PLEASE: Donate 1 Comic Book to poor, rural elementary school

Correction: 76% of student population are on government assistance programs.

And I should have mentioned that new OR used items are welcome.

Renee,

Ralph will get a box together for her over the next week or so.  Just pm me where to send them.

Sherri

I have about 15k comics and they need to be thinned out.  Moving June 23rd.  I'll donate a bunch of them if kids will actually read them. Thanks for the opportunity to put them to some good use.  Just send me a PM with the address.

Well my sis said the kids were eager to dive into the purchases she made at Scholastic Books this weekend (spent about $600 on deeply discounted books!) but she's still cataloguing the books to go on the shelves.

She is pretty surprised at the response to my request. She is not an internet forums user at all, never has been, and I think she's floored that so many people I've never met are willing to help her school and library.  She's going to do something to recognize the folks who donated but I don't want to spoil that suprise so I won't say more.

Her school is in a precarious position. If test scores don't improve this year, the school will be taken over by the state and all (or most of) the teachers will be fired. I think their preliminary scores are promising but they aren't out of the woods yet. They have high teacher turnover and it's very difficult to recruit good teachers to the school. The new principal rehired 2 problematic teachers who had been fired by the previous principal. That's how difficult it is to attract teachers to a poor, rural school in a poor county - you have to settle for teachers who have already failed the kids before.

THANKS AGAIN, EVERYONE! Your generosity is much appreciated and should reap lasting rewards for kids who will, hopefully, learn to love reading.

(Be careful, o generous peeps, with what you send!  Lots of comics are NOT elementary school appropriate!)

Renee, are there specific titles that she might like that we could buy and send via amazon or something? 

And MANGA is just the Japanese word for comics, and is wildly insanely popular in the US and is turning lots of kids on to reading. You've all probably seen it, like Pokemon, Dragonball Z, and Speed Racer, back in the day, which is now a movie here (ANIME is the word for Japanese animated movies, also popular) Walk into a Barnes and Noble, and follow the sound of siolence to the row where kids are lying on the floor reading these titles...  Careful again, though, NOT ALL IS AGE APPROPRIATE!  In Japan, adults read manga too, (and here, I read lots of it for my own self rather than just work)

One nice thing someone could donate is a subscrition to SHONEN JUMP, a magazine with serialized manga, it's big and fat and kids are crazy about it, especially boys who are typically particularly more "reluctant readers..." - would she like that, do you think? I might be able to swing that, but check first to see if the cataloging would be a pain.  I'd also be able to help with cataloging Q's-

Just so happens comics, popular culture, and literacy is my main area of research and consulting  

Love this community support for literacy! 

Hollis, you have been soooooo helpful to this cause!

My sister would never ask someone to actually spend money buying books. But I'm not my sister! If people want to purchase that is over and beyond being generous, but who am I to stand in the way?

We found only 1 Amulet book at Scholastic Books warehouse. What a beautifully produced book! She's not sure if she wants to keep this book in the Comic Corner or put in circulation. (I read that they are making a movie, to star Jaden and Willow Smith - Will Smith's kids. Cool.)

Also, we bought Bones, books 3 through 7 (they didn't have 1 and 2).

SHONEN JUMP sounds great!

Again, though, the plea was really just for comics you have in your closet that you'd be happy to be rid of (appropriate for K-5 graders). The responses I've received have been well above and beyond that, though. Amazing!

Yeah, there's only one Amulet (so far!)  Kazu Kabuishi, the creator is one of my faves. His online comic, Copper, is fun too, and he has edited several volumes called Flight, but more for teens and adults.  The kids version, Flight Explorer, is due out soon. Basically it's a lot of artists and storytellers examining the idea of flight, literal physical, emotional, etc .  Very Japanese/ anime style art, which ya either love or hate...

My fave Kazu of all time is Daisy Kutter,  a kind of sci- fi western, a la Serenity/Firefly.  LOVE it. definitely middle school, nothing inappropriate, just nothing real interesting for littlies.

(Kazu is also adorable, if, way too young, and way too married )  http://boltcity.com/

oh shoooty shoot- I just hijacked this and made it all about my fantasy boyfriend.  But actually, it's always been about Daisy.  Yes, I am admitting that I have a crush on a drawing. 

Yes, absolutely! That was the original intent.

As long as they are not the soft-pornish variety.

My sis is the librarian - or Media Specialist as they are now called. I'm trying to find out what else she might need; I think the majority of her needs are of the book variety.

Anyone know a muralist/painter in NC? To do something like this on a much smaller scale:

(bones mural.jpg)

Hi Renee,

Can you PM me her address?  I have a lot of comics that I could donate. 

Sis is reporting really good news.

Last year only 21% of the 4th graders passed the State's Writing Test.

They got their results today - 54% passing. That's the 2nd highest pass rate in the county (can you believe that?!). Anyway, they are happy with the improvement but still have lots of work to do. NC's average passing rate is 67%.