The following is an excerpt from the speech given by LLC President, D. Lark Gamey at the national book launch of Born to Read, Write and Count in Toronto on October 17.

"Picture this - you're in a room with no doors, no windows. Close your eyes if your imagination needs help. You can't tell the time, whether it's day or night, raining or snowing, light or dark or what the season is. You just don't know. You're in the dark.

This is how it feels to many people who can't read.

Now, I don't want to leave you in that dark room, so, imagine a window. Now your room is filled with light - you can learn about the world around you - just like when we learn to READ, WRITE and COUNT. With these basic skills you can go anywhere, learn anything."

On October 17, 1997 nearly 2 million Canadian children received Ben Wicks' new book entitled, Born To Read, Write and Count. The book is a call to action for parents and care-givers. Ben Wicks created this fun book full of cartoons and ideas on how to introduce the world of words and numbers to children.

Following the success of Wicks' Born To Read (1995) and the second book in the series, Born To Read and Write (1996), this year's book was designed to open the door to understanding what numbers mean and what they can do.

The aim of the project is simple: Parents, read to your kids!!! Spend time with them!

LLC's new order form is now available. You will see many new publications listed under the following headings: Phonics; Reading; Pleasure Reading; ESL; Life Skills; Workplace Literacy and Training Resources. We will have a new brochure in the near future highlighting these publications.

Two new Canadian Publications are now available. "In the Line of Duty" - stories of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and "Ten Travel Tales" - ten countries in different areas of the world are the subject of these stories.

We now have a monthly circular which will be enclosed with our statements. Each month will feature a different series of publications at a discount price. If you do not receive a statement, you can contact the Distributorship Office and we will forward the current circular to you. (See page 1 for telephone and fax numbers.)

We now have a new part-time employee, Janice Hale , who is in our shipping and receiving department. She is replacing our former employee, Jim Stackhouse. Our new "shipping days" are Tuesdays and Thursdays. Janice will be more than willing to take your orders and process them efficiently.

Laubach Literacy of Canada has four great Christmas card designs, available in packages of ten. Regularly priced at $5.00 per package, you can now purchase the set of four for only $15.00!

Beat the rush! Get your "value pack" of LLC Christmas cards today and help support literacy activities across Canada!

Call LLC's Christmas card hotline at: 1-888-248-2898 or send your order and payment to LLC's Development Office.