Book Nook

One of the more enjoyable outreach activities of the church is the Book Nook we provide at the neighborhood elementary school, the Primary Academy. A key reason that this is successful is that the idea was suggested by the school principal and the church was able to impliment it at her innitiative.

The principal told us that children who have books of their own, in their home, tend to do better in reading. So we devised the book nook idea to help children have books of their own.

A friend of the church built a hinged book shelf to display the books. New books are collected and purchased by the church and then made available to the kids for 50 cents per book. We believed that if a child could select a book they wanted, rather than have someone else select it for them, they would be more likely to read.

The Book Nook is open two Fridays each month during the school year for a short period right before lunch. It is staffed by volunteers from the church and the community. Children make their selection and purchases, and then these books are bagged and delivered to the classroom so they can be taken home after school.

We provided three hundred books to kids in the first year. Last December we sold three hundred books in one month! Obviously the program has grown. It is a lot of fun for everyone.

The new books we sell are either given directly to the church or we take money gifts and buy books from Scholastic Books. We try to get books that are at various appropriate reading levels and that have high interest.

The silly hats on the book sellers are because this particular Friday they were celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday.