The James Simons Literacy Project

Mr. Willeford donated The Prince of Fenway Park, which is a great book about a twelve year old kid who thinks he is cursed just like the Red Sox.  It is a brand new hardback book and we thank you.

We received bags and bags of books from Mrs. Cunnane's students.  They went through their books at home, and 55 different students brought in books to share that they thought the kids would really like.  And they were right - we got great books from current series that the kids really want.  Thank you to everybody who shared their books.

We are halfway to the goal of 300 new books.  We have 150 new books, or as "good as new" books.  We also got lots of good used books that are the kinds that kids really like, so Mrs. Livingston is going to use them for a "December book giveaway."  We are using the Christmas books for that.  All of the kids have to turn their library books in before winter break, but this way they get to pick books to have something to read over the holiday, and then they get to keep the books they pick.   And they also get to look forward to receiving a brand new book when the program is over in February.   We're pretty excited.  I am behind on thanking people because I have been at basketball practice.  The Buist Academy team is playing in the December tournament.  I will try to catch up the blog this weekend.  Thanks again.

Tyre,   Just sending an e-mail to let you know Dan and I have sent an order of books to the school today.  Included in the order are:

1 of: A Horn for Louis (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC

1 of: Dancing in the Wings
Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC

1 of: The Other Mozart: The Life of the Chevalier Saint-George
Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC

1 of: JATS Fairytale Classics: Jack and the Bean Stalk (Jats 8x8)
Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC

1 of: The Road to Paris
Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC

We were really excited to get this email and look forward to posting photos of the books and the donors:

Tyre - I sent an email about your project to our bank employees and we have collected $$ for your cause. We have two mail buckets of new books so far and are purchasing many more this weekend.

Janice B. Stanley
Assistant Secretary
Bank of South Carolina Corp.

The Nelson Family lives next door to one of my best friends Jeffrey Thomas.  They were moving out of their house and they called my dad and he went and got all their books - we will have to find something to do with the ones that aren't for kids but there are a lot of books for kids!  And the Nelsons really like Christmas - there are maybe fifteen years worth of wonderful Christmas books, enough that it covered our table.  We're going to try to figure out some way the kids can get those next week before it is Christmas.  We thank the Nelsons for thinking about James Simons.  If somebody can help us figure out what to do about the other books that would be great.  But here are pictures of some of them.

some of the books - there are more that have gone straight to the school - when we get these organized we will take them to JSE and take some more pictures over there

Used books are great.  The best ones we've gotten are from African American families who are readers, because they have already found great books their kids really like.  And there are lots of books any kids would like.  We just found a whole bunch of Arthur books and Clifford books in the last batch that are really great.  But please just remember our kids are 3-11.  And if a book is really old or smells bad, a little kid is not going to like it.  We are hoping to get as many new books as we can but we do also appreciate books that you and your kids have loved and want to give somebody else a chance to love too.  Thanks!

Mr. Smythe is a parent at Buist Academy who brought four large beautiful picture books, an especially nice Christmas book, and some more paperbacks too.  Thank you.