I know about libraries and bookmobiles, but this was the first time I’d heard of a Biblioburro. About a decade ago, Colombian schoolteacher Luis Soriano decided to share his collection of books with people who do not have books. Soriano believes in the transformative power of reading. He says that providing books for people who don’t have books can improve the impoverished region in northern Colombia where he lives.

Nearly every weekend for the last 10 years Soriano and his burros, Alpha and Beto, travel with textbooks, encyclopedias, and novels from Soriano’s personal library. Eager children wait at stops along the way.

Soriano’s personal library was small—perhaps 70 books—until he reached out to noted Colombian author and journalist Juan Gossaín. Soriano had listened to Gossaín read excerpts from his newest novel over the radio. He wrote to the author and asked if he’d lend a copy of the book to the Biblioburro. After Gossaín broadcast details about the Biblioburro on his radio program, book donations poured in from all over Colombia—4,800 of them.

Traveling with his Biblioburro is not without risks: Soriano once fractured his leg from a fall and has been accosted by bandits who, after tying him to a tree, stole a book by Paulo Coelho. “For some reason Coelho is at the top of everyone’s list of favorites,” he grinned. Still, it’s worth it. Recently, as a girl read from a book of poetry she said, “That is so beautiful, Maestro. When are you coming back?”

At Learning A-Z, we’ve made providing books our mission too. We don’t trek across the landscape with books atop a burro. We’ll leave that to the commendable Maestro Soriano. But we do make it our business to get books into the hands of teachers and children the world over. We are even planning to print out and send a few boxes of our Spanish version Reading A-Z books to the maestro so he can hand them out along the way for children to keep.

Pulling into my driveway, I see the 6-year-old neighborhood daredevil raise his light saber, and race down the sidewalk to a buddy with a play-weapon that looks like something out of "Men in Black." They negotiate who will be Obi Wan and who will be Anakin, then, slinging their mismatched weapons over their shoulders, charge through the yard to fight unseen foes.

Many families today are facing foreclosure and even homelessness. Among the repercussions of the housing crisis is the negative impact on children’s ability to learn. Even though these traumatic circumstances occur outside the education system, teachers and schools deal with the emotional and behavioral problems that these children bring into classrooms every day.

 About two million children will feel the impact as their families lose their homes in the economic crisis, according to a report by First Focus, an advocacy group for families and children.  

“This housing crisis is taking away the innocence of our kids,” said Phillip Lovell, vice president of education policy for First Focus. “Kids take their homes for granted, and when you lose that, there are long-term impacts. It cripples children. It affects their education, health, and behaviors.”

Foreclosures often force families to move to rentals or to homes in other school districts where children have to start all over. “If children move too frequently they become detached and don’t want to make friends,” said Barbara Duffield of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

 Students impacted by the housing crisis are only half as likely to be proficient in reading as their peers, leading to the likelihood that they will be held back (and eventually drop out), First Focus reported. Children forced from their homes also experience behavioral problems such as increases in violence.

According to an article in American Psychologist, some families who go through foreclosure may even face short-term homelessness, which exacerbates the problems. Homeless children typically have shorter attention spans, speech delays, impaired cognitive ability, and underdeveloped motor skills. They may be prone to withdrawal, aggression, regressive toddler-like behavior, immature peer interaction, and inappropriate social interaction with adults.

School systems and teachers will be dealing with student behaviors and shortcomings associated with the housing crisis for the foreseeable future. Children caught in the whirlwind will suffer. That simply is not right and is one of the most compelling reasons for those who lead our country to put differences aside and remedy the economic crisis as quickly as possible.