Lending library gives readers a new place to find books
November 21, 2024 at 1:15 a.m.
Kristin Pascuzzi is always on the lookout for ideas to bring to Port Chester Middle School—even when she’s on vacation.
She’s made a habit of touring school buildings during her travels as a way to see how educators around the world serve their students.
“It’s just something I’ve always done,” the assistant principal of the building said. “It started off as a way to show my daughters how school life is different in other places, but I also use it as a way to get ideas for the middle school.”
The Little Lending Library, the newest installation in the green space under the Port Chester Middle School main entrance, is the result of one of her trips.
“A school I visited in St. Thomas had a Little Lending Library outside of its entrance with ‘Because every child deserves a book’ painted on it,” she recalled. “I immediately fell in love with it and thought we deserved one here.”
The finished product was unveiled during a ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 12, giving students a place to grab something to read while outside, without any external pressure. Encouraging a “give a book, take a book” system, all the texts s are available to borrow or keep, and donations are welcome.
Its completion marked the end of a larger collaborative effort.
“After sharing the idea with my awesome team and everyone agreed to it, I stopped and realized I know nothing about building a Lending Library,” Pascuzzi laughed. “So we reached out to Jill (Geller) right away because the PTA had just rechartered and they were equally enthusiastic about it.”
Geller, president of the newly-restructured parent group, saw the project as a way to enhance the upcoming Scholastic Book Fair.
“They’re two things that just really fit well together and we were very excited about making it happen,” Geller said. “And it kind of spread out from there. So many people were interested in the idea and wanted to help get it done.”
The library, built by math teacher Austin Boehm and painted by Port Chester Middle School students, will be installed under the main entrance and allow pupils to borrow, keep or donate books at their leisure.By David Tapia
Two teachers stepped in to offer their expertise: Austin Boehm and Jeff Tascio.
“Mr. Boehm is a math teacher, but he’s also a woodworker on the side. He took care of the actual construction of it,” Geller said. “Then, Mr. Tascio decorated the whole thing with his studio art students.”
Boehm put the library together, fashioning the boxed structure, glass window and external shelves with about $200 worth of supplies. The funds were donated by the PTA.
For his part, Tascio took a step back and allowed one of his students to design the artwork that surrounds the Lending Library.
Eighth-grader Rachel Perez served as the project manager for the initiative.
“We basically gave her free reign on this,” Pascuzzi said. “We wanted the look to come from the kids. We didn’t make any demands from them. We just wanted it to be authentic and have it represent our students.”
Perez began sketching in late October, drawing inspiration from the books that stuck with her.
Among the depicted images are trees from “The Lorax,” the titular “Pete the Cat,” and Captain Ahab’s nemesis “Moby Dick.” But her favorite section adorns the right side of the box.
“I read ‘A Bad Case of Stripes,’ when I was a kid,” Perez said. “I thought it was entertaining, but a little scary. I thought it would be a good fit and I liked drawing it. It adds a lot of color here.”
After three weeks, the painting was completed and Port Chester Middle School’s Little Lending Library was stocked with books and unveiled.
The reading material was donated by members of the PTA and staff. Pascuzzi said her time before becoming an administrator left her with plenty of books to spare.
“I used to be a classroom teacher, so I’ve got a lot of them in bins at home,” she said. “I donated some of my favorites that I used to read in my classroom.”
Pascuzzi said that though there were no specific books requested, donors were encouraged to think about the stories Port Chester Middle School students would be drawn to.
With that in mind, she donated “Esperanza Rising” by Pam Muños Ryan.
“I think it just tells the story of a lot of our students,” she said. “It’s about a girl who migrates here and her life afterwards. I always felt it was a book a lot the kids could connect to. My hope is that somebody picks it up and feels a connection to a literary character that is going through a lot the things that many of our immigrant students face.”
In the same vein, books in both English and Spanish have been included in the Little Library. Though Middle School Principal Bryant Romano hopes to increase the number of languages available.
“We have an entire world of students here,” he said. “We have students who speak Polish, Portuguese and more. Hopefully they’ll be willing to share some of that culture by putting their own books in here.”
Pascuzzi said the Little Lending Library is the start of what she hopes to be a revitalization of the green space under the main bridge of the building.
“The Lending Library is really just the first piece of what we hope will continue to develop into a secret garden type of space where kids could come and be able to grab a book and enjoy it,” she said. “We hope this library encourages students to read and explore different worlds because, just as I saw on the little Caribbean island, every child deserves a book.”
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