Dear Friend of Reader To Reader,

I hope you enjoy this newsletter about the Reader To Reader Book Project. Our success is very much due to your donations of books, postage money, and most of all your generous spirit. Please forward this newsletter and help us spread the word.

As the 2003-2004 school year winds down I'd like to take a look back at the first year of our Mississippi Book Project, which aids 21 of the poorest rural schools in Mississippi. I'm pleased to report that we have shipped over 3,000 books since the project began this past fall.

In addition to building the schools’ libraries, we have also filled their classrooms with book requests, such as 13 copies of the textbook Physics: Principles and Problems for Port Gibson High, and 20 brand new copies of John Steinbeck's The Pearl (courtesy actor John Larroquette) for Louisville High School in Louisville, MS.

The need at all of these 21 schools is great, but even among these severely under-resourced schools some particular stories stand out.

In the case of SV Marshall High School, their grades K - 12 library had few books of any sort since being demolished by a tornado in 1997. They did not have a single art related book and among the books we have donated to them was an 18-volume Time/Life History of Art, with each volume featuring a different artist.

I could list many more examples, but I would like to share with you a letter we recently received from West Tallahatchie High School in Webb, MS, which gives their perspective on the impact of our work.

Dear David,

Thank you for the tremendous job Reader To Reader does to help our library have up-to-date materials. Words can't convey how much I appreciate what you've done for us this year. The impact your organization has had is simply immeasurable.

With very little in the way of public library services in the communities served by West Tallahatchie High School, the donated books provide reading and research material for not only our students, but also our faculty.

In addition to our library, here are some other specific instances of the uses we have found for our Reader To Reader materials.

Recently, the 7th grade took a field trip to the hometown of Clifton Taulbert, author of Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored. The teacher took our copy of the book and read aloud to the students along the way.

Biographies of Count Basie, Ruth Brown, Pattie LaBelle, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, and Robert Johnson were used by the General Music classes as they studied various forms of music and musicians.

The book Powerful Words: More Than 200 Years of Extraordinary Writing by African-Americans was used for research and planning for our assembly program celebrating Black History Month.

Books on global warming, racism, eating disorders and other topics are currently in use as our 11th grade English classes work on research papers in the library.

The series of books on the solar system were received at exactly the right time, as the 7th grade science classes were starting a unit on astronomy and the solar system that very day.

Cookbooks were a big hit with two of our faculty members. These ladies love to cook and experiment with new recipes, and were very excited to see the new cookbooks. Since they also cater the faculty luncheons for holidays, teacher appreciation day, retirements, etc., we will all benefit!

Reader To Reader makes such a difference in the lives of the patrons of our library. I don't know what we would do without you! Thank you again for all you do for us.

Sincerely,

Marian Gurlen
Marian the Librarian
West Tallahatchie High School

We are looking forward to beginning our second year of the Mississippi Book Project this fall, adding more schools in addition to the ones we currently serve. We also look forward launching a new state-wide book project that we will announce shortly. Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading this newsletter and we thank you for your support.

Until next month,

Sincerely,
David Mazor
Reader To Reader
http://www.readertoreader.org
email: dmazor@readertoreader.org

Please help us with a tax-deductible donation.

Here our just a few of our recent book shipments:

West Tellahatchie High School, Webb, MS

• 201 Awesome Magical Bizarre And Incredible Experiments
• Bird’s Diary: The Life of Charlie Parker
• The Hominid Gang
• The Artist’s Handbook
• I Shall Not Be Moved
• Save Our Planet
• Long Day’s Journey Into Night
• 45 more

Elm Park Elementary, Worcester, MA

• Greek Gods & Heroes
• The Middle Ages
• The Diamond Bird
• Morning Is A Long Time Coming
• Manners!
• My Family
• Strawberry Summer
• Ice Princess
• 65 more

Dillard University, New Orleans, LA

• Bull Whip Days
• W.E.B. BuBois: Biography of A Race
• Mirrors of Madness
• A Jazz Odyssey: Oscar Peterson
• The Ingenious Mind Of Nature
• Sole Influence

John Essex High School, Demopolis, AL

• Unforgettable: The Story of Nat King Cole
• The Reader
• Africa Counts
• From Instinct To Intelligence
• Inside The Earth
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• 30 more

Gateway Elementary, Van Buren, ME

• White Fang
• To Race a Dream
• Tales Of Peter Rabbit
• My Teacher Flunked The Planet
• A Show Of Hands: Say It In Sign Language
• Henry Huggins
• 40 more

Leflore High School, Itta Bena, MS

• The Living Planet
• And I Still Rise
• The Right Stuff
• 100 Years Of Irish Poetry
• Roberts Rules Of Order
• Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now
• Prodigal Summer
• 10 more

Kimball Elementary, Kimball, WV

• Nature’s Creatures Of the Dark
• Have You Seen my Duckling?
• Miss Moo Goes To The Zoo
• Miss Mary Mack
• From The Hills of Georgia
• Don’t Eat The Teacher
• 50 more

PS 178, Brooklyn, NY

• Shutting Out The Sky
• Very Worried Walrus
• Tiger Eyes
• Puppies Are Like That
• The Bear Scouts
• The Ghost In The Third Row
• That’s Silly
• Science Experiments You Can Eat
• 50 more

Davidson High School, Saint Josephs, LA

• The Incredible
• Mushroom
• Reptiles & Amphibians
• Picasso
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Seabiscuit
• The Brethren
• Matisse
• 20 more

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!

To be added to this newsletter please email dmazor@readertoreader.org