The last, wonderful word, from the Book Fair for Ballou High School

More than 160 books bought off the list - all books they requested and wanted and now can thoroughly enjoy. Thanks so much for participating and watch this fall when we jump back on the list for a holiday book fair!

What It Looks Like When 100+ Books Arrive at Ballou High School

Follow this link for all information on how to buy books off the Powells wish list for Ballou High School.

I think in this case, pictures are worth a thousand words, right? We have sold just over 100 books off the Powells wish list for Ballou Library and it is truly wonderful to see these titles unpacked with so much excitement. This is why we do the book fair - because we know how much the books are wanted and will be enjoyed.

In all honesty though, sometimes I feel as if I am nagging the entire internet with posts and tweets trying to cajole folks to spread the word and help us sellout. I wish it was easier; heck, I wish it was unnecessary. I wish that I didn't get emails from people disappointed that we were staying with the same school as years previous, that we had not found someplace "needier". I wish I did not have to explain why Ballou still needs our help and I wish I didn't get frustrated and even a little angry at how a school library in our nation's capitol that has not money for new books deserves lots of novels and science fiction and romance (even with vampires) and all of those other types of books that don't sound serious enough to some folks but are desperately wanted by teenagers everywhere.

Just look at that girl with Redshirts - pretty darn happy, don't you think?

The spring book fair formerly ended yesterday but I'm going to leave the list open for just a little while longer. I can't help but think that seeing these pictures might prompt a few folks to buy a book or two or let some folks know about the book fair who might have missed the initial Guys Lit Wire post. I do hope everyone will share these pictures far and wide though - it's pretty cool to see how excited teenagers can be about the gift of books, isn't it? They make me feel hopeful in a thousand different ways; hopeful and pretty damn happy.

Amost 100 books on the way to Ballou HS from the Spring Book Fair!

We had a great weekend with the wish list for Ballou and appreciate so much everyone helping us spread the word. Please see our earlier post for all the details and do what you can to help us make as big of a dent as possible in this wishlist of 300+ titles.

It's Time for the Annual Spring Book Fair for Ballou High School Library!!!

And we are back!

As longtime readers know, this time of year we here at GLW get hard at work to help librarian Melissa Jackson at Ballou Sr High School in Washington DC fill her school's shelves. From our previous efforts, starting in 2011, we have helped Ballou move from a library that had less than one book for each of its 1,185 students to a ratio now of FIVE books per student. While this is all kinds of wonderful and something we are quite proud to be part of, the American Library Association advocates eleven books for each student. Ballou is still operating at a serious literary deficit and so we are staying with them until they are busting that minimum standard and knee deep in all the reading these students could ever want or need.

The most exciting news for Ballou is that a new structure is in the works for the school and should be completed by January 2015. As the existing building dates to the late 1950s and is in disrepair, to say the project is overdue would be a vast understatement. But while the new Ballou is going to be a great and wonderful thing, it is not the answer to all its students' problems. The bright and shiny 2015 Library and Media Center will be 5,800 square feet of awesomeness but there is no money in the budget - nothing from the DC public school system - to actually provide books for its shelves.

Wrap your head around that fact for a moment, please. The library space will be grand, the library contents...not so much.

The main problem for Ballou's library, the thing Melissa Jackson is constantly working on, is getting new books. Her students want what all teen readers want - popular and newly released titles that speak to them. Specifically, the Ballou teens are asking for science fiction, romance, fantasy, graphic novels, historical fiction, thrillers and realistic fiction.

Sound like basically every other teen you know?

So while there are plenty of congratulations all around to DC for building the new school, the walls and windows will do nothing to actually get books into the hands of these kids who happen to be smack in the middle of one of the most challenging environments in the country. On the city's most recent standardized tests, only 22 percent of Ballou 10th-graders were proficient in math, and just 18 percent were proficient in reading. To improve their lives, we need to make books an easily accessible part of their school experience and, just as important, we need to make sure these are books that will get them excited about reading.

So, you know the drill - a wish list has been created at Powells books that has been vetted by both Melissa and her student literary leaders. We continue to partner with Powells because they do a killer job of getting the books out fast, they offer lots of sale titles (be sure and watch for those) and their "Standard" used copies a pretty much like new. Plus, we are supporting a bricks and mortar store in the fine city of Portland, Oregon which is nice way connecting both sides of the country in one outstanding literary effort.

Yeah, we love Powells.

Our 2013 Wish List for Ballou, (here's the link if you want to embed it in a post: http://bit.ly/GLWBookFair), has a lot of manga, urban fiction, poetry, paranormal titles and a boatload of big sellers. (Margo Lanagan, Ellen Hopkins, Sherman Alexie, Cassandra Clare, Paolo Bacigalupi and Walter Dean Myers are all front and center.) As a fan of nonfiction I'm delighted to see books like Courage Has No Color, The Elements, How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial and The Pregnancy Project on the list and there is also a healthy collection of adult crossover titles like Here, Bullet, (Brian Turner) The Grey Album (Kevin Young) and The Intuitionist (by Colson Whitehead). There is also a lot of urban fiction, as requested by the students, and since Melissa is working with a reading population that varies in literacy levels from 5th grade to college prep, we have liberally mined the resources of the ALA Quick Picks list to discover books with older teen appeal but manageable reading levels.

You can check out the list, make your selections for the school and please know while we prefer new it is perfectly fine to purchase used copies of a book (more bang for your buck). But check and make sure the book is in "standard" used condition and not "student owned" (you will have to click on the title and leave the wish list to check this). The "student owned" copies are very cheap for a reason - they are written in and thus not a good choice for this effort.

Once you have made your selections head to "checkout" and you will be prompted to inform Powells if the books were indeed bought from the wishlist. This lets the store know to mark them as "purchased" on the list. After that you need to provide your credit card info and also fill in the shipping address. (If you have already done this in the past the info will be saved to your Powells account.) Here is where the books are going to:

Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400

It's very important that you get Melissa's name and title in there - she is not the only Jackson (or Melissa) at the school and we want to make sure the books get to the library.

After that you pay for the books and you're done! Please head back over here when you get a chance and leave a comment letting us know who you are, where you're from and what you bought. Also be sure to follow @BallouLibrary on twitter where Melissa will be updating on books as they arrive and student reactions. You can also let her know what you have ordered via twitter - I'm sure she will be delighted to let the kids know what's coming their way.

The list will be open for two weeks - until April 28th. EXTENDED through May 5th!!!

As always, the crew at GLW and especially me personally, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us in this effort. The book fair is one of the best examples of what we all believe in - getting as many books as possible into the hands of kids who need them. Books matter so much - actual physical books that can be checked out and shared and read dozens of times over by kids for whom owning an e-reader is a distant dream. The Book Fair for Ballou is all about letting kids in a tough spot know that someone out here, someone they will never meet, wants them to read great books and is willing to put forward some of their own hard-earned dollars to make that happen. This level of caring is a powerful thing folks, and it can change the world in significant ways.

Buy a book, send a tweet, post on your blog or at facebook. Spread the word for Ballou and never doubt how much your help is appreciated. And now, enjoy a few recent pictures from the Ballou Library facebook page showing just how much this library is appreciated!

Toriko! Vol 2 is on the list! (And we would be happy to add many more in the series... :)

Chess Club getting serious in the library

Annual African American "Read In"

Women's History Month celebration

Let's Holiday Shop for Ballou High School Library!

In the midst of your holiday shopping madness, just in case you have a few dollars to spare, we here at Guys Lit Wire wanted to let you know that the students of Ballou High School in Washington DC would be delighted to receive a gift or two at their library. Their wish list at Powells Books has been updated with a ton of sale books (A TON!!!) and between those titles and so many great condition used options there are a crazy amount of titles under $10. We'd really appreciate it if you think of Ballou this holiday season and shop at Powells (the nation's largest independent bookstore and a mainstay of the Portland downtown scene). Be sure to provide the mailing address below if you haven't shopped the wish list before, check out our earlier book fair info here and for a post full of Ballou Library pictures, take a peek here. You can also follow Ballou on twitter or like them on facebook. Happy holiday shopping, y'all and thanks in advance for buying books for this great school library!

Mailing Address:
Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400  

[Post pic of students "Rappin' and Poetry for Teen Read Week", last month.]

The Ballou Book Fair ends on a high note! THANK YOU!!!!

Tears of JOY for ALL OF MY GIVERS of BOOKS TO BALLOU SHS IN WASHINGTON, DC- Library Media Center! One resourceful library-Thanks to YOU!

— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) October 18, 2012

We end the second book fair for Ballou High School in 2012 with deep thanks to everyone who shopped the Powells wish list, spread the word, and supported our efforts to build this most worthy of school libraries. Over 175 books were bought off the wish list and many others were sent direct by authors (thank you!). You've already seen how the students were there to unpack the boxes, and reading the Ballou Library tweets will show you just how excited librarian Melissa Jackson is to see those new titles arrive to fill her shelves. This has been great and it has had a real and significant impact on the lives of many book loving teens. We did a good thing here and on behalf of everyone at Guys Lit Wire, I thank you for taking part. See you in the spring when we return to Ballou again!

IT IS GREAT TO SEE IN A WORLD THAT IS SAID TO BE A TOUGH ECONOMICAL TIME THAT PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE GIVING STUDENTS BRAND NEW FREE BOOKS :)

— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) October 18, 2012

Happy students at Ballou High School going through new books

We are winding down the book fair for Ballou SR High School - please shop the list now and help us get as many books as possible to this most deserving high school library in our nation's capitol. And thank you to all who contributed thus far!
I know people wonder if their donations matter; if what they do is appreciated by others. I wanted to be sure you all saw this picture of students going through the newly arrived books from Powells so we could put that fear to rest. The books that are sent to Ballou as part of the Guys Lit Wire book fair are a big moment in their day this week. Along with librarian Melissa Jackson, the kids are tracking the wish list to see what is purchased and eagerly awaiting the boxes. More than a few books are being checked out before they even hit the shelves.

You did this. You made this happen. You put books into the hands of grateful readers who would not have them otherwise. This matters - alot - and you all should know that.

The book fair for Ballou High School in Washington DC continues. The wishlist at Powells Books is still open. There are more books to buy and more moments like this one to savor. Thanks everybody, and keep spreading the word!

If you have any questions, or have never participated in the book fair for Ballou, please follow the first link. For a list of books we'd really like to see purchased, please see this recent post.

Some shopping ideas for the Book Fair for Ballou Library

The Book Fair for Ballou Sr High School has been great - about 150 books bought off the Powells Books wish list all of which will be much appreciated by Melissa Jackson and the many students who use the library everyday. There are still plenty of books left to be purchased and in case you are still thinking to buy, we wanted to provide you with a list of titles that would be especially useful this semester. Ms. Jackson is working on an International Day for the school in December and so these books would work really well for that theme:

What the World Eats ($22.99 in HC)BOUGHT!  
Lonely Planet Badlads: A Tourist in the Axis of Evil ($14.99 PB) BOUGHT!
 Kids of Kabul by Deborah Ellis ($15.95 HC)
Eating Mudcrabs in Kandahar ($29.95 HC)
A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain (SALE - $7.98 in PB) BOUGHT!
The Bizarre Truth: Culinary Adventures Around the Globe ($14.99 PB)

Also these novels:
The Queen of Water by Laura Resau ($16.99 HC)BOUGHT!
The Poet Slave of Cuba by Margarita Engle ($16.25 HC)
Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace ($17.95 HC)
The Good Braider by Terry Farish ($16.99 HC) BOUGHT!

And we have a situation where the later titles in a series were purchased, but not the first book - which makes the reading kind of tough! So please consider this title:

Kekkaishi #1 ($9.99 PB) BOUGHT!

There are also some great sale titles still on the list as well as several fairly inexpensive paperbacks. We're keeping it open a couple of more days in hopes that some of these international titles in particular are scooped up. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support thus far!!! For all the information on the book fair (as well as some great pictures of the library and students) - see our initial post.

Ballou Library tweets the arrival of the first book fair books

In case you were wondering how the books are received at Ballou:

Thank you anonymous for the book Something Wicked This Way Come...we appreciate your generosity!!
— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) October 10, 2012

Thank you Sara R. for the books Certain October and Looking for Transwonderland. Your love was sent to us all the way from Portland, OR.
— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) October 10, 2012

Thank you Holly for the books 12 Things to Do before You Crash and Burn and Okay for Now!!! The students loved them!!
— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) October 10, 2012

Thank you Kathryn S. for the book Paleo Sharks.We appreciate you!!!
— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) October 10, 2012

For more, check out Ballou Library on twitter and don't forget the book fair continues; we have hundreds of books still to purchase from the Powells wish list. For all the information see our main post from last week. THANK YOU!!!!

Budget Cuts in DC Schools Mean We Step Up to Help Ballou SR High

Updated 10/7: Thanks for buying over 100 books already! Please continue to help us sell as many of our list of 450 books as possible - spread the word and let fellow booklovers know about Ballou!

Students in the library with books bought this spring by Guys Lit Wire readers

We here at Guys Lit Wire keep our fingers pretty close to the pulse of the DC school system as the Ballou Sr High School library is near and dear to our hearts. After three previous online book fairs to help stock the shelves, we were already planning to return to Ballou but the news that libraries in particular were facing major cost cutting measures in the city has just strengthened our commitment. When we began with Ballou in 2011 there were just over 1,500 books in the library, or 1.25 for each of the nearly 1,200 students. Now, they have 5,484 which means we are about a third of the way to our goal of meeting the ALA standard of eleven books for each student. The three book fairs for Ballou to date have resulted in over 1,000 books bought from Powells Books and many others donated directly to the school through the publicity we have helped generate. Now, we are back to Ballou for another round of gift giving from a list of 450+ great new books that has us all really excited.

This Fall Book Fair for Ballou has been EXTENDED through Wednesday, October 17th!!

Thank you so much!!!!!

Officially, the GLW Book Fair for Ballou SR High School is over! (We will keep the wish list open for the next couple of weeks however in case someone wants to jump in and send another book their way. If you need any ordering info you can find it here.)

The final tally (as of this very moment) is 175+ books on the way to the school. As for why we are doing this, take a look at these tweets from Ballou as the books came in:

Thank you Valerie Baartz for the book Juicy Central Tia Fitting In....I had to quickly add it to our catalog..YES!!!! TEENS READING!!!!
— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) May 2, 2012

Thank you Katherine Loomis!!!! Bitterblue was a tug a war among the students. YES...a summer reading book!!!!
— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) May 2, 2012

Thank you Elizabeth Louros You rock!!! A Girl Like Me book had the students tugging for a first to read title....Yes!!!
— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) May 2, 2012

I WOULD LIKE TO PERSONALLY THANK EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP BY PURCHASING BOOKS TO BUILD OUR FICTION COLLECTION!!We are TRULY grateful!— Melissa Jackson (@BallouLibrary) May 1, 2012

Follow Ballou for more updates in the coming days as the books continue to arrive. We will be back with another book fair this fall, with many more great books and a few more things we're cooking up to share with you how much this all means to the kids in this DC school. This was a good thing we did guys, and it really has made a difference. THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Final Day of the Ballou Book Fair

Thanks for helping! We are winding down today, May 1st. Please shop the wish list through midnight PST.

Welcome folks interested in helping Ballou SR High School in Washington DC build their library. You can access the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou at Powells Books. Once you make your selections you will need to input the mailing address:

Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400

(Please include "Librarian" as she is not the only Jackson at the school.)

If you have any questions about how to navigate the list or why we are doing this or why we chose Ballou, please see the main post on the Book Fair. Also, please follow @BallouLibrary on twitter for updates at the books arrive!

Behind the cut, what some folks have already bought......

Back to Ballou SR High School for the GLW Book Fair

ETA: The book fair ends at midnight PST, May 1st. Thank you!!!

Longtime readers will know that this time of year we here at GLW get to thinking about how we can help school libraries across the country build up their shelves. Last year we watched the video from Melissa Jackson, librarian at Ballou Sr High School in Washington DC and we knew we had to help. Between our spring book fair and a small holiday fair last November we have helped Ballou move from a library that had less than one book for each of its 1,200 students at the beginning of 2011 to a ratio now of two books per student. While this is an impressive achievement and something we are quite proud of, the American Library Association advocates ELEVEN books for each student. It's obvious that Ballou is still operating at a serious literary deficit and because of that we have decided to commit ourselves to the long haul and stay with this school library until they have everything they need.

A few things have changed at Ballou since the video was made last year. Not only did some much needed books come their way but the bankruptcy of Borders allowed the school to purchase some shelves and other fixtures to dress up their library space. (Those category signs in the above picture probably look really familiar to former Borders customers.) While the area looks fantastic, and the space is being used for an anime club and chess club and scrabble team and many other wonderful groups, the shelves are still way too empty. What we hope to do this spring is give Melissa some breathing room and allow her to use her very limited funds for more expensive reference materials while we pick up the slack and buy the popular titles. In that vein you will see that our Powells Wish List for Ballou (Here's the link if you want to embed it in a post: http://bit.ly/GLWBookFair) has a lot of manga, urban fiction, poetry, paranormal titles and a boatload of big sellers. (John Green, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Kristin Cashore and Paolo Bacigalupi are all front and center.) As a big fan of nonfiction I'm delighted to see books like Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar, Engineers (from DK Press) and Generation V: The Complete Guide to Going, Being and Staying Vegan as a Teenager on the list and there is also a healthy collection of adult crossover titles like The Book of Jonas, Clementine (Cherie Priest) and The Intuitionist (by Colson Whitehead). There is also a lot of urban fiction, as requested by the students, and since Melissa is working with a reading population that varies in literacy levels from 5th grade to college prep, we have liberally mined the resources of Saddleback publishing to discover books with older teen appeal but manageable reading levels.

As we have done in the past, Melissa vets the list from top to bottom and everything - every single book - is one that her students want and need. Powells is hosting it as part of our ongoing effort to support independent bookstores and everyone is welcome to spread the word as far and wide as possible.

We want to sellout guys, and we can't do it without a lot of help.

You can check out the list, make your selections for the school and please know while we prefer new it is perfectly fine to purchase used copies of a book (more bang for your buck). But check and make sure the book is in “standard” used condition and not “student owned” (you will have to click on the title and leave the wish list to check this). The “student owned” copies are very cheap for a reason - they are written in and thus not a good choice for this effort.

Once you have made your selections head to “checkout” and you will be prompted to inform Powells if the books were indeed bought from the wishlist. This lets the store know to mark them as “purchased” on the list. After that you need to provide your credit card info and also fill in the shipping address. Here is where the books are going to:

Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400

It’s very important that you get Melissa’s name and title in there - she is not the only Jackson (or Melissa) at the school and we want to make sure the books get to the library.

After that you buy the books and you’re done! Please head back over here when you get a chance though and leave a comment letting us know who you are, where you’re from and what you bought. Also be sure to follow @BallouLibrary on twitter where Melissa will be updating on books as they arrive and student reactions. You can also let her know what you have ordered - I'm sure she will be delighted to let the kids know what's coming their way.

As always, we here at GLW thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us in this effort. The book fair is one of the best examples of what we all believe in - getting as many books as possible into the hands of kids who need them. Please understand that for all of us and Melissa, this is not just about buying books but showing the students at Ballou that they matter and that to a lot of us out here in the world, far from Washington DC, they are very important indeed.

Buy a book, send a tweet, post on your blog or at facebook. Comment here and tell us what you've sent and where you are so we can celebrate the moment with you. Change the world today and over the next two weeks because you can. And don't forget how much we appreciate you for helping us make the book fair so successful.

Thank you for helping Ballou!

We are closing out the Holiday Book Fair for Ballou High School and want to thank everyone for their support. The final tally is 110+ books off the Powells wish list and we are mighty pleased. I will be in touch with Melissa Jackson at Ballou and let everyone know how it all looks from her end but please know how much your books are appreciated and what a big difference this will make in the lives of a lot of teens. Behind the cut, check out what some folks bought.

Awesome sale books left on the Holiday Book Fair for Ballou

We are winding down the Holiday Book Fair for Ballou High School at the end of the week and wanted to highlight a few remaining titles - all of which are on sale - that we hope can be considered for last minute purchasing. The fair has gone very well; it's our first foray into the holiday season and we are so grateful to all the folks who have spent a few of their shopping dollars to stock Ballou's library. They need books, lots and lots of books and every little bit that each of you have done is much appreciated. You all rock, seriously. Now please pass the word on these ridiculously cheap books begging to be purchased, (Revolution is Not a Dinner Party for $3.75 - in hardcover!!!), and help us make the fair end with the best possible bang.

Always Running: La Vida Loca Gang Days - $7.98
Animals Make Us Human - $10.98
Best Art You've Never Seen - $15.95
The Big Sea (by Langston Hughes) - $7.98
DC Noir 2 - $7.98
Dragon's Child - $11.29
EONA - $8.98
Inventory (by the AV Club) $8.98
Jack: Secret Histories $6.98
Magical Life of Long Tack Sam $6.98
A Northern Light $4.98 (!!!!!)
Pilgrimage (by Annie Leibovitz - this is $15 off the cover price) $35
A Place to Stand (by Jimmy Baca) $7.98
Red $6.98
Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party $3.75 (there are 2 separate sale prices - grab this one!)

The Salt Eaters $5.98
Secret History of Moscow $7.98
This Boy's Life $7.98
Three Across $12.50
When Fish Got Feet.... $9.95

We are Going Back to Ballou for a Holiday Book Fair!!

For all of you who recall the story of Ballou High School in Washington DC from earlier this year, we are delighted to announce that GLW is partnering up again with school librarian Melissa Jackson to get some more books to Ballou. While the year began with less than one book for each student in the Ballou library (the American Library Association advises a minimum of eleven books per student), after our successful spring book fair and the publicity that surrounded it and Melissa's own efforts, Ballou now has four books for each student which is a huge improvement. But, improving is not enough, we want to hit and then exceed the ALA minimum and so we are going to shamelessly take advantage of everyone's holiday joy and gift-giving mood this time of year and hopefully add to the stacks at Ballou with this smaller, but no less enjoyable book fair.

And yes, we will be back in the spring with another big fair for the school again.

One thing we want to stress is that this list is put together with Melissa's input and is comprised of books that Ballou wants and needs. That is part of why we put these book fairs together - we want to gift a school with books they have chosen, not the books we want to give away. It's not cheap and it's not easy, but it's a good thing to do and we hope that you will help us make it happen for Ballou.

Here is the direct link to the wish list at Powells. (And if you want to share it: http://bit.ly/GLWBookFair.) As you all know, we work with Powells because it is a bricks and mortar independent store that is a big part of the city of Portland and we here at GLW like to support bricks and mortar stores at every opportunity. This means there are a few more hoops to jump through when it comes to ordering books but we hope you understand how worthy our cause is both for the school and the store.

It is perfectly fine to purchase used copies of a book (more bang for your buck) but please check and make sure the book is in “standard” used condition and not “student owned” (you will have to click on the title and leave the wish list to check this). The “student owned” copies are very cheap for a reason - they are written in and thus not a good choice for this effort. Also, if at all possible please purchase hardcover copies as they will hold up better and be on the lookout for "SALE" prices as a bunch of the books are on sale this year and quite reasonable.

Once you have made your selections head to “checkout” and you will be prompted to inform Powells if the books were indeed bought from the wishlist. This lets the store know to mark them as “purchased” on the list. After that you need to provide your credit card info and also fill in the shipping address. Here is where the books are going to:

Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400

It’s very important that you get Melissa’s name and title in there - she is not the only Jackson (or Melissa) at the school and we want to make sure the books get to the library.

After all that you buy the books and you’re done! Please head back over here when you get a chance though and leave a comment letting us know who you are, where you’re from and what you bought. Starting tomorrow I will have a continuously updated post listing everyone’s purchases so we can see the books flying their way to our nation’s capitol. I’ll be in constant touch with Melissa too so I can let you all know how things go on her end. The book fair will run through cyber Monday on November 28th and we'll keep you updated on things even after it shuts down. (Hopefully as a sellout.)

And follow us on twitter (@guyslitwire) for updates as well!

An Update from Ballou High School

To everyone who participated a few months ago in the GLW Book Fair to support Ballou Sr High School in Washington DC, I have the loveliest of news from school librarian Melissa Jackson. Melissa is back on the job and now shelving and sorting the many many books that arrived due to your efforts. (Remember we were right up against the school schedule as the fair ended and there wasn't much time to give the incoming books a thorough sort.) At the beginning of the year Ballou had less than one book for each of its students. (The ALA standard is 11 books for every student in a school library.) Well, after all the publicity and the gifts you all purchased (and the many others that were donated by authors and publishers) there are now FOUR books for each Ballou student. This is a huge big deal, guys - it's amazing. These are books that the school wants and the library is shelving and that is part of what makes our effort so significant - it's about books Ballou has asked for and not just ones that folks wanted to get rid of.

Donations are always a very nice thing but giving someone what they specifically ask for? That's a truly significant thing.

Guys Lit Wire intends to stay with Ballou - we are hoping that a more long term partnership can be formed with them so we can continue to help them grow their library. I am talking to Melissa now about a smaller book fair in late November and we certainly hope to return with our annual fair in the spring. But right now, this moment is about celebrating what we have already accomplished. Think about all those books, everyone. Think about all those books!

The Final Tally on the Ballou HIgh School Book Fair

Apologies all around for the delay in this post but to all those who contributed to the GLW Book Fair for Ballou Sr High School in Washington DC please accept our deepest thanks and gratitude for what we accomplished together. Over 700 books were sent from the wish list at Powells plus many other boxes were forwarded by publishers and authors who saw the video and heard the call and responded with enormous generosity. We did something good, folks, something really really good. Here's some thoughts from Melissa Jackson, Ballou's librarian:

I am soooo grateful....THANK YOU for partnering with us. I wish I could hug each and every one of our givers!!!! I am so delighted that I was a recipient of the book sales. It was a pleasure to see the smiles on my students faces as they watched their collection grow!!!!

The fair accomplished so much - and had such a positive impact on Ballou that we are moving forward with a plan that I've been hoping to initiate for a long time. Melissa is receptive to the idea of GLW returning to Ballou in the future and we would really like to have a longterm relationship with a school so that the librarian could rely on us for more popular titles and use their own funds for more selective items to build their collections (like the pricey and hard to come by reference section stuff). We are planning to run a small fair in November (taking advantage of everyone's holiday spirit) and will return in the spring with another big list of titles to help get Ballou further along the way to having a full, viable library. (Keep in mind they still have a long way to go.) Our hope is to have a lasting influence on both the school and the students; we'll keep you posted on how things go.

Mostly, though, we here at Guys Lit Wire just want to thank all of your for coming through so brilliantly with this project. You proved yet again that the world is a good and wonderful place and there are a lot of kids (and one happy librarian) who will never forget your generosity.

A few of my favorite -- and yet to be purchased -- books on the Book Fair list.

In case you've somehow missed the news, Guys Lit Wire is running a Book Fair in support of the Ballou Senior High School library in Washington D.C. At of the time of the original post, Ballou had almost 1,200 books in the library -- not quite one for each student. We're working to change that, and would love some help from you.

If you aren't familiar with the project, please do click through to the link above and check the original post out. I'll wait.

Are we all on the same page now? Excellent.

Behind the cut, I've highlighted a few of my favorite titles on the list that are still waiting for some awesome person to ship them off to D.C. Even if you aren't able to donate at this time, you may get a few book recommendations out of it, right? (But we do hope you'll donate!)

Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou Senior High School

ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to problems with blogger last week we are extending the fair through Friday, May 20th!

It is with an enormous amount of excitement that I can announce this year’s Guys Lit Wire Book Fair! We will be working with Powells Books again, this time to send books to the east coast to Ballou Senior High School in Washington D.C. Ballou is very special to me as school librarian Melissa Jackson made such an eloquent case for her students’ need for more books. Her video, which shows so many empty shelves, really gave me reason to pause. There are probably more books in my house then Ballou has in this video and that is wrong in so many ways that I don’t even know where to begin.

At the time the video was made early this year there were just over 1,150 books on the shelves at Ballou; there are over 1,200 students in the school. So there was barely one book for each student (the ALA standard is 11:1). The WaPo ran an article about Ballou in January and I have seen a few follow-ups here and there (National Geographic sent over a bunch of books) but what struck me in all the efforts to help is what always hits me - people send books they have (publishers do the same) which is lovely, but not necessarily the books that the school needs or, most importantly of all, the students want. That’s where we come in and why we keep doing this, and loving it, every single year.

Melissa and I have exchanged many emails and spoken on the phone and the message is clear - they need many different types of books, many specific titles and many different versions of any given story. For example, HAMLET, a high school staple, is on the wish list, but you will find it in its original form, in the “No Fear Shakespeare” edition which includes a modern translation and in manga form for reluctant readers. Both versions of OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA are here as well as FAST FOOD NATION and THE WEATHERMAKERS. Very nearly every book in the Scientists in the Field series is listed as well as SAT study guides. Ballou has students who read on a fifth grade level and those who are in college prep courses. The range is wide, the interests varied and the need is tremendous. They want street lit and manga as well as nonfiction on nutrition, geography, history and more. They want a ton of poetry and drama with very specific authors in mind. They want graphic novels. They want Arthur C. Clark, Douglas Adams and Ray Bradbury. They want Neil Gaiman, Sherman Alexie, Nikki Grimes and John Green; vampires and romance and humor. Hundreds of books to fill empty shelves; they want hundreds and hundreds of books.

We’re going to make that happen.

For those of you who have been with us before, the drill has been streamlined a bit (thanks to Greg Pincus!) Here is the direct link to the wish list at Powells. (And if you want to share it: http://bit.ly/GLWBookFair)

The Ballou Sr High School list will open with 900 books to choose from. You can view them by title or author (don’t be afraid if it looks like a series book is missing - sometimes they have co-authors listed by the publisher - this happens with Neil Gaiman a lot - but I promise they are all there or will show up as the series is purchased). We have a mix of paper and hardcover for a reason - obviously hardcovers will last the longest in a library but we wanted to be sure that folks with any size budget can contribute. There are books ranging in price from $2.98 to $60 - and many many titles with excellent sale prices. Many of the paperbacks will be used in classrooms or could even end up as awards for worthy students. Regardless, all will be read, all will be appreciated and all will be valued and we really can’t ask for more than that.

It is perfectly fine to purchase used copies of a book (more bang for your buck) but please check and make sure the book is in “standard” used condition and not “student owned” (you will have to click on the title and leave the wish list to check this). The “student owned” copies are very cheap for a reason - they are written in and thus not a good choice for this effort.

Once you have made your selections head to “checkout” and you will be prompted to inform Powells if the books were indeed bought from the wishlist. This lets the store know to mark them as “purchased” on the list. After that you need to provide your credit card info and also fill in the shipping address. Here is where the books are going to:

Melissa Jackson, LIBRARIAN
Ballou Senior High School
3401 Fourth Street SE
Washington DC 20032
(202) 645-3400

It’s very important that you get Melissa’s name and title in there - she is not the only Jackson (or Melissa) at the school and we want to make sure the books get to the library.

After all that you buy the books and you’re done! Please head back over here when you get a chance though and leave a comment letting us know who you are, where you’re from and what you bought. Starting tomorrow I will have a continuously updated post listing everyone’s purchases so we can see the books flying their way to our nation’s capitol. I’ll be in constant touch with Melissa too so I can let you all know how things go on her end. The book fair will run until Friday, May 20th and we'll keep you updated on things even after it shuts down. (Hopefully as a sellout.)

As always, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your dollars spent on books and your time spent blogging, tweeting and emailing about the book fair. This is a labor of love for all of us - it’s a way to give back to the world some of what books and libraries have given to each of us. This is how we make our mark, one kid at a time, one book at a time, one tiny miracle when it all comes together.

You guys are awesome; now please help us show Ballou Senior High just how powerful the written word can be.