Swapping Stories: Peregrine's First Dolly Parton Day Book Swap

Coat of Many Colors, by Dolly Parton

Back through the years 

I go wonderin’ once again

Back to the seasons of my youth…

There is something so evocative about those opening lines. They capture the ease of a gentle slide into a childhood reverie. Dolly Parton herself said that it was her favorite song to perform, because when she sang it, she saw her entire childhood.

After her passing, California legislators declared September 25th to be the state’s first Dolly Parton Day. Here at Peregrine, we decided to mark the occasion with a school-wide book swap, in honor of Parton’s commitment to childhood literacy.

How do you raise a reader?

What does it take to not just teach a child the many (many, many) complicated and contradictory rules of English spelling, but set them up with a lifelong love of reading?

You give them books.

It seems overly simple, but it’s true. The most effective way to lead children to literacy is to give them books, from any age, and to read with them. It’s the principle that drives Parton’s Imagination Library.

If “give them books” sounds too easy and you want to add an extra step, you can give the child books that they enjoy.

This was the plan behind Peregrine School’s book swap. 

First, we invited families to bring in the books that their children had outgrown. At Peregrine, we love to take any opportunity we can to reduce, reuse, and recycle. So helping families declutter their homes while giving these books a second life was a win-win. We told the community that this was the time to trade in the picture books that had gone on too long without a bedtime read request, and to clear up precious shelf space by unloading those YA series that their young adults had already read.

And as any reader knows, there is only one true reason to give away a good book: It allows you to get more books. Okay, so you also get the satisfaction of passing a beloved story on to a new home. But mostly it’s about getting new books for yourself. 

Next, we arranged all of the donations on a long table with a beautiful Peregrine blue table cloth.

Then we got another table, because it quickly became clear that there were too many books to be contained on one table. 

Once the books were arranged, the swap began. 

Throughout the day, teachers brought their students up to the lobby to look over the books. Teacher Rui, who teaches Escuelita students, brought her two-year-olds in groups. They love looking at books before nap time, she explained. It’s a form of a pre-literacy strategy called picture-walking, where a child follows a story through the images on the pages. 

In the elementary school, Director Jessica made the book swap a part of the monthly “Bird Buddies” event, when all of the grades work together on an activity. This month, each student got to choose a few books from the swap, and then the older students read the books to the younger students. 

The whole event pulled together key facets of Peregrine’s philosophy: 

Respect for a child as an agent in their own interests and learning.

Focusing on lessons that don’t just impart knowledge, but also foster a love of learning.

Giving students the opportunity to act as leaders for younger children.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our book swap. It brought us joy to see the excitement on the students’ faces when they chose a book. We hope to do it again next year!