Help me give my students a diverse collection of new books for our classroom library that will help each one of them be able to "see themselves" in the literature they read.
Teaching high school English is both exhilarating and exhausting. The 140 or so teens who walk through my door every day may all be from the same small, rural community, but their interests and life experiences often cause them to be vastly different from one another.
It's important for all students to be able to "see themselves" in the books they read.
Although my students come from a rural area in the south, they are still quite diverse. I have students representing a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, I have international students, migrant students, and native students. I have students who represent every shade of the LGBTQ+ rainbow. This project is designed to support my students' growth as readers while demonstrating value for the person they are.
My Project
Have you ever helped a young, African-American male try to find a book that shows other men of color in a positive and inspirational light? Have you ever faced the pained face of an LGBTQ+ youth looking for a story that doesn't negatively stereotype them? For a long time, finding themselves in texts was difficult for minority students. Thankfully, today's writers set aside old boundaries and present exciting stories showcasing people from all walks of life. These are the stories I need to add to my classroom library so that all of my students can find themselves in a text.
Teenagers need to "see themselves" in the books they read in order to help them make sense of their own complex lives.
They need to see their own racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds reflected back to them in stories that are empowering and affirming. They need to read of protagonists who share their religious beliefs, their mental or physical disabilities, their sexuality/gender identity, their socioeconomic status, and their own hopes, fears, and dreams. So many teens are lost and feel isolated, depressed and disconnected. Literature is such a powerful tool to help students realize that there really are others out there who can relate to what they are going through.
This project is designed to refresh my classroom library so that the characters and subjects represented in the texts more clearly reflect the diversity of my students. Every contribution you make helps another student find themselves in a book.
The Rose That Grew From Concrete
• Amazon Business
$14.62
5
$73.10
The Lunar Chronicles Boxed Set: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest, Winter
• Amazon Business
$65.90
1
$65.90
The Heroes of Olympus Hardcover Boxed Set
• Amazon Business
$61.99
1
$61.99
Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7)
• Amazon Business
$53.99
1
$53.99
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Hardcover Boxed Set
• Amazon Business
$52.21
1
$52.21
Six of Crows
• Amazon Business
$8.79
3
$26.37
The Skinjacker Trilogy: Everlost; Everwild; Everfound
• Amazon Business
$25.75
1
$25.75
Song of Achilles (P.S.)
• Amazon Business
$21.98
1
$21.98
LapGear MyStyle Lap Desk - Be Kind - Fits up to 15.6 Inch laptops - Style No. 45313
• Amazon Business
$19.99
1
$19.99
LapGear MyStyle Lap Desk - Good Vibes - Fits up to 15.6 Inch laptops - Style No. 45312
• Amazon Business
$19.99
1
$19.99
LapGear MyStyle Lap Desk - Blue Geo - Fits Up to 15.6 Inch Laptops - Style No. 45315
• Amazon Business
$19.99
1
$19.99
Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$9.86
2
$19.72
LapGear MyStyle Lap Desk - Big Ideas - Fits up to 15.6 Inch laptops - Style No. 45311
• Amazon Business
$19.69
1
$19.69
LapGear MyStyle Lap Desk - Pixel - Fits up to 15.6 Inch laptops - Style No. 45314
• Amazon Business
$19.69
1
$19.69
Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever
• Amazon Business
$19.63
1
$19.63
Bad Boy: A Memoir
• Amazon Business
$18.99
1
$18.99
LapGear MyDesk Lap Desk - Black - Fits up to 15.6 Inch laptops - Style No. 45348
• Amazon Business
$18.13
1
$18.13
American Sniper: Memorial Edition
• Amazon Business
$17.99
1
$17.99
Home
• Amazon Business
$17.79
1
$17.79
Luna
• Amazon Business
$16.99
1
$16.99
Phantom Noise
• Amazon Business
$16.95
1
$16.95
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
• Amazon Business
$16.19
1
$16.19
Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
• Amazon Business
$16.19
1
$16.19
Ask Again, Yes: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$16.18
1
$16.18
Internment
• Amazon Business
$16.15
1
$16.15
New Kid
• Amazon Business
$7.79
2
$15.58
Chance the Rapper: Independent Innovator (Hip-Hop Artists)
• Amazon Business
$15.52
1
$15.52
When the Game Was Ours
• Amazon Business
$15.11
1
$15.11
The Cheerleaders
• Amazon Business
$15.11
1
$15.11
Where the Dead Walk
• Amazon Business
$14.99
1
$14.99
Watch Us Rise
• Amazon Business
$14.80
1
$14.80
Night Sky with Exit Wounds
• Amazon Business
$14.40
1
$14.40
WAR
• Amazon Business
$14.40
1
$14.40
Picture Us In The Light
• Amazon Business
$14.26
1
$14.26
Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orisha)
• Amazon Business
$13.99
1
$13.99
The Toll (3) (Arc of a Scythe)
• Amazon Business
$13.99
1
$13.99
Les Miserables (Barnes & Noble Classics)
• Amazon Business
$13.95
1
$13.95
March: Book Three
• Amazon Business
$13.86
1
$13.86
If I Was Your Girl
• Amazon Business
$13.69
1
$13.69
The Hamilton Affair: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$13.64
1
$13.64
God Help the Child (Vintage International)
• Amazon Business
$13.46
1
$13.46
Woodsong (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)
• Amazon Business
$6.72
2
$13.44
#MurderFunding (#MurderTrending)
• Amazon Business
$13.41
1
$13.41
The River (A Hatchet Adventure)
• Amazon Business
$13.23
1
$13.23
Tight
• Amazon Business
$13.11
1
$13.11
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
• Amazon Business
$12.91
1
$12.91
The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees
• Amazon Business
$12.48
1
$12.48
Inside a Thug's Heart
• Amazon Business
$12.10
1
$12.10
The Nickel Boys: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$12.00
1
$12.00
The History of Hip Hop
• Amazon Business
$11.99
1
$11.99
Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories
• Amazon Business
$11.96
1
$11.96
The Couple Next Door: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$11.94
1
$11.94
Hey, Kiddo (National Book Award Finalist)
• Amazon Business
$11.93
1
$11.93
Epic Athletes: Stephen Curry
• Amazon Business
$11.72
1
$11.72
None of the Above
• Amazon Business
$11.58
1
$11.58
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Pantheon Graphic Library)
• Amazon Business
$11.39
1
$11.39
Gray Wolf Island
• Amazon Business
$11.07
1
$11.07
Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orisha)
• Amazon Business
$11.02
1
$11.02
Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe
• Amazon Business
$10.98
1
$10.98
Hooper
• Amazon Business
$10.98
1
$10.98
It: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$10.79
1
$10.79
LeBron James: The Inspiring Story of One of Basketball's Greatest Players (Basketball Biography Books)
• Amazon Business
$10.75
1
$10.75
March: Book Two
• Amazon Business
$10.74
1
$10.74
They Called Us Enemy
• Amazon Business
$10.50
1
$10.50
Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life's Storms
• Amazon Business
$10.23
1
$10.23
Lost at Sea
• Amazon Business
$10.18
1
$10.18
Integration (Ghost Wars)
• Amazon Business
$9.99
1
$9.99
Nickel Fictions: 50 Exceedingly Brief Stories
• Amazon Business
$9.99
1
$9.99
The Forever War
• Amazon Business
$9.98
1
$9.98
Song of Solomon
• Amazon Business
$9.98
1
$9.98
For Every One
• Amazon Business
$9.95
1
$9.95
The Bluest Eye (Vintage International)
• Amazon Business
$9.95
1
$9.95
I Am Still Alive
• Amazon Business
$9.90
1
$9.90
When I Was the Greatest
• Amazon Business
$9.89
1
$9.89
American Panda
• Amazon Business
$9.88
1
$9.88
This Was Never About Basketball
• Amazon Business
$9.81
1
$9.81
Love, Hate and Other Filters
• Amazon Business
$9.73
1
$9.73
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$9.60
1
$9.60
Tar Baby
• Amazon Business
$9.56
1
$9.56
The Boy in the Black Suit
• Amazon Business
$9.18
1
$9.18
Recruit (The United Federation Marine Corps) (Volume 1)
• Amazon Business
$8.99
1
$8.99
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories
• Amazon Business
$8.80
1
$8.80
Friday Night Lights, 25th Anniversary Edition: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
• Amazon Business
$8.78
1
$8.78
Then She Was Gone: A Novel
• Amazon Business
$8.78
1
$8.78
Kendrick Lamar: Rap Titan (Hip-Hop Artists)
• Amazon Business
$8.77
1
$8.77
Neverworld Wake
• Amazon Business
$8.64
1
$8.64
Booked (The Crossover Series)
• Amazon Business
$8.42
1
$8.42
Don't Call Us Dead: Poems
• Amazon Business
$8.38
1
$8.38
Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card
• Amazon Business
$8.29
1
$8.29
#MurderTrending
• Amazon Business
$7.99
1
$7.99
The Silence of Our Friends
• Amazon Business
$7.98
1
$7.98
March: Book One
• Amazon Business
$7.77
1
$7.77
As Brave As You
• Amazon Business
$7.28
1
$7.28
Boy21
• Amazon Business
$6.98
1
$6.98
He Said, She Said
• Amazon Business
$6.98
1
$6.98
Long Way Down
• Amazon Business
$6.70
1
$6.70
'Salem's Lot
• Amazon Business
$6.60
1
$6.60
Scythe (1) (Arc of a Scythe)
• Amazon Business
$6.59
1
$6.59
Thunderhead (2) (Arc of a Scythe)
• Amazon Business
$6.50
1
$6.50
Through My Eyes
• Amazon Business
$5.99
1
$5.99
Materials cost
$1,507.32
Vendor shipping charges
$21.87
Sales tax
$104.01
3rd party payment processing fee
$22.61
Fulfillment labor & materials
$30.00
Total project cost
$1,685.81
Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
$297.50
Total project goal
$1,983.31
How we calculate what's needed
Total project goal
$1,983.31
1 Donor
-$1,983.31
Donations toward project cost
-$1,685.81
Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Frederick and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
