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.

This fall, with a generous donation from Lynn and Jean Miller, we launched our Louisiana Book Project. Like our Mississippi Book Project, we target some of the state’s poorest schools by adding hundreds of titles to their school libraries. The first year of the project targets schools in New Orleans, Lake Providence and Monroe.

This fall we plan to expand the number of Louisiana Schools we reach while continuing to build the resources of the schools already in the program.

Lake Providence, Louisiana is of special interest to us as a 1997 Time Magazine article called it “the poorest place in America.” They wrote that “Lake Providence's poverty is extreme…The town has no public parks or swimming pools, no movie theaters, no shopping malls, not even a McDonald's or a Wal-Mart. In fact, business in Lake Providence, Louisiana, is so bad that even the pawnshop has shut down. ”

I am pleased to say that in our own small way, we are making progress in Lake Providence. Here is a note we received this week from Monticello High School in Lake Providence.

Dear Sir,

I would like to personally thank you for all of the many books that you have added to our library. We are very desperate for new books because most of ours date back to the early 1970's. Because of Reader To Reader, we now have more students that use the library to get books to read because they have a more up-to-date variety of books and authors to choose from. A lot of students had been asking me if I could get more books by Dean Koontz, as well as other sci-fi authors, so I was so glad to see them in the latest shipment.

What you are doing is very instrumental for our students. Please keep up the good work.

May God bless you,

Connyettia Nelson, Librarian
Monticello High School
Lake Providence, LA

The past two years we have been active in the far north-east corner of the U.S., bringing thousands of books to poor-rural schools in northern Maine. This year we added schools in Calais, Eagle Lake, Monticello, New Sweden, Rockwood Twp, and Woodland to the seven towns we already serve. Here is a note from New Sweden School.

Dear Reader To Reader,

We have recently received our second shipment of free books from the Reader To Reader program. My staff is always eager to look them over. We especially appreciate the range of levels and the variety of the selections. There is something for everyone! At a time when we are asked to do more with increasingly scarce resources, your services are most welcome. On behalf of my staff and students, I would like to thank you very much for including New Sweden School in the Reader To Reader program.

Sincerely,

Gail C. Maynard
Principal
New Sweden School
New Sweden, ME

Special thanks this month to the Amherst Rotary Club which honored our program with a $2,500 donation and has collected thousands of children’s books through a book drive in Amherst area schools. Their support has made a real difference in the resources we have available to aid poor schools across the country.

Speaking of support, we need your support. In just three years, Reader To Reader has grown from a project in my garage into an award-winning literacy program serving almost 200 schools across the country. We reach arctic schools in rural Alaska and inner-city schools in cities like Boston, Springfield/Holyoke, Chicago and New York. As we grow, so does the cost of shipping thousands of books each month. Please consider a cash donation to help us provide an essential resource lifeline for these poor schools.

Like you, we believe that a well-stocked school library is a critical resource hub that is a necessity not a luxury.

That's all for now.

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 are just a few of our recent book shipments:

Monticello High School, Lake Providence, LA

• The Heart of a Champion
• Escape From Slavery
• Road to Memphis
• Julie of the Wolves
• Childhood’s End
• John Adams
• Dolores Claiborne
• 99 more

Putnam Technical High, Springfield, MA

• Becoming Naomi
• Mates Dates and Cosmic Kisses
• How Not to Spend Your Senior Year
• The Face on the Milk Carton
• What a Song Can Do
• In Conquest Born
• 30 more

Leland High School, Leland, MS

• No Horizon Is So Far
• World Of Count Basie
• Slave Dancer
• Moon Over Tennessee
• Amistad
• Holes
• A Field Guide To Dinosaurs
• 60 more

Bursch Elementary, Compton, CA

• Volcanoes
• Corduroy
• Fossil Detective
• Superfudge
• Morris the Moose
• Black Beauty
• Antarctic Antics
• 40 more

Navajo Pine High School, Navajo, NM

• Hunting Badger
• Sacred Clowns
• The Red Badge of Courage
• Animal Farm
• Paradise Lost
• Reservation Blues
• The Girl Who Married the Moon
• 70 more

RD Wilson Elementary, Waymart, PA

• Junie B. Jones And Her Big Fat Mouth
• Animals On The Move
• The Ghost In The Third Row
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Homes & Cities
• What A Blast!
• Behind The Bedroom Wall
• 50 more

Durant High School, Durant, MS

• Escape From Slavery
• Women Who Win
• Harriet Tubman: The Road To Freedom
• The Healing
• Yao: A Life In Two Worlds
• 13 Tales Of Horror
• 20 more

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!