Tuesday, March 27, 2007 10:03 PM CDT
Students at Lovington High School go on book-buying spree for library
By THERESA CHURCHILL, Staff Writer
tchurchill@herald-review.com
Like kids in a candy store, five students from Lovington High School could hardly wait to comb the 30,000 square feet of books stretching out before them.
John Sullivan, manager of Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Champaign, gave them a tour before turning them loose, but freshman Kalee Huffman, 14, didn’t make it past the religion section. She dropped to her knees and scanned the shelves for titles by Joyce Meyer.
“I watch her on TV Sunday mornings, and she’s an awesome speaker,” Kalee said. “I just read ‘Battlefield of the Mind for Teens,’ and it was the greatest book I’ve ever read.”
As a result, her first five selections -- including two titles by Meyer -- were the first ones placed in a cart earmarked for their group.
They were far from the last.
Within minutes, the students had filled the cart with a mixture of fiction and nonfiction including “Cross” by James Patterson, “Plumb Lovin’” by Janet Evanovich, “Big Bam: Life and Times of Babe Ruth” by Leigh Montbille, “The New Encyclopedia of Fishing” by Dorling Kindersley Publishing and “Ripperology: The Best of Ripperologist Magazine.”
In all, the students went home that day with 73 books purchased for their high school library with $992 they raised by reading during the Christmas holiday and the first six weeks of the new year.
“People could pledge a penny a page or donate whatever they wanted to,” said Karen Smith-Cox, the school district’s librarian. “I’m just so proud of them; I just can’t say it enough.”
The students invited to shop on Casimir Pulaski Day had raised the most money among the 48 who belong to the high school’s book club, Readers Anonymous.
Kalee raised $234.25. “I’m in heaven,” she said near the end of the shopping spree.
Elise Wildman, an 18-year-old senior who raised $135, said most of the newer books at the school library were new when her parents were in high school.
“I like the Alex Cross series by James Patterson,” she said. “It kind of gets you out of your own environment.”
Sophomore Ashton Suforna, 15, raised $132 and said she turned to reading after she moved from St. Louis to Lovington three years ago. “There’s nothing else to do around here,” she said. “I like funny books the best.”
Her top choice for the school library was the seventh in a series by Louise Rennison, “Started by His Furry Shorts: Confessions of Georgia Nicholson.”
Also giving the teen books a good look was sophomore Callie Baugus, 15, who raised $74. “Reading is better than watching a movie because you can picture your own story,” she said.
Sophomore Kris Davis, 15, meanwhile, was searching the science fiction section for Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series after reading all seven installments last year. He raised $67 for what he read during the fundraiser.
“I started reading in fifth grade when I picked up a book and liked it,” he said.
The “Dark Tower” books, however, were among those the group had to forgo because the hardcovers would have had to have been ordered, were more costly and don’t have a large following at Lovington High School.
Smith-Cox wanted hardbacks whenever possible for durability, and other books that had to be put back for that reason included “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” by Edmund Morris and “Dean & Me” by Jerry Lewis.
“I’m impressed they know who Dean Martin is,” said Ann Kirts, children’s lead seller at the store.
In the end, the group saved at least $265 by using a combination of the school’s institutional discount of 20 percent and Smith-Cox’s member discount of 40 percent on hardcover bestsellers. They also bought several discounted books.
Although Smith-Cox let Kris take one book home because he couldn’t wait to start reading it, she planned to have the rest ready for checkout by this afternoon.
“It was fun shopping for books,” Wildman said, “but it will be so great to have some new books to read.”
Contact Theresa Churchill at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.
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 Kelly J. Huff (JG/T-C)
School district librarian Karen Smith-Cox and sophomore Kris Davis search through the shelves.
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