Kids Need Books - West Elementary, Bryson City, NC

**Any donations over our goal will allow us to purchase books for Swain County Middle School and East Elementary (there are 385 students at East), the other elementary school in the district!**

The students of West Elementary  in Bryson City , NC need books, and they need books where they see themselves and their history represented.

During WWII, the Tennessee Valley Authority created the Fontana Dam in Swain County, North Carolina. The Fontana Dam has the strange history of being the source of the electricity that powers Oak Ridge, where the atomic bombs were created; it also has the sad history in that its creation meant flooding four separate towns in Appalachia and more than a thousand family homes when the reservoir lake filled.
 
This is the history that’s reflected in the children’s novel A Wilder Magic, and it’s the lived history of the students of West Elementary in Bryson City, NC.



I'm Juliana Brandt, the author of the middle grade novel The Wolf of Cape Fen and the forthcoming novel A Wilder Magic . I had the absolute privilege of teaching kindergarten at West Elementary in Bryson City for four years. In 2019, I was struggling to find a concept for my second novel with my publisher, Sourcebooks . I brainstormed a whole host of ideas, but nothing felt quite right. In the end, it was the community of Bryson City that sparked the right plot: A Wilder Magic tells the story of a young girl who's forced to move from her home in a valley in Appalachia due to the construction of a dam. 

I want to get this book in the hands of kids in Appalachia. After all, they’re why I was able to write it!

(Mary Parton on the left. Juliana Brandt on the right.)

The students of West come from a wide background, many of whom are disadvantaged. They are located in a very rural, geographically isolated area where it's difficult for many students to experience the wider world, even during non-pandemic times! This is a school where 100% of students are on free breakfast and lunch. There are very limited financial resources. When the choice is between buying food and buying books, the choice will always be food. This is why I want to help get books into these students' hands.

These kids are incredibly bright, creative, and loving. They have beautiful personalities, and they deserve to have books in which they can see themselves.

With profound thanks, I hope to gift a copy of A Wilder Magic to each student at West Elementary.

There are 416 students at West. Books are $7.99 each. Any donations over our goal will allow us to purchase books for the other elementary school in the district and the middle school! The donation will close a on April 4, 2021 to allow for time for the bookstore to order books and deliver them to kids after the release date of May 4, 2021.

I hope you consider donating 1 book, or 2, or 10! I would be so delighted for this to be a happy gift to give to kids at the end of an incredibly difficult school year!

*All books will be purchased through City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC. This will keep all money in rural Appalachia.*