Books for SE Libraries

I thought that all schools would have the same size libraries (in terms of books) but live and learn. Many elementaries don't have as many books as others. I do recall that there was money spent so that each K-2 (or 3rd) would have a small class library in each classroom. Here's a plea from SPS Parent.

From Rainier Valley Post:

“I think we have a LOT of challenges, and with the economic situation being what it is, some problems seem hard to solve,” said Graham Hill parent volunteer Anna McCartney in an email to the community.

But she added that there is at least one idea that strikes her as fairly simple, and that’s collecting as many new and gently-used books as possible for the budding readers at Graham Hill and other schools.

In her plea to the community, McCartney underscored the importance of every classroom having a wide array of interesting books at a variety of levels so students are challenged without being bored or frustrated.

She asked community members to raid their shelves for books their children have outgrown and donate them to Graham Hill in Seward Park or other south-end schools looking to beef up their classroom libraries.

“We have preschool through grade 5 at our school, so new or used books at all levels would be great,” said McCartney. “We need both fiction and nonfiction, and nonfiction and science-based books would be wonderful.”

If anyone has books to donate, please get in touch and you can either drop them off at my house or I’m happy to pick them up. anna AT mccartneyfamily.com.

Comments

Jet City mom said…
I thought that all schools would have the same size libraries (in terms of books) but live and learn

I think in the past that has been part of the site based budget decisions. Additionally it seemed that schools with librarians/parents who went out looking for books @ SPL book sales etc, had much larger libraries.

At Summit- we had school-wide book groups( by grade) & a separate section for book group books ( say 8 or more copies of same book). Every year a fundraiser was held to raise money/books for the library.
( all those books are now the property of SPS- nice deal for them eh? )


Additionally- classrooms with veteran teachers are much more likely to have a classroom library. Teachers often build their library with their own funds- but that takes time. If schools with higher FRL ratio, have newer teachers, ( as seems to be the case), they are going to have a lot less time to establish a classroom library & may be too overwhelmed to even do so.
seattle citizen said…
There is a moving sale going on at 130 Florentia (the north foot of Queen Anne hill, runs east/west above, south, of SPU and below the park.

There are a hundred or two children's books there, all in excellent condition, for, if I recall, all ages (k-8, at least)

I collect books at estate sales, and have gone on Sundays when I've seen a large haul, knowing they wil discount for quantity books: Who wants to move them? ("You do...out of the house!" says my wife.) They learn they are going to a public school, and they're happy to give 'em away. I've donated hundreds of books to schools in this manner, cheap or free (One kind gentleman gave me over fifteen boxes of books from his father's art, culture, civics library. My only cost was sweat, gas, and new shocks for the car.

But I don't have time to go to this sale at 130 Florentia today, second day..I've got business elsewhere. Hmmm...who lives near the Fremont Bridge...
Jessica said…
Though it's not an ideal solution, the Goodwill store on South Lane has thousands of children's books for all ages and most cost 79 cents. In addition to very popular series from Lemony Snicket to Harry Potter to American Girl books, I've found a wide variety of classics, Judy Blume, Goosebumps, sports-related books - and basically it's like the cheapest bookstore you've ever seen. Might be worth a look.
Kathy said…
My daughter was unable to bring her US History book home (books are shared).

I purchased the same history text book for $0.94 on Amizon.com. Orignial value of the book was $100.

The school had older versions of the book available, but finding pages etc. is time consuming.
Anonymous said…
I highly recommed DonorsChoos.org. Each teacher can put in for their own library project. Donors from all over the country can give to your projects. I am working on my second library project this year. It was simple to do. Cheaper than buying the books out of my personal money. I linked my projects to my facebook account and had the librarian link it to our school's web page.
-ttln
Anna McCartney said…
Hello! This is Anna McCartney, the person in the article. Heh, I'm pleased to see this get spread around - I just sent it out initially as an email to our neighborhood yahoo group. :)

We had a meeting up at our school this past week to talk about the fairly depressing results on the recent school report cards. One of the big things that kept coming up was that teachers said that they didn't have enough books in their classrooms.

I don't know what the situation is at other schools, but it seems to be a big problem at ours. I was just thinking that if we all went through our bookshelves and picked out books that our kids have outgrown, it would be a big step toward solving this problem.

I am guessing that lots of other schools need books too, so I don't mean to only be asking for donations for OUR school. Find out if your local school needs books. If you have extra to spare, schools in SE Seattle surely can use the help.

I'm happy to be a depot and collect books to be distributed, so please get in touch if you would like to make a delivery to me (or I can do some pick ups too).

Thanks everyone for your help with this. I just think this is a problem we can solve pretty easily (and cheaply) if we all pitch in and donate kids' books that we are done with.

Several teachers mentioned that they'd especially like interesting nonfiction books - like the DK books about science, or whatever - so ESPECIALLY if you could keep an eye out for those, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks a ton!!

Anna
Maureen said…
Another thing we could do is round up our outgrown board games and donate them to school libraries or individual classrooms. There are plenty of 'rainy day recesses' in Seattle when they come in handy. And sometimes teachers send math based games home with some kids to help them get more practice.
chunga said…
Anna, I sent you a couple emails to try to donate some books, but have not heard back. I sent it to anna at mccartneyfamily.com. I'd like to help out the SE schools, but unless I hear back, will probably end up donating elsewhere.

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