At a volunteer-led nonprofit like the POP Project, it can often be difficult to act quickly on certain offers. Volunteers don’t work the same 9–5 hours as would full-time staff, but we try to do our best for the adults and children of Western North Carolina. And when certain opportunities cross our path, we stop everything else we’re doing to bring them to fruition.
That’s what happened when we saw an offer about Ghost. Earlier this fall, American Booksellers Association, American Express, and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing announced they were giving out 20,000 special edition copies of this inspirational middle grade novel. As big fans of those organizations, that book, and the author, Jason Reynolds, we knew we could do something great for kids in Asheville.
Our board member and owner of Spellbound Children’s Bookshop, Leslie Hawkins, worked with the media coordinators of Hall Fletcher and Oakley Elementary schools in Asheville. Both are Title I schools with high populations of students of color. And what they came up with was a truly innovative idea.
The POP Project purchased four cases of Ghost, amounting to just around 100 of the 20,000 copies available nationally. As it turned out, those four cases equalled exactly the number of fifth graders at the two schools! (How perfect is that!) The media coordinators have already passed out the books to their students. And after each class reads them, the two schools will Skype with each other to discuss what they thought of the book!
POP was so excited to play a role in this literary endeavor. And we can’t wait to hear what the students think of Ghost!
Please Give So POP can Continue Giving
It’s thanks to you, our donors, that the POP Project is able to coordinate cross-school book donations like this one. Your donations year round, and through programs like the Mountain Xpress Give Local fundraising program happening now, enable us to make a difference in the lives of local readers of all ages.
If you can, please Give Local today so that POP can continue jumping on great reading opportunities like this in 2019.
About Ghost
Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school track team, but his past is slowing him down. This is the first electrifying novel of a brand new series from award-winning author Jason Reynolds. Ghost was a 2016 National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature and was nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Watch the book trailer:
About Jason Reynolds
Jason Reynolds is a New York Times bestselling author, a National Book Award Finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. He writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audiences.