Many
of you will remember in 2021, Hastings held a library diversity book
drive. It was incredibly
successful, with hundreds of book titles suggested by students,
care-givers, and teachers and over $5000 raised to purchase those books
and more. The intention was to ensure that the books in our school
library reflected the diversity in our school community
and around the world. Since then, much work has gone into purchasing
and cataloguing many of those books, and now we are ready to get going
on a second project…….. HASTINGS READS!
As
the book drive
happened during a time when restrictions were in place and care-givers
weren’t allowed into the school, we want to make sure that all kids (and
adults) know about and take the opportunity to dive into these great
new books! So, using the popular yearly event
CBC’s Canada Reads as inspiration, we are going to have our own ‘Battle of the Books.’ 🎉
All classes and children will be involved and to kick things off,
everyone will receive their own Hastings Reads! 2023 bookmark. There is a
spot on the back where kids can write their name and division number, to
prevent them getting lost. 😉 Participation for the
different grades will look like this:
Kindergarten to grade 3: The school librarian, Chris Donegan, will read from the new book list to each of the classes during their library time.
Grades 4 and 5: Children will each have their own checklist of
the new books, which they will be able to borrow from the library. Once a
book is read, they’ll check it on their list. Prizes will be awarded to
classes when they reach certain milestones
of books read in total.
Grades 6 and 7: The Hastings Reads! the subcommittee has been very
busy behind the scenes. The librarians on the subcommittee (we are lucky
to have several), have chosen 5 books for each of the 6/7
classes. From those five books, children will be able
to choose which book that they’d like to ‘champion’ as a group. A class
is welcome to have multiple groups championing a book. Children are
welcome and encouraged to read more than just the book they’d like to
champion, as the class that reads the most books
will earn a class prize. Classes have five copies of each of their five
books. While some were purchased through our awesome neighbourhood book
store –
Iron Dog Books on Hastings St – half the books were either donated or heavily discounted by the publishers.
And then in May, the final event, our very own ‘battle of the books,’ will take place! Date to be announced soon! As
we would like to make the final event as inclusive as possible, the
logistics of what that will look like are still being determined, but
we are already lining up local personalities from the book community, as moderators.
The grades 6/7 teachers have received their books and checklists, the
grades 4 and 5 children will receive their checklists this week, posters are up, Hastings Reads book
displays are set
up in the library, and
all children will soon be receiving their Hastings Reads bookmarks. So,
everything is ready to go and the challenge is on!
Ask your children to tell you more about Hastings Reads and let’s talk about books!!
On behalf of the Hastings Reads! subcommittee, the Hastings Anti-racism Committee, and the Hastings PAC
