Lucky enough to have three full classrooms of duckies attack the book carts this week. We all laughed when one of the teachers found the perfect book for the day!
Circulating used books amongst the local school libraries might help out
We visited Wolfpit Elementary in Norwalk today and dropped off some books in anticipation of the kickoff of their summer reading program. LuAnn DeMichael (Librarian) and Jenna Masone (Principal) and I then got on the topic of the disparate quality and funding of school libraries throughout the Fairfield County school districts.
Some of the good elementary aged biographies we delivered today had actually been donated to Darien Book Aid from another local school. LuAnn noted that when schools cull their libraries, they sometimes don't know what to do with the surplus books. Since we have seen so many libraries in need of books, Books4Everyone agreed to work proactively in the future with librarians to find good homes for their excess supply.
Books provided by Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
Andres collected books for a Kids Helping Kids project
The Kids Helping Kids mission is to create leaders through youth-led service projects. All of the projects begin with an idea from a high school or middle school kid, and then they are designed, managed and led by a group of KHK kids that facilitate that project. Leadership skills are developed through hands on learning.
Andres Arambulo recently developed a project to create a library for children at Cardinal McCloskey Community Services. He and his family stopped by to find some great books from our inventory to fill the shelves. Kudos to Andres for wanting to help other kids!
Books provided by Wilton Library, Darien Book Aid and Greenwich Book Swap
Help us find some K-8th grade non-fiction
High Horizons Magnet School and the Multicultural Magnet School are co-located on the same campus and share a library for their 850+ K-8th grade students. These schools have been very successful in improving the math and reading proficiency of their students and have received many awards for low income and African American achievement.
We stopped by to see the librarian, Casi Caggiano while dropping off about 400 books. They have a lovely library, but we were particularly disappointed for them when we saw that many of the titles in their non-fiction section were from the 1940's-1970's! Needless to say, we will be searching for sources for non-fiction books for them over the course of the next year.
Books provided by Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
6/28 Post Script - We recently returned with lots of new books for the library
Rounding out Park City Magnet's Library
Park City Magnet is a Science and Technology school in Bridgeport which serves 500 students in Pre-K through 8th grade. Lissette Valle, their Librarian, was very happy to get a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books for the library.
Most of these books were donated by Wilton Library, who graciously offered them up to Books4Everyone following their annual book fair.
We also provided 10 boxes of recent Common Core math workbooks, which had been donated to Darien Book Aid.
Look what I found!
Love the fact that the kids at Childhood Learning Centers all want to show me what books they found to take home.
Books provided weekly from Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
Inspirica's brand new Early Childhood and Parenting Center is so welcoming!
This January Inspirica launched the Early Childhood and Parenting Program, a new support program for the homeless children aged 0 – 5 and their parents staying at Inspirica’s family shelter. Concurrent parenting and child enrichment sessions are held three nights a week for parents and their children, followed by a family style dinner prepared by various volunteer groups. Weekend sessions are for parents and children together.
The new children's rooms are beautifully designed for maximum sensory stimulation. The programs concentrate on Kindergarten readiness, exposing the children to expanded vocabularies and lots of Read to Me sessions. The kids love books and Barbara McLaughlin, the program director, encourages the parents to take books each night to read to their kids then swap them out the next day.
We dropped off 2 boxes of books today, but they can use many more board books and Read to Me books, as well as ones covering specific topics such as feelings and loss.
Books provided by Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
Do your Spring Cleaning with Books4Everyone!
As you can see from our many posts over the past year, there is an enormous demand for gently used children's books throughout lower Fairfield and Westchester counties.
We are encouraging churches, schools, clubs and community organizations to run Spring Cleaning Book Drives with Books4Everyone.
We are happy to pick up, sort and deliver any children's books you collect, and if you are interested in choosing one of the organizations we've highlighted in our posts as a beneficiary, we would be delighted to make it happen!
These schools and organizations are very welcoming and would also love to meet any groups who donate books.
Please contact us at:
917-716-5703
All Our Kin Supports At Home Childcare Providers
A few weeks ago we dropped off some board books at All Our Kin's offices in Bridgeport. I was so impressed with their mission that I followed up with their Southern Connecticut Director, Erica Phillips, in their Stamford Offices. Their goal is to reduce the achievement gap for children in low income communities by training the home daycare providers to become skilled early childhood educators. All Our Kin provides free training, mentoring, and networking for around 200 community childcare providers who have the capacity to have 1,200 children in their homes. To ensure quality childcare, they help caregivers train for their state license, provide educational consulting visits to their homes, and run courses on managing a business, CPR /First Aid, and many child development topics.
All Our Kin also provides materials, equipment and supplies to needy caregivers during their classes and networking sessions. They need many board books and young 'Read to Me' books to distribute, and any ongoing assistance we can provide will be very appreciated.
When we visited the Stamford office, we were very happy to see that New Canaan Community Preschool had just delivered many books they had collected in a book drive for the organization.
Books for the Bridgeport office were provided by Darien Book Aid
The United Way Youth Summit at Webster Arena was amazing!
Books4Everyone joined the Friends of the Bridgeport Public Library to sponsor a couple of tables of books for the 1,500 7th - 12th grade students attending the Youth Summit in Webster Arena on April 1st. This annual event is designed to provide inspiration on leadership, career pathways, and higher education.
Our tables, filled with over 1,000 free books, were constantly inundated with students who grabbed some great books while providing us with huge laughs as they talked among themselves about books and reading. We included books on SATs/ACTs/test prep, essay writing and grammar, college comparisons, biographies, and tons of great fiction.
We were also amazed and thrilled by the number of community leaders, educators and representatives of organizations who made a point to stop by to thank Books4Everyone for the 25,000 books we have distributed to date in Bridgeport.
Books provided by Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
How to find great books for teens
We checked in on the progress of a book give-away at Bassick High School in Bridgeport and were delighted to sit down with Loise Beecher, the school Librarian. Since our sweet spot for book collections and deliveries has been PreK - 8th, we asked her about her 'go to' sites when trying to find good books that teens actually want to read.
The ALA Book and Media Awards site is a great resource that reviews award winning books for various ages, but her favorite site, KirkusReviews.com has a very intuitive and powerful search capability. If you type in "teen" in their lists search bar, you get lists of teen spy thrillers, favorite summer novels, teen romances, funny paranormal teen reads, etc. The site covers all levels of kids and adult books.
Many thanks to Ms Beecher for the pointers and for the list of her personal favorites. We will try to keep our eye out for books for the library as they have over 1,000 students but extremely limited funding for new books.
Waltersville got their green on!
It was so much fun to hit a lot of schools on St Patrick's Day since they were all very well decorated. Principal Carmen Ortiz at Waltersville gets the award though for leading everyone in the holiday spirit!
We got some help from a crew of strong guys as we dropped off books for their 7-8th grade classrooms. They appear to be big fans of their Language Arts teacher, Mrs Ramanauskas, who has boundless energy. She told us about her Authors Book Club where she chooses a strong YA writer such as Lois Lowry or Sharon Draper and has teams of 6-7 kids read different novels by the same author. This enables her to fine tune the book choices to the varied reading levels in the class while comparing the messages and writing styles of the author.
We'll keep our eyes out for multiple copies of some of her favorite authors.
Books sourced from Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
PT Partners Initiative aims to transform public housing
We dropped off a few boxes of books to the PT Partners facility on Bostwick Avenue. This family engagement center in the midst of the P.T. Barnum apartments in Bridgeport provides a gathering space for families with young children, and aims to transform public housing neighborhoods into communities of opportunity by coaching residents in taking the lead.
The kids in the neighborhood love to stop by to pick up books whenever they can and the center can always use more books for all ages.
Books provided by Darien Book Aid
That's how I roll!
Many thanks to Julia Wade and my pals at DOMUS School who presented me today with this wonderful t-shirt in thanks for keeping their bookshelves stocked.
Hall School is sponsoring a book give-away at their Parent Meeting on 2/23
Therese McDonald, Hall's Literacy Coach and Sroy Heng, the Home School Coordinator, were pleased to get a few boxes of fun reading books today for their upcoming parent meeting on Reading Strategies. At the meeting they have a free book give-away, so parents can bring books home for their kids.
Books sourced from Greenwich Book Swap
Cesar Batalla has a beautiful library that could use some more books
Cesar Batalla is a beautiful school in Bridgeport that houses an astonishing 1,300 students in PreK- 8th grades. We were able to drop off about 200 books today for the school's library, and Mrs Moore, their librarian, would love to have us find some more hardcover non-fiction titles and biographies for their collection.
Dr Sissons, the school's Literacy Coach gave a great overview of ways we might be able to support the school's various literacy efforts, and also emphasized the importance in a school this size of the of the school's Family Resource Center run by Mrs Dubow and the programs managed through Mrs Rivera, the Home School Coordinator. They keep the community engaged in the schools and provide many parent/child learning opportunities, such as the upcoming AfroAmerican Read Aloud program at the school.
Not only can we provide books for the library, but we hope to help out with reading materials throughout the school.
Books provided by Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
Hallen School is filling out its library
Hallen School in Bridgeport has over 350 students in grades PreK-6 and they are fortunate to have an addition that houses a beautiful library with a full time librarian, Mrs. Crouse.
When we dropped off a few boxes of books for them, it was fun to watch her in action as she artfully wrangled 25 third graders into their places at the computers. It was nice to see that the kids are excited about using all types of media in the library.
Books provided by Greenwich BookSwap
A great intro to Cerebral Palsy of Westchester
Gerhard and I dropped off some great children's books today for the new library at Cerebral Palsy of Westchester's school in Rye Brook and we were treated to a tour of CPW's extensive facilities by Tenisha Neil-Robinson, School Social Worker.
This incredible school provides personalized programs for 66 disabled students aged 5-21 and is just a small part of the extensive disability related services and programs available. CPW also provides day care, pre-school, transition services, vocational training, job coaching, adult programs, residential programs, and a wide range of recreational activities for all ages.
We got a good sense for the type of books their students love and we'll be back soon to deliver more books.
Books provided by Greenwich Recycling Book Swap
The DOMUS community library is a huge hit
Monday morning's empty canvas
Ready for the readers
CLC's enthusiastic preschoolers love the books
A satisfied customer
On Lockwood Avenue in Stamford, DOMUS provides a 24/7 outdoor community library for the neighborhood. Each Monday morning, it's fun to see how the shelves have been wonderfully ransacked by students and local families.
We always have a blast refilling the library weekly with a tempting collection of new books, and love the stories we hear from teachers and neighbors about the conversations that take place around the shelves. The best parts are the glimpses we get from time to time of the joy of discovering just the right book!
Books are provided by Greenwich Book Swap and Darien Book Aid
Neighbor to Neighbor is currently hosting "Mardi Bra"
Brandon, Barbara, Janet, Gabby and Carolyn
Jane Naveros
Our children's bookshelf
One of my favorite 'book lady' stops each week is Neighbor to Neighbor in Greenwich. This wonderful resource provides food and clothing to residents in need.
The food pantry is arranged like a grocery store and the clothing is carefully sorted and sized by a fun crew of volunteers who work closely with the clients to ensure that they get just what they need.
Jane Naveros, the Client Coordinator, is the friendly face at the front desk who manages to keep all the appointments running smoothly. She has a huge heart and spends a lot of time making sure clients understand how to tap all the resources the town has to offer.
We maintain a small bookcase at the front desk with Children's books, and redistribute any adult books that are donated to other organizations/bookshelves in town.
This month Neighbor to Neighbor is sponsoring "Mardi Bra", a Greenwich community-wide drive to collect new bras and underwear.
Books sourced from N2N donors and Greenwich Book Swap