This has been quite a year. Speaking personally, I can say that 2017 has challenged me in ways I wasn’t sure that I could overcome, and yet I’m here, and this year is almost over! YAY! We did it! *high five*

I’d like to celebrate in my very favorite way: by giving books to kids.

If you’re anything like me, one of the best ways to feel good is to give to others, and in that spirit I’m starting a book drive for my sister’s school in North Carolina. My sister is one of those people who believes in kids. She spent ten years teaching and is now training to be an administrator, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work she’s doing to improve her school for her kids.

Now I’m asking for your help to fulfill their wishes, because the truth is, they need books. Badly. Their library doesn’t have a fraction of the books they need, and we can change that!

Here’s the scoop:

“North Johnston Middle School is a Title I school located in the small town of Micro, North Carolina. Our students come from a tight-knit community, which has pride for its rich history.  Our students come from a variety of backgrounds, socio-economic statuses, races, and experiences. 61.5 percent of our 645 student population receive free or reduced lunch on a daily basis. Our Middle School was built recently, but our book collection is extremely out of date.  Currently, the average age of our book collection is 1999 and we have 14.7 items per student.  In order to be deemed a “proficient” collection, we should have 15 items per student and the average age of the collection should be 2004. In order to move our school up to “proficient” we would need to purchase 2,615 additional titles at a cost of $52,300. As a school, we are concentrating on literacy, which is very difficult to do without quality materials. Currently, we have a minuscule budget for our media center and do not have a fraction of the funds needed to properly update our collection. f you or your publishing company are able to support our Middle School students and their access to quality, up-to-date literature, please visit our Amazon Wish List. Thank you for your support!”

Without further ado, here is the wish list link followed by some FAQs about how to BEST help North Johnson Middle School expand and diversify their library collection:

North Johnson Elementary School Book Wishlist

Thank you for your help!!! See below for FAQs.

Here’s my sister in front of a new banner that she painted over the summer for NJMS. She’s holding a meat basket, because that is a thing we gift in the South. 🙂

FAQs:

Can I donate other books?

Yes, but please only send new or like-new books that will hold up to library use that are appropriate for middle school collections. (ARCs are okay if in great condition!)

Can I send swag?

Yes! The students are going to be surprised and thrilled by this book drive and they would love middle school appropriate swag, to be distributed by the librarian.

What is the mailing address?

North Johnston Middle School
attn: Cindi Pettigrew, Librarian
435 Oil Company Rd
Micro, NC 27555

Here’s my sister, on the left, after getting pie-faced for a fundraiser earlier this year. 🙂