When Linden Hill Librarian, Debbie Marinelli, looked out at the faces in her kindergarten and first grade classes she discovered the children loved non-fiction books. However, the Linden Hill library collection of non-fiction text was targeted to the upper grades. So, Marinelli set out to solve the problem.

She turned to the “Delaware Community Foundation” whose philanthropic efforts award $250,000.00 annually to elementary school level initiatives. Linden Hill was awarded $1,500.00 adding 160 new books in the library’s non-fiction collection. Marinelli states that, “My thought was to get books for Kindergarten and first grade kids that they could actually read with little to no assistance.”

The first part of the grant process involved writing an application for funds. After, Marinelli presented her application proposal to the Delaware Community Foundation at the University of Delaware Goodstay Center. She joined the other grant winners displaingy their winning projects. The final piece of this grant process was presenting data based on vocabulary fluency as well as parent and student book ratings.

Originally, Marinelli wrote the grant soliciting  $2,300.00 dollars to fund her program. Fortunately, Dr. Bradley was able to make up the balance. Now, the books are housed in a special section of the library with easily identifiable, pink lables entitled “easy readers.”

Happy reading to our young researchers and many thanks to you, Mrs. Marinelli!