Books | Culture & Community | LEAP | Arts & Culture | New Haven Green
Seven-year-old Sania Stroud. "Even if there's a loud noise at night and your joy is scared away, it comes streaming right back with the light of the silvery moon," she read. Lucy Gellman Photos.
LaKisha Jordan was halfway through The Little Book of Joy when seven-year-old Brooklyn Anderson leaned in, her eyes tracing every letter. On the page, a mother crouched down to embrace her child, wrapping him in the soft, woven folds of her pink shawl. Back in New Haven, bees and dragonflies flew low over the wet grass, buzzing their gentle hellos. Brooklyn couldn’t be bothered to reply: she was in the zone.
“Even if you slam the door and your joy can’t get in, it’s just on the other side,” she read in a quiet, clear voice that floated through the warm air. “Waiting in a loving hug.”
Friday morning, Brooklyn joined hundreds of campers, volunteers and book nerds of all ages at Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership’s (LEAP) 22nd annual Read-In on the New Haven Green, a celebration of learning and literacy that has become one of the organization’s signature events. Over two decades in, it drew dozens of volunteers, who fanned out across the Green to read for close to 40 minutes.
“Reading feels really good,” said Brooklyn, nestled among a handful of her pint-sized peers. “When I’m mad, I read a book and it makes me feel calm and happy. I can be alone—it’s like nobody’s around me.”
This year, LEAP’s summer program has welcomed roughly 800 campers across six citywide sites. They include Lincoln-Bassett School in Newhallville, Augusta Lewis Troup School in Dwight, Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration (FAME) in Fair Haven, Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School in the Hill, Ross Woodward Classical Studies Magnet School in Quinnipiac Meadows and LEAP’s 31 Jefferson St. headquarters in Wooster Square.
Among them, Brooklyn is one of hundreds of kids who look forward to the Read-In for weeks. For as long as she can remember, she’s loved reading, seeking out books that take her far beyond New Haven, and sometimes to magical places that are in another universe entirely. As one of six kids and a rising third grader at Barack Obama Magnet School, it’s how she finds space to think.
“Reading helps you grow and it helps you be smart,” she said. At home and at school, some of her favorites include Grace Byers and Keturah A. Bobo’s I Am Enough and Adam Rubin’s Dragons Love Tacos. The illustrations inspire her just as much as the text, she added: she wants to be a cartoon artist “like in New York” when she grows up.
So when her eye caught The Little Book of Joy Friday, she knew she was in for a treat. Published in 2022 and illustrated by Rafael López, the book tells the story of the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu as the two find joy in their respective upbringings, small kindnesses, and eventual friendship. No sooner had Jordan sat down with the group than Brooklyn found a spot in the center of her peers, resting one hand on her chin like a tiny version of The Thinker.
“I’m Miss Kisha,” Jordan said in a chipper voice. In front of her, fellow LEAPers Sania Stroud and Amya Wiley looked on skeptically. Just minutes before, both had said they weren’t especially excited about reading. Now, both opened their eyes wide and scooted in close, waiting to see what was next. Jordan opened the book to the first page.
Sania Stroud, Amya Wiley, Noel Armstrong and Aliyah Hill. All are seven years old.
“One of us grew up in a little house,” she began, smiling as her eyes scanned the group for the first few reactions. On the page, a young Archbishop Tutu sprawled out on the grass, his eyes soft and wide and his nose buried in a book. She turned the page, and a toddling Dalai Lama pushed a toy train. “One of us grew up in a big house.”
In the grass, Amya was listening intently. Jordan turned the page again, and the book crisscrossed the globe, drawing a map between the two men. In the story, both wished for a friend, isolated in their young lives.
“If you just focus on the thing that is making you sad, then sadness is all you see,” Jordan read from the book. “But if you look around, you will see that joy is everywhere!” She turned the page. “Joy is the warm, tingly feeling of the sun tickling your toes in the morning—”
She paused for a moment and scanned the group. “Do you like having your toes out in the sun?”
“I do!” Amya answered in a sing-song voice. She wiggled her toes over the grass, having slipped her shoes off minutes before, and smiled. Before long, she was holding the book herself, keeping the narrative going as Jordan checked in on Noel Armstrong, a voracious reader who had gone quiet at the back of the group.
“It’s the soft, snuggly feeling of being all wrapped up, cozy in your bed at night,” Amya read. “Even when you are caught in the rain and your joy is washed away—”
She looked up just briefly as Jordan and Noel rejoined the group. Noel sat down beside Jordan, ready to read. While her favorite books are those in Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series (“They do a lot of silly stuff!”), she listened carefully to the story, soon absorbed in its ability to bridge hundreds of miles with bright, painterly illustrations. Her wave of sadness seemed to subside as the words washed over her.
“We’re gonna wash away our tears for reading, okay?” Jordan said to her. “The joy is reading.”
That feeling lingered afterwards, as students unwrapped crustless nut butter sandwiches and string cheese to take their lunch outside on the Green. Still floating on the story she’d just heard, Brooklyn said that the day “made me feel happy,” with high praise for Jordan’s reading skills and choice of book. Amya, meanwhile, said she was thinking about reading in a whole new light.
“The book was good!” she said. “The reader, she was letting us read some pages.”
Jordan, now director of programs at the NewAlliance Foundation, said she was excited to spend time reading with the LEAPers. While literacy is core to the work she does in her job every day, activities like the read-in are also personal: she has long turned to books as a refuge and source of joy. When she was a kid, “reading allowed me to create my own characters.” She held onto that as she grew up, and ultimately made the move to New Haven.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, she also volunteered as a reader several times at the event. As a mom of three—and the wife of a former LEAP counselor, Cherron Jordan—she knows firsthand how important reading is to social and emotional development.
That message resonated with Melissa Liriano, communications coordinator at LEAP. In an interview after the event, she called the Read-In central to LEAP’s mission in both its emphasis on learning and literacy and its ability to open doors.
This year, the event comes as New Haven enters the second year of the New Haven Tutoring Initiative (NHTI), dedicated to closing a reading and math gap that has become pronounced and alarming among the city’s students.
“Reading is so powerful and we want every child to feel confident in themselves and their abilities wherever they go,” she wrote in an email follow-up. “Reading helps instill that confidence and truly strengthens young minds.”
“We specifically pick our books and book authors to reflect the children reading those books so they can further feel connected to reading and know that their stories matter,” she continued. “It’s a beautiful event where community members can share their love of reading and help empower the kids.”