Timber Trails supporting literacy through sharing

Looking for a place to donate those paperback books your children have outgrown, or the ones that are sitting on shelves now that your household has upgraded to an e-reader?

Timber Trails Elementary School in Hoffman Estates is accepting donations for its book-sharing program, which will start in the fall.

“The purpose is to start a book-share program that is separate from the library collection to promote literacy and book ownership,” said Anne Schwaab, secretary of the Parent Teacher Organization. “If students have access to books, they are likely to read more.”

Students will be able to take a book home in exchange for one they have already read or a donation. Students may keep the book to add to their own collection or exchange it for another from the book share, Schwaab said.

So far, the Hoffman Estates school has collected almost 2,400 books for all reading levels from early literacy to chapter books. Books are in a number of languages. The school has received donations from the Schaumburg Township library, as well as local high schools.

“We would love to have as many books as possible,” Timber Trails Principal Tom Flanigan said. “We want to make it as easy as possible for students to access books. The more books we have, the more opportunity there is for students to find out what a great thing reading is.”

Schwaab said the sharing program would give students an additional resource as access to the library is limited.

“Currently, our kids only get to go to the library at school once every two weeks because our librarian is split between two schools,” Schwaab said. “We hope that the book-share program may help to close a bit of that gap.”