One of the questions Mrs. Cordula Kennell asked her creative writing student during a writing circle earlier this year was, if you were a celebrity, what would your signature cause be? Where would you donate your time and money?
“The kids came up with lots of different ideas,” said Kennell. “Recycling, working for equality, equity in education funding, promoting reading, getting books into kids' hands, stuff like that.”
The next day, Claire S., one of Kennell’s students, came to her and said she’d been thinking about how to make one of the class’s wishes a reality.
“She thought we could organize a kids' book drive and give early readers in prek-2 each their own book to take home,” said Kennell “So, we put out the call for people to donate kids books.”
Claire, a rising senior at Avon, said reading was a huge part of her life growing up.
“My family were all big readers,” said Claire, who considers “Where the Wild Things Are” her favorite children’s book. “I don’t know why. When I was younger I used to watch these WXXI-animated videos and PBS Kids made one of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and I used to watch it all the time. Of course I liked stuff like ‘The Berenstain Bears’ and ‘Arthur’ and stuff like that but ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ was always my favorite.”
Knowing how important a role reading played in her childhood, Claire said she wanted to ensure Avon’s younger students could continue to develop a lifelong love of reading over the summer when school isn’t in session.
“Reading, I feel like, isn’t that big of a thing. In some families, it’s not that big of a thing,” she said. “So I came up with the idea that we should give books to the kids in the elementary school as a kind of summer reading drive so they could have a book of their own to read over the summer.”
Kennell sent an email to district staff seeking donations and her students canvassed their homes for children’s books. In the end, Kennell, Claire and her creative writing classmates collected more than 200 books.
A handful came from storage containers in Claire’s own basement, which she and her mom scoured for likely donation candidates.
“We kept a bunch because they were a big part of my childhood and I didn’t want to give them all away but seeing those books again after I hadn’t seen them for so long was really nostalgic,” said Claire. “It was nice seeing them again.”
After collecting the books, Kennell’s class organized them by reading level and, in early June, visited different classes in the elementary school to hand them out.
One of the classrooms Kennell’s students visited was that of pre-kindergarten teacher Sara Brown, who said the books were a big hit with her students.
“Our youngest learners were very excited to have these treasures shared with them,” said Brown. “The following day, one student shared, ‘I read my book about stars with my mom last night!’”
Claire said the giveaway went well and that, after it was over, she and her classmates even received thank you letters from some of the students they’d visited.
“Miss Turano’s second grade class gave us thank you letters and I guess I gave a lot of second grade books away because all of the thank you letters were titles I gave away,” she said. “It was nice. It felt like they were thanking me personally.”
And while she held onto her childhood copy of “Where the Wild Things Are,” Claire decided it was time to part ways with another favorite from her younger years so it could go to a new child who would find joy in reading it.
“I gave away ‘Stellaluna,’ which was also a big part of my childhood,” she said. “It just felt really good to do something good and have the children feel like they have something really special because it’s their book and theirs only.”
Photos courtesy of Cordula Kennell
From left Gabbie K., Gretta P., Ella D., Avery L., Claire S., Adrienne P. and Carmen P. pose for a photo after giving children's books they collected during a book drive to elementary school students.