Author Sarah Dessen applauds the efforts of those who brought in books for Book Harvest.
As of 2:45 p.m. Monday, Book Harvest had collected 11,298 books to donate to low-income children in the community. Less than two hours into the event at Flyleaf Books, Book Harvest had already surpassed its goal of collecting 10,000 books for donation on MLK Day.
To celebrate the day’s efforts, local authors Daniel Wallace, Randall Kenan and Sarah Dessen spoke about the importance of books when they were growing up.
“It’s incomprehensible to me that there are kids that don’t have books everywhere,” said Daniel Wallace, an English professor at UNC best known for his novel Big Fish. Wallace said he couldn’t remember an image from his childhood that didn’t involve him reading a book.
Kenan, also an author and English professor at Carolina, said his favorite books as a child included Moby Dick, A Christmas Carol, The Borrowers and Arabian Nights.
Dessen, a local author of young adult books, shared the experience of watching her own daughter begin to tell stories.
“All good stories start with reading good stories,” Dessen said. TW
