Yacolt — Yacolt Primary School received a $4,000 grant, pending school board approval, to receive new materials for its library.
The grant comes from the Scholastic Reading Club and best-selling author James Patterson, who donated $1.75 million this year to school libraries. Out of 27,924 applications for Patterson’s grants, which go up to $10,000, a total of 467 schools were selected, according to a release from the Battle Ground School District.
Joan Spence, the school’s media specialist, applied for the grant. “Kids want to read fresh stories, and our collection is aging,” Spence said in the same release. “Many of our students come from families who read and whose parents and relatives are excellent storytellers. Our students come to school with a love of story. The newer, lower grade-level reading books are perfect for catching the interest of young, primary school readers who might otherwise get frustrated and stop reading.”
She added she hopes to use the grant for new fiction and nonfiction books, especially those in genres with long waiting lists at the library, such as books about the outdoors.
