Stoddard 'book-pal' program builds community links through literacy

May 13—STODDARD — There was a lot happening on the James Faulkner Elementary School blacktop Wednesday evening, and almost every part of it could make an onlooker smile.

Since late March, 3rd- through 5th-graders and community members have been reading a graphic novel and discussing it via pen-pal letters. On Wednesday, participants got to meet their "book pal," for the first time, while enjoying some snacks, a powerful guest speaker, and the good spring weather finally gracing the Monadnock Region.

Wednesday also marked the students' largest fundraising push to support a nonprofit dedicated to providing refugees with education resources.

For the book-pal program, each student — this year, a total of 36 kids — is assigned a community-member partner through the Friends of the Davis Public Library. All participants read the same book, and the book pals correspond with each other through letters as they talk about the book and share a bit about themselves.

The program has been around for about 10 years, according to Amanda Bridges, the 4th- and 5th-grade teacher who oversees the effort. She's also a member of the Friends of the Davis Public Library board.

"It's probably one of the most powerful things we do," she said, adding that many of the adult participants are retirees and the program is a great way to get the greater Stoddard community involved with the school.

Over the course of the program, each participant sent their book pal two letters.

This year's book was the graphic novel "When Stars Are Scattered," by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. The book shares the story of Mohamed's childhood as he fled violence in Somalia with his younger brother, Hassan, and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya.

At 6:30 p.m., after participants had arrived and donned their name tags, it was time for the book pals to seek each other out. Students ducked inside the school to retrieve their copies of the graphic novel before weaving through adults in search of their partners.

The pairs then settled into their folding chairs, chatting away and ready for the evening's speaker, Yves Gakunde.

Gakunde is president of the Keene Elm City Rotary Club. He grew up in Rwanda and spent time in a refugee camp during years of conflict.

Gakunde did not shy away from heavy topics. He talked about the conflict between Rwanda's ethnic groups and the genocide of 1994. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly of the Tutsi ethnic group, were killed in the span of 100 days, he said.

He shared photos on a projector of Rwandans in refugee camps, of people in tents and lining up for food. Throughout his talk, Gakunde drew parallels between his own life and the Mohamed brothers' in the book. Similar to the story's main character, Gakunde had to decide whether to continue his education or drop out to help his family.

He also talked about the beauty of Rwanda, its national parks and its animals. He studied conservation, he said, and his education ultimately brought him to the Monadnock Region. He left his home country to continue his studies at Antioch University New England in Keene, where he completed his master's and doctoral degrees.

Students had a flurry of questions for Gakunde, everything from his favorite Rwandan food (ugali, a kind of porridge made from maize and water) to his favorite animal (anything but snakes). When a student asked if Gakunde had ever eaten a cheeseburger before coming to the U.S., sounds of shock rippled across the younger audience members when he answered no, not until he visited Vermont did he have a cheeseburger.

One thing Gakunde hoped students would take away from the evening was some perspective.

"Sometimes we claim that we don't have so much," he said. "You know, 'I wish I had a nice car, I wish I had a nice bike, I wish I had a nice —' "

"Go-kart!" a young voice from the audience offered.

Even if they don't have go-karts, Gakunde encouraged the kids to be happy with what they do have, as refugees around the world have far less, he said.

This was a lesson Bridges said she enjoyed watching students learn from the book, too.

"As they read the book, one of the coolest things to watch them realize was how much they have," Bridges told The Sentinel. "... As they were getting ready for this fundraiser, they were like, 'We're not rich, but we do have big houses and we do have big cars.' "

It was a warm evening, and every so often a welcome breeze passed through the schoolyard, briefly scattering the black flies. While some kids sprinted around the folding chairs set up on the basketball court or flew around the play structure, others stood behind tables covered with friendship bracelets, homemade exfoliating scrubs, paintings and other handmade goods. They hawked their wares for a good cause — all these items, in addition to books and snacks, were being sold to raise money for Refugee Strong, a nonprofit led by Omar Mohamed himself that aims to empower refugees through education.

This was the first year the school hosted such a fundraiser, and on Wednesday students were aiming for a $350 goal. By the end of the evening, they had raised $905, and with a few final donations trickling in Thursday morning, the school plans to send $1,000 to Refugee Strong, Bridges said in an email Thursday.

Fourth-grader Nolyn Deturris was showing her book pal, Pat Campbell, the "secret envelopes" she was selling. The artfully folded envelopes contained copies of "A Poem of Stars" by Maryam Farah and hand-drawn pictures of different scenes from the graphic novel.

"I liked that [the book] was about real life at a refugee camp and we could actually kind of see what it was like," Nolyn said. Campbell agreed, saying she learned a lot from Mohamed's story.

In their letters to each other, the pair wrote about the book while also sharing a bit about themselves. For example, in her first letter, Nolyn said she enjoys training snakes in the wild.

"I was very impressed," Campbell said Wednesday.

But even with the letter writing, Campbell, who has been a book pal for the past few years, said participants don't get a full sense of who their partners are until they meet face to face.

Not too far away, still seated on the folding chairs, Anita Flanagan was writing a note in her fourth-grade book pal Halleigh Melton's copy of the book.

The pair said they enjoyed the graphic novel's illustrations, especially Jamieson's use of color to depict Mohamed's flashbacks.

Beyond just the book, Flanagan said she appreciated the Faulkner teachers' effort to share links to related topics, such as resources about refugee situations around the world. And, she added, she enjoyed learning about her book pal along the way, including how much Halleigh enjoys wrestling.

"We had a fun time going back and forth with the letters," Flanagan said.

Molly Bolan can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436 or mbolan@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @BolanMolly.