robot emotions" and soon a fragrance timeline (a whiff of history from caveman to Studio 54) -- as part of the Dead Authors series to report back from beyond. As channeled by Jen Kirkman, a stand-up comedian, writer for E!'

There was no snow at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, but the four sled dogs tethered there seemed acclimated enough. One amiably licked the face of a child in a stroller. The hubbub wasn't much like the Yukon, but the dogs were there to excite interest in Jack London's "The Call of the Wild." This was a far cry from a quiet conversation around a library table -- a series of which are being held in West Hollywood to discuss Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima."

IT'S often said that travelers visit Nepal because of the mountains but return because of the people. The generosity of the Nepalese goes straight to the heart and inspires reciprocation. I found that in November when I visited a library in Putalibazar, a town about 30 miles south of Pokhara. The staff draped three chains of marigolds around my neck and gave me a blessing, or \o7tika\f7, in the form of a puff of red powder on my face.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Barksdale Reading Institute have pledged a combined $11 million to fund the PBS Kids' series "Between the Lions," a learn-to-read program with high success rates in poor, rural communities. Several university studies have shown increases in literacy skills among children who watched the program at schools in Kansas, Mississippi and New Mexico.

A study of patients 65 and older found that those who couldn't understand basic written medical instructions were much more likely to die within six years than those who had no problems grasping the information. The difference in the death rates remained substantial even when researchers considered differences in the patients' health at the outset.

Long criticized for showing gangsta rap videos and those with scantily clad female dancers, Black Entertainment Television is now taking those images -- spiced with profanity and frequent use of the N-word -- and remixing them into an audacious animated video promoting literacy and black pride that is drawing both praise and condemnation.

WHO SHE IS: Savannah Stevens doesn't mind being called a bookworm. As a student, the Calabasas resident spent years in the library at Yale, and now, as co-chair of the Young Literati--a social/charitable arm of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles--she raises awareness of the city's public book palaces by recruiting members and coordinating scene-worthy events. "We like to be a part of the fabric of the literary life of L.A.

At the grand opening of the Echo Park Time Travel Mart on Dec. 15, the Robot Emotions were going like hot cakes (happiness and schadenfreude were the top sellers). The mystery product Chubble, on the other hand, available in more than 50 different varieties, wasn't really moving. A worker dressed like a cowboy shrugged. "It's really hot in the future."

Know the children's book "Boom Chicka Rock"? Lynne Beery does -- almost word for word. The day it arrived in the mail as part of the Imagination Library program, her 4-year-old daughter, Heavenly, asked her mom to read it 25 times. That's more than 25 refrains of "Boom chicka rock, chicka rock, chicka boom!" But Beery is not complaining. She likes having that time with her daughter, who has Down syndrome.

It's not easy to escape the Delta. People have been writing songs for 100 years about how hard it is to escape, especially this part of the Delta, where the crushing poverty and the heat storms and the ghost towns get hold of you and won't let go. Some used to hop a train out, but the trains don't stop here anymore. Some worked their way out, but jobs have gotten scarce. Few dreamed of escaping through books. Then Ronnie Wise came along. How many have learned to read because of Wise?