18 Libraries Receive

LAL Reading

Promotion Grants!

     The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Target, sponsors of Letters About Literature,  are pleased to announce this year's recipients of LAL Reading Promotion Grants. The libraries below were nominated by the national winners and approved by the contest sponsors.

     The funds are awarded with the specific purpose of promoting reading among children and young adults. Libraries may use the funds to purchase materials for young readers and/or to sponsor reading and writing activities within the library, including author visits and storytelling workshops.

     In making their nominations, the winning LAL children expressed why they selected the library.  Taylor Mathews, who took a national prize on Level 1, told us his school's library has always been there for him when I was lonely or needed a friend.  That friend, he said, was a book. "I just want to return the favor of letting me use their collection of books from fifth grade to sixth grade.  I hope that the money I donate will help them influence other children and push them toward the wonderful joys of reading just as I was when I was a nonreader."

$10,000 Grants

• Southwest Middle School Library, Searcy, Arkansas

• Al-Hamra Academy Library, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts

• Scotts Ridge Middle School Library, Ridgefield, Connecticut

• North Branch School Library, Afton, Virginia 

• Saratoga High School Library, Saratoga, California

• Forest Hills Northern High School Library, Grand Rapids, Michigan 

$1,000 Grants

• Parkview Center School Library, Roseville, MN

• Daniel Wright Junior High School Library, Lincolnshire, IL

• Seeley Lake Elementary School Library, Seeley Lake, MT

• Rice Middle School Library, Plano, TX

• The Blake Middle School Library, Hopkins, MN

• Millennium Charter Academy Library, Mount Airy, NC

• Mattawan High School Library Media Center, Mattawan, MI

• Mount Si High School Library, Snoqualmie, WA

• Northern Valley Old Tappan High School Library, Old Tappan NJ

• Library at the Centro Mater Child Care Center, Miami, FL

• Shepherd Junior High School Library, Mesa, AZ

• Brookings High School Library, Brookings, SD

More Information

LAL Reading Promotion Grant funds may be used for (a) the purchase of children and young adult materials for the library's collection, including fiction/nonfiction books and reference materials; and/or (b) cultural or educational programming for children and young adults, including author visits, creative writing workshops or storytelling programs, and/or (c) other library services that directly benefit children and young adults.

The individuals who win national prizes nominate the school or community library of their choice ast he recipient of the grant. These nominations are then reviewed and approved by the LAL sponsors, the Center for the Book and Target.  

To learn more about the LAL Reading Promotion Grants, please contact the LAL national office at programdirector@lettersaboutliterature.org.

WOW! Over the past four years, Letters About Literature has awarded, through our corporate sponsor Target, more than one-quarter of a million dollars in LAL Reading Promotion Grants!

But this isn't a grant for which librarian can apply! Rather, young readers make the grants happen. That's why LAL is so special! What a powerful way for a young person to make a difference in his or her community! 

A Look Back at Past

Library Grant Recipients  

"It is sort of like winning a librarian's lottery.”

So says Jennifer Shesman, media specialist at Monocacy Middle School in Frederick, MD, the former school of Maggie Tighe (photo below left), who won one of six national prizes in the 2007-2008 LAL competition for her letter to Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World. 

"So, how do you spend $10,000?" Jen Shesman wondered. "Ah, what a terrible problem to have!"

Shesman told us that Monocacy has the unique distinction of being the only school in the Frekerick County CPS system that has hosted an author visit for 7 years in a row.  hat tradition almost ended this year because of a lack of funding. Then along came Maggie and her award-winning letter.

"When we got the news about this grant," said Shesman, "I had just taken a leap of faith and scheduled an author for next year on the hope that we would be able to raise enough money through PTA contributions and fund raisers of our own.  With Maggie’s blessing, this grant will ensure that our author visits will continue next year and perhaps even into future years." 

Shaman continued, "In addition to author visits, the one thing libraries always need more of is books!  So we would also like to use some of the money to up-date and improve our collection."

Since the grant came from the efforts of a former Monocacy student, Shesman decided to involve current Monocacy students in determining what kind of books they would like to add to our media center as a result of this grant. 

The LAL $10,000 reading promotion grant doubled the annual book budget for this past year at Cal Young Middle School in Eugene, OR, where Hunter Hastings, who won for his letter to Lawrence Taylor, author of Taylor, is a student. “We have never had a budget for online resources, so that’s a priority,” says teacher-librarian Sam Arnold-Boyd (photo above). “I’m looking at Gale's UXL reference books and e-books, and an online subscription, possibly from ABC-CLIO.”

Arnold-Boyd will also take Hunter’s literary tastes into consideration. “I’ll be ordering lots of fiction and nonfiction books related to sports. Hunter also loves Rick Riordan's [Percy Jackson] series, so I’ll focus on more adventure books.”

The grant comes at an auspicious time for Glacier View Junior High, in Puyallup, WA, where MacKenzie Dent, who wrote to Alice Mead, author of Soldier Mom, will be one of the school’s new students in September. “We are a brand new junior high, so the money will be used to complete our library stacks,” says planning principal Mark Vetter. “McKenzie and other students will be involved in the selection of materials this fall. The grant allows us to move from good to great in terms of our resources,” Vetter says.

(the above was excerpted from School Library Journal)