Today, over at Guys Lit Wire, I have announced this year's book fair. Since we first started doing this three years ago, it has become a bigger and bigger part of my life with the creation of the wish list and communication with the school become things I very nearly obsess about. It was especially difficult to find a school this year which is something that honestly drives me completely crazy. (This is why I'm so excited about Reach a Reader.) There should be a way for truly needy schools (and I do mean truly - on one web site about books for schools I found a wishlist for Beverly Hills High School - I still don't understand that) to reach out to people who want to help. All I'm looking for is contact information and an outline of what your situation is and what you're looking for. Even with all the wonders of the internet however, I found myself banging my head against the wall in my search. Then I found a video Ballou Senior High School librarian Melissa Jackson made about the school's library and just like that, I found our school.

(Okay, it wasn't just like that but close enough.)

One thing I have come to realize is that while pretty much every public school in this country could use a helping hand, the ones that are the most media savvy and the most capable of getting their story out there are often not the ones that are the neediest. When we did the book fair last year with the Readergirlz one of the early schools that was selected (we helped two schools) was from northern Alaska. It just happened to be a school I was personally familiar with and because of that I knew it existed in one of the highest funded school districts in the county. This school actually conducted a book fair of their own in the previous year for a needy school in South America! But the librarian was smart, she read her emails, she heard about the effort to help Native American and Alaskan school libraries and she responded. Another school, located on one of the poorest reservations in the country which was my first choice never showed the slightest interest. In the long run we went with two schools in the southwest that needed our help, were excited to participate and worked with us to get the wish lists created. I haven't forgotten those other two schools however, and what they taught me about how disparate the education system is in this country.

Basically in a place with highly paid employees, good things happen much more easily for the kids.

So back to Ballou Sr High. After watching Melissa's heartbreaking video, I did some searching and found a WaPo article about the school and then contacted Melissa to see if she was interested in working on a wishlist. As it happened, she had one already made up and was more than willing to share it with me along with her general requests for a ton of other books on subjects as diverse as career guidance, sex, health, nutrition, college prep, manga, street lit and the classics. This is a school that clearly needs a ton of books and working with her I think, if our last two efforts serve as a guide, we will be able to make some wonderful things happen.

There was a moment while I was in Florida over the past few weeks where I got into a conversation about the book fair and I was asked why I do it. It's funny but the answer was so immediate and obvious that I'm still surprised I was asked the question in the first place. I do this for the same reason that anyone buys a book off the list and has it shipped; because I can. That was my answer to the question - I do this because I can. When Melissa asked me if it was really going to happen the way I described (with dozens of books appearing on a daily basis for weeks) I told her yes, because there are literally hundreds of people out there who will take part in the book fair simply because they can. It's what we do, I told her, because we all remember what it was like to need a library; because books are air to us; because we want to change the world any way we can.

I don't think she believed me but that's okay. She will believe by the time this is over; just like I will believe all over again too.

[Check out the GLW site for information on how you can help Ballou Sr High.]