Books, books, books are for reading, and for the last 20-years, the good reading pirate Captain Book, aka Morris R. Pike, PhD, has dedicated himself to inspiring children (and adults) to read. As he is want to say, “If you read books, you can be anything you want to be, go anywhere you want to go, and do it any time you want.”
Dr. Pike, who holds a PhD in theater from Kent State University, retired from teaching theater at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California, moved to Encinitas California and joined the Kiwanis Club of Encinitas.
In 2000, when he became president of his club and needed a project, he chose children’s literacy. He started giving free books to the children in the Encinitas YMCA after school program. Taking the advice of his classroom teacher daughter Sharon Pegany, he started bringing the books in a treasure chest (after all, “Books are the greatest treasure of all,” she said).
It goes without saying of course, where there’s a treasure chest, a pirate can’t be far behind. Thus Captain Book and the Captain Book Literacy Foundation was born.
It is important to do your reading and no one says it better than Mason.
Basing his mission on the data that shows that the number of books in the child’s home heavily impacts success in school and the presence of books in the home is more important that the parent’s education level or economic status, Captain Book and his crew of Kiwanians have already given more than 150,000 books free to children in Title One classrooms, Head Starts, libraries, and Camp Pendleton Marine Base.
Today, Captain Book and his crew of reading pirates from the Kiwanis Club of Carlsbad California, continue to visit classrooms and libraries to tell tales of the high seas, perform magic, read from books and give free books for the kids to keep as their own.
In addition, the good Captain Book broadcasts daily from his studio on the Good Ship Literacy and you can see them free on his You Tube Channel Captain Book Live.
The Captain will be wanting you to do your reading tho and he’ll keep reminding you that books, books, books are for reading, and that books are the greatest treasure of all. Hit the subscribe button and you won’t miss an issue.
To find out more about Captain Book Literacy Foundation and the Kiwanis Club of Carlsbad crew of reading pirates, visit www.captainbook.org
Photos by Jan Jackson
