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"I cannot live without books."
--Lilli Leight, 15.
(--Also, Thomas Jefferson.)

No one reads books anymore. Especially not kids and teens. They're all tweetin' and textin' and emoticonning and watching 3-D YouTube videos on their hologram-lenses or whatever it is they do. Or anyway that's the story lately. Then an old-fashioned lady like myself hears about an intrepid young book lover like 15-year-old Lilli Leight and breathes a sigh of relief. Lilli loves books. She loves books so much that she was disturbed when she noticed that the children at the homeless shelter where she volunteered (is she the best kid in the world or what?) automatically turned on the center's TV when they had a free moment. Lilli told Publishers Weekly, " I realized that there were no books available to the children, and that no one ever thought to ask for a book.”

So she did what all 13-year-olds (as she was then) would do: she started a library. On her own. Read the whole article to find out how she acquired over 5,000 books for the homeless kids she works with. And the next time someone bemoans the state of today's youths, think of the library of Lilli Leight.

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