With these funds I will be able to purchase a class set of hard-cover novels for my 9th and 10th grade students.  I teach at a Title I school where 99% of my students are on free or reduced lunch.  The lower income areas we draw students from are crime ridden and poverty stricken.  We are oftentimes the only safe place for a student to retreat.  In our quest to give them hope and an educational experience equal to that of other public schools, it is a struggle on very limited resources.  In other schools, "required reading" books are sold at the beginning of the year.  Our students will never have that chance.  If there were money for books, there would be money for lunch.  Neither is a reality.  It is my goal, as a Language Arts teacher, to share my love of books with my students.  I want to give them the same experience with books that other kids across the state receive.  I want them to open a brand new book and smell the pages and soak in the imagery on the cover.  I want them to be excited to start a new journey to a new place through books.  It is hard to capture the magic with tattered paperback copies of books we have had in our archives for too many years.  The last novel I taught, I copied all 113 pages of the books, made 25 copies as a class set, and hole- punched them into 25 folders.  It took my a very long time, but I was determined to give my students a "book" and not another handout.  They deserve better.  Please help me to give them a chance!  Funding for these hardcover books would be a gift!

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