8th grade student Amiris picked up a copy of Little Women and held it in the air.
Amiris: I asked my mom for this book for Christmas! Classmate: And what happened? A: I didn’t get it…I have it now! [She walked away beaming, adding it to the pile of carefully selected titles she had already amassed.] C: Coooooool!
Cool, indeed. This is Books to Go.
Amiris and her classmates started the school year with lots of books to choose from, as did students at 35 other schools in Durham Public Schools, Orange County Schools, and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, as well as other local youth-focused organizations. Last Friday, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., 81 educators came through our office at Book Harvest, selecting a total of 8,123 free books to take back to their schools and organizations and give away to their students.
Book Harvest’s “own” volunteers were joined by a team of Durham Tech first-year students to help educators find books their students would love, count them, pack them in bags and boxes and baskets (and even rolling suitcases!), and load them into their vehicles. Those books are now on their way to new homes with tweens and teens via giveaways at back-to-school nights, freshman orientation events, first-week-of-school independent reading time, and free bookshelves in classrooms and hallways.
The next time someone tells you tweens and teens don’t read anymore? Maybe invite them to join you as a volunteer at our next Books to Go event in December, when their teachers can share first-hand how much their students love their books.
