Supply meets demand for book-hungry Waukegan readers
BY DAN MORAN dmoran#stmedianetwork.com February 8, 2012 7:42PM
Fifth grade teacher Yadira Cabrera at Clearview School in Waukegan holds up books she received for her class that were on her wish list for supplies as her students (from left) Dishelle Flores, Summer Merritt, and Andrew Merritt look at them. | Michael Schmidt~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: April 10, 2012 11:55AM
If you’re the parent of a fifth-grader, you are well-acquainted with Amelia Bedelia, Junie B. Jones, Katie Kazoo and, yes, Captain Underpants.
Those are some of the protagonists of what are often referred to as “chapter books,” or the bridge between Dr. Seuss and “The Hunger Games.” But in classrooms operating under a budget, problems can arise when demand doesn’t meet supply.
“We see it all the time at book sales,” Clearview Elementary School Principal Jose Lara said. “Teachers will ask (students) ‘What do you want?’ and they’ll dish out a hundred-some-odd dollars out of their own pockets just to get them the books.”
Nettie Mojarro, the parent of a Clearview fifth-grader, said she became aware of a book drought through the material her daughter was picking out of the classroom collection.
“She reads at an eighth-grade level, but she was bringing home first-grade-level books,” Mojarro said. “She told me she had read all the other books they have, and that was all they had left.”
Mojarro, who owns Jerry’s Tacos on Genesee Street in downtown Waukegan, decided to team with the Waukegan Public Library and the Tenth Dems Community Connection Office to fulfill “wish lists” from teachers in the Waukegan Public School District. Using funds that included donations from Jerry’s customers, the organizers purchased more than $350 worth of books and everyday supplies for the first recipient on the list, Clearview teacher Yadira Cabrera’s fifth-grade classroom.
Delivery day was Wednesday, as Mojarro, Tenth Dems representative Vicki Bailyn and Waukegan Public Library event and outreach coordinator David Villalobos rolled a cart filled with Christmas-wrapped items into the room. The students tore into the packages, revealing cartons of crayons, tubs of hand sanitizer, bottles of glue and other necessities that have run low since the school year began.
Cabrera held up a 12-pack of Kleenex boxes and said “this is perfect timing, because we just ran out of Kleenex, and this is when everybody starts getting sick.”
And then there were the books — dozens of them. “Judy Moody and the Not-Bummer Summer” by Megan McDonald. “A Light in the Attic” by Shel Silverstein. A packet of the “Dork Diaries” by Rachel Rene Russell. The “Amulet” graphic-novel series by Kazu Kibuishi.
As the collection was stacked at a center table, students flocked around, holding up the titles they hoped to take home that afternoon. Cabrera told them a system would be worked out to make sure everybody got a chance to read the books that captured their imagination as the school year rolls along.
Mojarro said six other Waukegan teachers have submitted wish lists, and “we’re hoping to do maybe one a month or once every two months.” For more information on contributing items or financial donations to the project, call (847) 249-4838 or (847) 266-8683.
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