New York-based nonprofit Literacy Partners has unveiled its 2019 Unreadable Books campaign, designed to raise awareness of adult illiteracy by displaying a dozen popular books bearing new dust jackets with the titles, author names, blurbs and all other text scrambled. In their campaign, This Chair Rocks by Ashton Applewhite becomes Thsi Rhiac Orcsk, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown becomes The Ad Viicn Oced, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas becomes Het Ahet U Evig and Oprah’s Book Club pick An American Marriage by Tayari Jones becomes Na Anreicam Mgeriaar.
Now in its second year, the Unreadable Books campaign developed by Literacy Partners and its creative agency The&Partnership takes these familiar book covers and scrambles the text to give those who can read a sense of what it’s like not to be able to decipher the words. According to the organization, one in five adults struggles to read.
Other titles that make up the twelve books in this year’s campaign include Fruit of The Drunken Tree by Ingrid Roja Contreras, Chaos by Patricia Cornwell, The War of The Roses by Warren Adler, Secrets of Cavendon by Barbara Taylor Bradford, No One Can Pronounce My Name by Rakesh Satyal, The Undesirables by Mark Isaacs, Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, and People Like Us by Sayu Bhojwani.
The full set of the twelve Unreadable Books will be on display Friday, March 15 through Monday, March 18 at New York City bookstores McNally Jackson in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and The Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan, and on display at in Union Square at a Literacy Partners stand on March 17. A scannable barcode on the back of the books will allow for donations.
When asked how the titles were chosen, Literacy Partners CEO Anthony Tassi said in an interview, “We wanted to include book jackets that people would recognize in an instant because they are so familiar. We reached out to bestselling authors who already support Literacy Partners and the response was very positive.”
Tassi explained that for this campaign, making New Yorkers aware of the reality of the issue is the primary aim. “Our goal is more to raise awareness of the issue of adult illiteracy and to get people involved at whatever level they can do—$10, $20, or what have you,” Tassi said. “For us, a wide response to this call to action is more important than hitting a specific dollar target in terms of fundraising.”
Funds raised will go to support adult literacy classes for absolute beginners, meaning adults who read and write at the first, second or third grade level. “We have a highly structured approach to help people decode the written word and understand simple texts. We combine it with a storytelling component to develop people’s narrative skills and reawaken their desire to tell their own story. It’s all research-based and highly effective,” explained Tassi. Literacy Partners has helped over 27,000 people learn to read since its founding in 1975.
While the adult literacy rate in New York City, where Literacy Partners operates, is improving, according to Tassi that’s not happening fast enough. “Low literacy and limited English proficiency are the biggest driving factors in the achievement gap among young children,” Tassi told me. To that end, the organization works on a two-generation model, focusing their efforts on low-income and immigrant parents of young children, to prevent illiteracy from being passed on.
Rakesh Satyal, Senior Editor at Atria Books, author of No One Can Pronounce My Name, whose Unreadable Books cover title reads On Eon Nac Norpuoecn Ym Eman, said in an interview that his desire to work with the organization is rooted in his early life. “My mother taught language arts at an elementary school in Ohio for almost four decades, so I have always been particularly inspired by those that make it a personal mission to teach others to read,” Satyal told me.
Asked what he hopes those who see the Unreadable Books displays will take away from them, Satyal said,“I think that one of the main purposes of writing is to empathize with others and create something that allows readers to see the world from other people’s perspectives. This program makes that process visual in a way that feels distinctive and moving.”
