Elaine Ollivierre, principal of the Bequia Community High School (where I taught literacy for a short stint) tells me that the newly refurbished school library is in desperate need of books, especially those geared towards reluctant readers. I visited the library today and spoke with Sakiko Forbes, the Library Assistant, who agreed that what they really require are more books that grab the students’ interest so that they will want to improve their reading skills. I have offered to publicize this request for books through my blog, and an email campaign, and hope that anyone who knows Bequia, or loves reading, will help us by sending children’s books directly to the school. (Mailing address below.) Or, if you happen to be coming to Bequia for a visit, please pack a couple of extra paperbacks in your luggage and drop them off at the school when you arrive. We’ve been assured that any books donated to the school will arrive there duty-and-VAT-free.

Elaine is happy to take anything, including slightly-used books, as long as they haven’t been stamped “Discard” by a library. So if your children have outgrown their own personal library and wish to make a donation - great! Send them on! At the moment we’d rather receive the actual books than a money because there are few books available to buy locally anyway. At some time in the future, I would like to organize sending a barrel of books from Toronto, and we may need monetary donations to cover shipping expenses at that time. I’ll let you know if and when that happens. In the meantime, books, books, books is what we need!

Here are some suggestions:
Anything suitable from Grade 1 - Grade 11 level
All reading levels, but a concentration in the middle school level would be preferable
High interest - Low vocabulary
Books for reluctant readers
Oxford English Dictionaries
Books that come with story cassettes
(The library was given a Lakeshore-brand listening station and headphones, but received no cassette player to go along with it. If you can supply one, please contact me first before sending it, just so we avoid duplication.)

They would also like an up-to-date encyclopedia - from any publisher. The one they have is not current and missing volumes. This might be better supplied on CD-Rom to save on shipping costs and library shelf space. (Again, please contact me first if you wish to purchase and send one to the school.)

As well as books, they would like to receive copies of several movies on DVD, movies based on books the students are currently studying: To Kill a Mockingbird and The Glass Menagerie are the two that Elaine requested be sent immediately.

Roderick McKree, the Spanish teacher, was also in the library and asked if people could include children’s books written in Spanish as well. He said he would be happy to receive anything as their collection is currently very low.

Someone did make a fine donation of children’s classics. It doesn’t hurt to have duplicate copies, but Elaine says they would really rather prefer that people send what I’ve outlined above. Unfortunately, the students are not yet all that anxious to read the classics.

Elaine is planning on setting up a regular “10 minutes for reading” so students are encouraged to read something every day aside from school texts. But she needs a good supply of interesting books to make that happen.

And please, do not send any religious tracts or Bibles. What we’re trying to do is get these students interested in reading, not to convert or indoctrinate them.

So, the address to send the books is:
Bequia Community High School
P.O. Box 75,
Bequia,
St. Vincent & the Grenadines, West Indies
Attn: Elaine Ollivierre - Books for Bequia

If you’re in the States, you can save on shipping charges and send the books to Boaters for Books in Florida and ask them to direct your donation to Bequia.

Please feel free to link to this page on your blog, or send the URL for this post out to other friends who you think may be interested in supplying books. Every single book donated will be a big help in encouraging these children to read.

I thank everyone in advance for whatever help you can give us.