Dear JICS Families,
The quality, artistry, and scope of children’s books today is inspiring. Publishers are supporting more diverse authors and voices in writing for children. We want to ensure that each child at JICS experiences a sense of validation by seeing elements of their own story (traditions, cultures) represented in the books on our shelves. Students should to see themselves mirrored in the books.
Another valuable function of books is to help students learn new information and gain new perspective about experiences that would not be familiar to them. These books are like windows into a different world. Through these two kinds of texts, ones that function as mirrors by validating students’ experiences, and ones that function as windows, through opening their minds to new perspectives, we build student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect. This is one of the 'Calls to Action' from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Over the year, we raise funds for our library in a few different ways:
We provide an online space to donate through Indigo
We bring in an independent bookseller, Another Story, to do a book fair at our school: Book Night on December 6th
We raffle off baskets
We run a ‘Read-a-Thon’ in the month of March
Each of these fundraising elements fulfills a different purpose. We are beginning with fundraising with Indigo, which provides a space for people to donate with online shopping. The funds are used to purchase books from Indigo Books for our library. When you purchase eGift Cards from our Fundraising site, 20% of all the amount spent goes toward our school library.
Please share this site with your friends and family, anyone can purchase gift cards, and our school library will benefit! This element of fundraising will run all year at the following site:
Many thanks for your continued support and please drop by the library any time to see some of the new books purchased with last year’s funds!
Happy Reading!
Krista Spence
Teacher-Librarian
Dr.Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study
