Range Lake North School has won $30,000 from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation to upgrade its library resources and support teachers in building their classroom libraries.
“We have a really great structure, a great library, and a great librarian, and what we were missing was resources that reflected our students,” said Andree Amirault, a program support teacher at the school.
Grade 5 students told Cabin Radio they want books in the fantasy, poetry, history, graphic novel and non-fiction genres. Specific requests included books on engineering, joke books and Anne of Green Gables.
“I’m just excited to read any book as long as it’s not boring,” said Gracelynn Robbiard, a student Range Lake School.
Amirault said some of the books in Range Lake North’s library are 25 years old.
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“Some of the books here are worn out, but they’re still really good,” said Wyatt Mahar, a Grade 5 student at the school.
“We’ve read some of these books so many times. It’s nicer to get new books,” said Miller Charest, another Grade 5 student.
Along with buying books for the school’s library, some of the money will be shared with teachers over the next three years so they can upgrade their classroom libraries.
Amirault said the goal is to “bring in titles that interest our students, to ensure that if they have a curiosity, we already have that resource or we can buy it to foster their interest in their love of reading.”
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In a news release last week, the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation said it committed $1.8 million to 50 schools in 11 provinces and territories. Range Lake North was the only school to receive funding in the NWT.
The news release said the organization has granted $30,458,000 to more than 500 Canadian schools since it was founded in 2004.
“As budgets shrink and fewer schools employ librarians, school book collections are both sparse and woefully outdated,” the news release asserted.
“Not only are there not enough books for students, the viewpoints and topics are outdated and do not reflect the experiences, histories and identities of students today.”
