Story Archive

Reading is Fundamental

When a mail carrier in Sandy, Utah, was making his rounds, a young boy asked him for some junk mail. The boy explained he liked to read, but didn’t have any books, and bus fare to the library was out of the family’s budget. He was desperate to read anything he could get his hands on. Postie Ron Lynch posted the boy’s plight online. “My mother instilled a love of books in me,” Lynch said. “At 12 years old, he didn’t want electronics, he didn’t want to sit in front of the TV playing games all day. The kid just wanted to read.” Very quickly, Mathew Flores, 12, started getting books — hundreds of them. Flores says he likes to read. “Plus,” he says, “it gets you smarter.” He promises to read all the books sent to him, and then he’ll pass them along to other children. (RC/Deseret News) ...If he can get their attention as they sit in front of the TV playing games all day.