- Metro Detroit's biggest used book and media sale is back for its 21st year.

Bookstock returns to Laurel Park Place in Livonia for one week, beginning on April 27th.

Nearly 400,000 gently used books, DVDs, CDs, books on tape, and vinyl records are gonna be on sale at bargain prices.

Proceeds benefit literacy and education projects here in the Detroit and the Tri-County area.

There is also an essay contest for fourth graders in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Joining me now is the district's deputy superintendent and Bookstock's honorary chancellor, Alycia Meriweather, along with last year's contest winner, Damir Archer, and his teacher at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary-Middle School, Kenneth Powers.

Welcome, all of you, to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

- 21 years of Bookstock, I say that every year when you guys come on, that I can't believe how long we've been doing this, but I really can't believe, 21 years.

- 21 years, and honestly, it's getting bigger and better every year, and the contest that our students participate in, I think, has gotten bigger and better every year too.

- Yeah, yeah.

What, in your mind, is the sort of power of this celebration of media and words and literacy to a district like DPSCD?

- I mean, I think reading is the fundamental building block of all other things.

I mean, the ability to read opens all kinds of doors, right?

Not only can you read information, which increases your knowledge about subjects, but you can read about places that exist that maybe you'd like to visit, and places of the imagination that I think sparks your thinking in different ways, and so, to me, anything that we can do to promote literacy, reading, the love of reading and writing, is a win.

So Bookstock has been a great partner with the Bookstock Contest, but also, we've also partnered to have classes go to Bookstock, and they got Bookstock books, and we're able to pick out books and take those back to their homes.

So I just think all of what's connected to Bookstock is a win, honestly.

- Yeah.

Kenneth, talk about how this contest kind of plays out in the school at Bethune.

- It plays out very well.

It really motivates students to write, and it gets them more engaged.

We had students this year go to the contest too, this year.

The student who was our runner-up is Promise Lewis.

So it's great, you know, it gets the kids engaged, it gets them focused, and also the element of competition.

- Yeah, they like that, I'm sure they like that.

- [Kenneth] Yes, they enjoy that.

- How does this integrate into the curriculum there in terms of how you're teaching kids, not just to read, but of course, to use the language in many different ways, right?

- For sure.

Right now, we're focusing on writing paragraphs and writing essays, so students know that they have to write more than just one sentence, and they use the information from the books, as far as how the author writes, and use it as a model.

So that's, you know- - Yeah, yeah.

- They will.

- So, Damir, tell me about what you wrote last year that won the essay contest.

- I wrote a essay about the book named "Weirdo."

It was about a kid named "Weirdo."

He moved into a new town and a new school, and people was making fun of him because of his name, and his dad name.

- Uh-huh, and so what was it about that story that made you wanna write about it?

- Because it was bullies, and we need less bullies.

We don't need those.

- That's for sure, right?

(chuckles) And so what did you write in your essay?

What did you say about the book?

- When he was getting bullied, a new student came in and helped him get popular and fit in.

- Yeah, yeah, so, Damir, tell me about books and how important they are to you, books like "Weirdo."

Do you spend a lot of time reading and thinking about stories?

- No, actually, I was- - No.

(chuckles) I've been paying attention to like, martial arts.

- Ah, yeah, yeah.

- I wanna own my own business and martial arts studios.

- Wow, wow.

So, Alycia, you know, students like Damir are wonderful examples of how something like Bookstock, but also the emphasis on literacy and words and ideas are in the district.

- And you know what, I think Damir's example is a really good one is his passion may not be reading and writing, martial arts and entrepreneurship, but there's still this opportunity to connect with books, write about what you've read, and win a contest, and learn something along the way.

So regardless of if you're going to be an author or not is not really the point.

The point is, reading, reflecting, writing, learning.

And so, I think what Damir shared even about the topic of the book, about bullying and saying, "This is something we need to have less of, in schools and in countries, about how we treat people."

And those are lessons that will, you will take with you.

- They help us through the years.

- That will help you through the years, and so, regardless of what he chooses to do, or the other young people who participate in the contest, or all the young people in our district who read, whatever they do next, whatever they've read stays with them.

- Yeah.

- That's one of the beautiful things about reading.

- It really is.

It is, for me, the most valuable part of school.

The things I remember about school are all about books that we read either in elementary or even in high school.

It really is the powerful kind of spine that goes through everything else.

- Agree, agree.

- Yeah, yeah.

Kenneth, talk about this year's contest, the runner-up, the essay that they did?

- This year runner-up was Promise Lewis.

She wrote about a book that was set during women's suffrage movement, 1920s, and she put herself into it.

She imagined how she would feel she lived during that time period.

And it was good to see how students respond to social issues.

- Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's a pretty complicated set of ideas for an elementary school student to put down on paper and into an essay.

Is that a reflection of the way that you're trying to get the students there to think about, not just reading, but how to use the language in bigger ways?

- Yes, I'm trying to get students to write paragraphs.

On our M-STEP test, they have to write an essay and have to learn how to write more than one paragraph and getting their ideas out, you know, and this is great, this is great for that.

- Yeah, yeah.

Alycia, we've been working for a really long time in Detroit on literacy in particular, not just, and I always wanna emphasize this, not just reading scores, right?

- That's right.

- That's one measure, but, again, the way students integrate the language into every part of school, but also in every part of their lives is the goal.

And we've made some real progress, I feel, in the last decade or so, for sure.

- Definitely making progress.

There's a lot more work to do.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- But I would definitely say we've made some progress.

I think your distinction around, you know, test scores versus actually being able to read, two different things.

- [Stephen] Yes.

- Tests do not, you know, measure your ability to read.

It's an assessment of how you answered these questions, and so I think it is important to make that distinction.

When we're trying, you know, from pre-K all the way up through high school, trying to integrate, basically, pieces of literature that are of interest, so trying to look at what books, what articles, what pieces would be more interesting for young people to read, looking at different genres.

A few years ago, we revamped the curriculum completely, and I think some of those changes have really had a positive impact in the classroom, and we continue to work.

There's a lot of work to be done, not just in Detroit Public Schools, but in the City of Detroit, State of Michigan, our country, around really moving towards proficiency.

- Yeah.

- In reading and learning.

Really, I mean, just be a lifelong learner, right?

- Right.

- But we want to inspire young people, that when they leave Detroit Public Schools, they read whatever they want to the rest of their lives and continue to learn.

- Yeah, and we've changed the way, in the district, that we're teaching reading in the last decade, is that right?

- There have been some significant changes.

I think one of the biggest changes is actually around reading intervention and the hiring of academic interventionists and a program called Orton-Gillingham, which is really around working with young people who are having challenges deciphering and understanding what they're reading, and giving them really effective strategies, and we have seen some movement in that space too.

- Congratulations again on the essay that you wrote last year, and, of course, congratulations on 21 years- - 21 years.

- of Bookstock, yeah.

All right, that's gonna do it for us this week.