Y'all are waaaaay too kind.

I hesitantly shared my quest for new books on my personal Facebook, and the response has been overwhelming. 

Yes, I will definitely accept books that are not on my list, or used books that you have laying around the house gathering dust. 

If you are in the central New Jersey area (aka Middlesex or Somerset county), talk to me, and we can arrange a pick up.

Otherwise, you can send the books to:

Kailynn Barbour
c/o Franklin High School
500 Elizabeth Avenue
Somerset, NJ 08873

If you don't want to send it to my school, again, send me an email. 

If you want more information about what I'm doing, please, check out my original post.

Thank you all so, so much!!!! <3

Hello there,

As some of you have already established, my birthday is coming up. I'm turning 25 on January 26th, and, instead of celebrating with my friends or asking for gifts I don't want, I'm asking for something for my students:

Books for our rolling class library.

As per DoSomething.org, here are some facts about literacy in America:

1. -2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Over 70% of America’s inmates cannot read above a 4th grade level.
2. -1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read.
3. -Kids who don't read proficiently by 4th grade are 4 times likelier to drop out of school. Start a badass book club to keep your peers reading. Sign up for Banned Books Club.
4. -As of 2011, America was the only free-market OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country where the current generation was less well educated than the previous.
5. -Nearly 85% of the juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, proving that there is a close relationship between illiteracy and crime. More than 60% of all inmates are functionally illiterate.
6. -53% of 4th graders admitted to reading recreationally “almost every day,” while only 20% of 8th graders could say the same.
7. -75% of Americans who receive food stamps perform at the lowest 2 levels of literacy, and 90% of high school dropouts are on welfare.
8. -Teenage girls ages 16 to 19 who live at or below the poverty level and have below average literacy skills are 6 times more likely to have children out of wedlock than the girls their age who can read proficiently.
9. -Reports show that low literacy directly costs the healthcare industry over $70 million every year.

You-- and all teenagers-- deserve better than this. I want you to read. I want you to succeed. I want you to prove anyone who has ever doubted you wrong, and I want you to do well in life.

I know you can. This isn't just wistful thinking. I believe in you.

I've created a wish list of books on Amazon that I want to add to my rolling class library. (You haven't seen it yet, but I got an awesomely pink rolling trunk to act as a rolling library in my 3 classrooms.) Ideally, 25 of the books on my list will be gifted to us and we'll be able to work some sustained silent reading time into our busy class schedule.  If you have any you want me to add to the list, send me an email at mskbarbour@gmail.com or talk to me in class.

So, when you're on your phones and instagramming/ tweeting/ Facebooking/ anything-else-ing, share the link to this blog post or my Amazon wish list. Use the #MsBarbours25th hashtag on social media, please.

Thank you!

See you in class!
Ms. Barbour