Books for Butajira

I absolutely love, love, love to read. Always have and always will. Living here though, I’ve come to realize how much I took all those books I’ve read for granted. In America books are easily accessible.  In Ethiopia though, most students have never seen or opened a fiction book or a children’s story book. The community has three libraries and my school also has one. The library at my school was recently built. There’s plenty of space and all the windows bring in enough light to make it a welcoming environment. The problem is that the only books on the shelves are textbooks and reference books. There is no fiction! Growing up I remember spending hours at the library. The library was part of my childhood and I can’t imagine not having one. Students here come to the library to study, which is good, but they don’t associate the library with reading for fun. There is no reading culture here and developing creativity, imagination, and critical thinking in these students is proving to be a huge challenge. So my goal in the next year and a half is to stock the library with all kinds of books for the students at Mekicho. That’s where you come in.

Friends and family, I need your help!! In a previous post I mentioned a book drive to get books to my school. Well, I have set up the book drive through a great organization called Better World Books. PCVs from previous groups have done this and have been very successful in their communities. All you have to do is buy the books online through the website, give them my address here in Butajira, and they ship it for free… yes for FREE!! All the way here in Ethiopia! And it gets better, the more books you buy, the more discounts you get. Below I have listed my address and a list of all the books I think would be great for my students. Buy them new or used, it’s up to you. I will update the list every week so you can see which books have been bought.

I hope to start developing a reading culture at the school with these books. I’m planning on working with interested teachers and the librarian to hold trainings for students on how to take care of the books if they want to check them out. I want to create reading logs, maybe create a reading club or have these in the library and have competitions for whoever reads the most books. I think it would also be great if we started a program where the older kids go and read to the younger kids. I know that just getting the books at the school will not solve any problems, but our school needs the basic materials to be able to start any of these reading programs. Just know that these books will not be sitting on shelves unused. I plan on working with my school to show them all the potential we have with these books.

If you know anyone that would be interested in helping me out, please let them know about this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would be extremely grateful and I know you would make many Ethiopian children happy.

I’ve made a list of some books I think would be great for the school. You can stick to the list or go through the website and find any others you like. There are hundreds to choose from. After you have purchased a book, please let me know which one so I can cross it off the list (facebook or email).

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas you can email me at chevallierhelena@gmail.com

Thank you all so, so much!!! Now, let’s get some books for these kids people!!!!!!

Here’s the website you can buy books at:

betterworldbooks.com

Send them to this address:

Helena Chevallier

PO Box 153

Butajira SNNPR

Ethiopia

If you already have books that you would like to donate, you can also send those to me, you will just have to pay for shipping on those and that gets expensive, but it’s up to you.

Thanks and I’ll update you soon.

Better World Books Wish List!

1)   Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

2)   Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

3)   The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein

4)   Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein

5)   Corduroy, Don Freeman

6)   The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

7)   The Little Engine That Could, Watty Piper

8)   Good Night, Gorilla, Peggy Rathmann

9)   Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne

10)                  Are You My Mother?, P.D. Eastman

11)                  The Adventures of Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey

12)                  A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond

13)                  Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown

14)                  The Story of Babar, Jean De Brunhoff

15)                  Each Peach Pear Plum, Janet and Allan Ahlberg

16)                  The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters, Janet and Allan Ahlberg

17)                  Gorilla, Anthony Browne

18)                  Would You Rather?, John Burningham

19)                   The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

20)                  I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, Lauren Child

21)                  Where’s Spot?, Eric Hill

22)                  The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr

23)                  The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss

24)                  Amelia Bedelia, Peggy Parish

25)                  Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Judith Voirst

26)                  The Arrival, Shaun Tan

27)                  Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo

28)                  The Borrowers, Mary Norton

29)                  Caps for Sale, Esphyr Slobodkina

30)                  Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White

31)                  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Bill Martin and John Archambault

32)                  Curious George, H.A. Rey

33)                  Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Mo Willems

34)                  Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel

35)                  George and Martha, James Marshall

36)                  The Giver, Lois Lowry

37)                  Jumanji, Chris Van Allsburg

38)                  The Lion and the Mouse, Jerry Pickney

39)                  Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans

40)                  Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey

41)                  Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale, John Steptoe

42)                  Olivia, Ian Falconer

43)                  Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren

44)                  Ramona the Pest, Beverly Cleary

45)                  Rickshaw Girl, Mitali Perkins

46)                  The Story of Ferdinand, Munro Leaf

47)                  Strega Nona, Tomie dePaola

48)                  The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Jon Scieszka

49)                  Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, Verna Aardema

50)                  Oh, The Places You’ll Go, Dr. Seuss

51)                  The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams

52)                  Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, William Steig

53)                  The Little Engine That Could, Watty Piper

54)                  Arthur, Marc Tolon Brown

55)                  Clifford, The Big Red Dog, Norman Bridwell

56)                  My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett

57)                  Stuart Little, E.B. White

58)                  Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech

59)                  Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Richard Atwater

60)                  Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Beverly Cleary