*BUZZ* *BUZZ* Davie High junior Corbin Drum’s phone began to light up with notifications. A glance down at her inbox revealed that a TikTok account with over 1 million followers had reposted her video, encouraging their audience to donate to Drum’s cause. The cause? Providing books for Davie High’s new Battle of the Books program.
Initially, Davie High’s book club was an organization with just five members and low stakes. The club met periodically to discuss the books they’d been assigned to read in a relaxed setting. Davie High librarian Robyn Koontz hosted the club for a year before introducing an idea that would take it to the next level.
“I just casually asked my student-led book club if they were interested in doing Battle of the Books,” Koontz said. “And, they were all very excited.”
Very quickly, the club realized just how expensive Battle of the Books would be. To prepare for a competition that requires students to study dozens of titles, the group would need 64 books—far more than such a small club could easily afford. Drum, realizing the group’s plight, took to her own social media to ask for donations. What she didn’t realize then was how quickly her simple request would blow up.
“By the next day, Corbin came to me and said, ‘Mrs. Koontz. You’re not gonna believe this,’ and she already had the books donated.”
The TikTok account that reposted Drum’s video was none other than @MeetMeInTheMediaCenter, run by Northern Guilford Middle School librarian Jen Miller, who has garnered attention for her content on media center organization.
“So, people were tagging her in the comments, like tons of people were,” Drum said. “I didn’t even tell her about a list. I just saw it when I clicked on her page. It was just a video of us, and when I checked the link, probably 100 books were gone.”
But the most shocking aspect of these book donations is that packages are still trickling in from all over the world—some from the U.K.—in support of the school’s book club.
“We’re still receiving some every day,” Drum said. “I was just like ‘Oh my gosh.’ This is not what I expected to see. Just packages, upon packages, upon packages.”
Just a few days later, as those packages had begun to pile up in the back room of the Davie High Learning Commons, Drum and the rest of the club gathered for an Unboxing Party, where they filled a table with stacks upon stacks of fresh books. Drum found herself overwhelmed with the support she had received from the book community. The idea of such a small-scale project blowing up within hours was something of a dream.
“I was at school during the time and just kept refreshing the page to see more and more books leave,” Drum said.
Koontz believes the response proves that, despite changes in how people read, reading and literacy are still valuable.
“I know I have my Kindle, you might have your Kindle too,” Koontz said. “Just because people don’t sit down with a hard book does not mean that they’re not reading.”
Drum is eager to begin the Battle of the Books competition, knowing her fellow club members will dedicate themselves to the process. She also believes the preparation for the competition will bond them all closer together.
“It gets us a little bit more interconnected,” Drum said. “I feel like a lot of us are competitive, and we all have high reading goals. I just don’t really care if we win if we’re doing it together.”
