ms. larsen's classroom library: progress report

Friday, December 6, 2013 |
Back in September during the first week of classes, the school that my sister Ginny (or Ms. Larsen to her students) teaches at experienced flooding.  Everyone is/was safe, but classes were canceled for several days, and then held off-site for a couple more at a local high school.  They had to gut classrooms, and replace ceiling tiles and drywall in others. My sister's room was one of the ones affected.  The displacement, construction and confusion were a lot to deal with, but on top of that, much of her classroom library was destroyed.  I wrote a post about the whole thing at that time, and solicited titles of books I should send to replace what she lost.


The rest of this post is happy, I promise!  As you can see from the photos, Ginny has recreated the entire thing exactly as it was before the flooding.  She repainted the classroom and has done beautiful new chalkboard designs for each season.  AND, books!  I have been ordering and sending the titles you suggested in small batches directly to her school.  Some of you even sent your own copies!  THANK YOU!  As you can see, Ginny's library is back in business, and her students are reading a great new selection of titles recommended/donated by book bloggers.


I have still more books I plan to give her from my own collection, but I'll sort that out when I'm back in Seattle over the holidays.  In the meantime, check out this partial list of titles donated to Ms. Larsen's 9th Grade English classroom:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
White Cat by Holly Black
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen D. Randle


I'll be scouring my fellow bloggers' "Best of 2013" lists for more titles to add to her collection.  In the meantime, if you have any further suggestions of books that belong in a 9th grade classroom (for self-directed reading), please mention them in the comments.  Ms. Larsen and I thank you!

2 comments:

Tales of Whimsy said...

Oh it's beautiful. Truly. She is such a talented and devoted lady. :) And you're a super sis.

Ben Conn said...

Hi, How can one go about donating books for your classroom library?
thanks,
brc9999@aol.com

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