More books make more readers
Ellerslie school in the running for free books
“You have to keep looking for the best book; that’s what you have to do, the book that’s going to hook them.” Janet Doran
Looking through the shelves of the Ellerslie Elementary School library, Janet Doran is hard-pressed to find the most recent additions.
“The new ones tend to go fast,” says Doran, the school’s Grade 4 teacher and part-time librarian.
She places a book order every January but this school year she’s hoping for some early arrivals.
Ellerslie Elementary is one of 185 high needs elementary schools across Canada selected for the Indigo 2017 Adopt a School program. During a three-week period ending this Sunday, Oct. 8, the Coles Summerside store is fundraising, on the Ellerslie school’s behalf, for the purchase of 205 books, representing one book per student.
As of Tuesday, the count was up to 140 books. The school can also obtain up to 20 books through a story contest. Participants simply need to respond to one of the five Adopt a School questions on Indigo’s website to give their school of choice a chance to obtain a free book. So far Ellerslie has earned 12 books through the story contest.
There’s also an opportunity to “Heart” (like) a story. The top five most-liked stories from each province will be entered into a special draw, earning one of those schools from each province $2,500 for book purchases, while the other four schools will receive $500 to buy books. Doran said Ellerslie is currently in the running for the additional prize.
One of the questions participants can answer is, “What three books should every school library have?”
If she were to answer that question, Doran said she would suggest, “Wonder,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and “How Full Is Your Bucket?” Her school library already has those books and they’re popular with students.
Doran said the annual shipment of books to her school library is cause for excitement.
“As soon as (students) see the boxes (arriving), they are excited; as excited as I am, because I love new books,” she said. “It’s kind of like Christmas for me, getting new books in the library.”
Besides ordering new titles each year, Doran also orders replacements for the “much loved” books that wear out.
“We have a pretty good selection here, but there are so many good books out there,” she says of the need to continually update the shelves.
The books the school obtains through the Indigo promotion, Duran said, will be in addition to the books she will be ordering with the school’s annual book budget.
There’s a pocket of avid readers in every class, Doran acknowledges.
There’s no secret to what it takes to expand that group of avid readers.
“You have to keep looking for the best book; that’s what you have to do, the book that’s going to hook them.”
Then, she said, the student will be on the lookout for other books in the series, or other books by the same author.