Bestselling author Jame Patterson recently donated $5,000 to support the Sierra Vista Junior High School library.

In addition, Scholastic Reading Club will match each dollar of Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to acquire books and other materials for their classrooms.

Sierra Vista Junior High’s library was among 467 selected from 27,924 applications for funding grants. Patterson hopes that the high volume of requests will raise awareness for the problems facing school libraries today.

As part of an ongoing effort to keep books and reading a No. 1 priority in the United States, Patterson, together with Scholastic Reading Club, made a commitment to help save school libraries nationwide. This year alone, Patterson personally donated $1.75 million to school libraries.

“These grants are my humble acknowledgement of some of the terrific work taking place in libraries,” says Patterson. “Here’s to communities supporting school libraries and to a joyful holiday season.”

Lorraine Fulleman, teacher librarian of Sierra Vista, is very excited to receive this generous grant. With over 1200 patrons who visit her library, and circulating books at an average of 1,500 checkouts a month, the collection gets a lot of wear and tear. There is no state or federal funding allocated for school libraries, so the Patterson Grant is a much needed boost to buying new books for their students.

“Mrs. Fulleman truly enhances our school-wide goals of increasing the proficiency level of all our students through her dedication to supporting our Scholastic Reading Counts program, RELAX (daily silent reading program), and through her collaboration with teachers to co-teach and provide technology,” said Carolyn Hoffman, Principal of Sierra Vista Junior High School.

Any U.S. pre-kindergarten to 12th grade school was eligible for this grant. Applicants were asked to fill out an online application posing the question, “What would your school library do with $1,000 to $10,000?” The full list of grant recipients is available online at www.scholastic.com/pattersonpartnership; more information is also available at www.mediaroom.scholastic.com/scholasticreadingclub.