Other Donors

Thank you so much to these generous book-loving donors who gave books or money:

• Chesapeake Academy, Arnold, MD
• Melissa Majewski, Carpentersville, IL
• Maceo Addis-Jackson, 2, and his family (Dawn, Marcus and Marcel)
• Susanne Johnson, Champaign, IL
• Jennifer L. Fife, Westminster, CO

• Lynne Rooney, Bolingbrook, IL 
• Leonard 6th Grade Center, Fort Worth, TX
• 4th Grade Class, St. Joseph’s Church, Millstone, NJ
• Princess Anne High School library and Global Outreach Club, Virginia Beach, VA
• Johnny Washington’s first graders, Edgewood Elementary School, Homewood, AL 
• Teacher Karen Schuler and the Rollingwood Academy, Virginia Beach, VA
• Tricia Jemison, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
• Bailey Shultz, Chandler, AZ
• Beth McGee, Staunton, VA
• In honor of Marion Bilyk Krymski, St. Clair Shores, MI, for her 51st birthday from her daughter Elizabeth Rose Krymski 
• In honor of Christopher Faber, 6, of Denver, CO, from his grandmother Joan
• Cassandra & Jerome Gladney
• In honor of Mary Petrino, 80, from her daughter, Marianne G Petrino-Schaad 
• Sharron Ricketts, Shingle Springs, CA 
• Holley Navarre Middle School, Navarre, FL 
• Marianne G Petrino-Schaad, Arlington, VA 
• Sherry & Hank Pangborn, Silverdale, WA
• Kelsey and Kiersten Smith, ages 12 and 10, of Lithia, FL, who collected over 2,000 books and are raising money to mail them
• Cessna Elementary School, Wichita, KS, Rebecca Pickering’s third graders
• Rachel Hantman, Needham, MA 
• Travis Ranch Elementary School, Yorba Linda, CA
• Jefferson, Texas, Rotary Club
• Mary Anne Schneider, Grand Rapids, MI
• Shirley Lieberman, Massapequa, NY 
• Arzina Thobhani, Crawley, England
• Phillip Pearson
• Samir Shah
• Sanjoy Biswas
• The employees at Stoner House, Crawley, including Dave Leech and Chris Wood
• The employees at the BBC coordinated by Hemini Mehta
• The Community Outreach Club and Barbara Kersey at Court Street Academy, Portsmouth, VA
• Susan Abbenante, Owings Mills, MD  
• In honor of the wedding of Alexandra Rollo and Erkut Topcu, San Francisco, CA., from Meta Mertens and Phil Bass 
• In honor of Mrs. Beverly Dew Allen of Atlanta, GA, from her son-in-law Peter Keenan of Jackson, WY 
• DiDi Grimm, Chicago, IL 
• Lee Gallery and her sister Betsy, who donated from Hesperian‘s Gratis Book Program  
• In honor of Katie Sullivan from her friend Martha Redeker
• Pamela Bostelmann, Richmond, CA 
• In honor of Patrick Travers, from Mary Beth White 
• In honor of Benjamin Wiles, Berkeley, CA, from his wife Veronica Herrera
• Peter Glanville, Carondelet Catholic School, Minneapolis, MN
• In honor of Glenn McLaurin from his mother, Vivian 
• In honor of Cheryl Mannix and her kindergarten class at Homestead-Wakefield Elementary School, Maryland
• T. Rob Wyatt, Charlotte, NC
• In honor of Wayne Shannon from Dad and Jeanette 
• In honor of Joan & Peter Faber, from Terry Faber, Denver, CO
• Pamela A. Valleni, Torrance, CA
• In honor of Jane Thompson, Toronto, Canada, from Suzanne O’Donoghue of Toronto
• Christy Estabrook, Glen Allen, VA
• Jess Jarvis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada 
• Carol O’Donnell and the St. Athanasius School, Evanston, IL
• Laura Baecher, Flushing, NY 
• Nancy Caplan, Columbia, MD 
• Barbara Coley, Bakersfield, CA
• Madison Linnae Sioss-Witts, Gilbert, AZ
• Jean Riggs, Corvallis, OR
• Nancy Wall, Tucson, AZ 
• Julie Gannon Legacy Fund, Tucson, AZ 
• Casey Roberts’ class at Huntsville High School, Huntsville, Ontario
• Vickie Gray and Darin Briskman, Portland, OR
• Barry & Kris Briskman, St. Michael’s, MD
• Maria Ramos, Martinez, CA 
• Sarah Binion, Austin, TX
• Laura Ruiz-Falcon, Austin, TX  
• Michele Wells, Boulder, CO 
• Cecile Cherry, Birmingham, AL 
• Bob Cornell, Cumming, GA 
• The Ridgefield High School LIT Club, Ridgefield, CT 
• Karen Webre, Ruston, LA 
• Victoria Vandenberg, Oshkosh Public Library, Wisconsin
• John Florio, Acme Creative Enterprises, Inc. 
• Kathleen Dixon at Islandtime Books and More 
• The Paideia School Library,  Atlanta, GA.
• Laura Paxton of Oberlin, OH 
• Violeta Garcia-Mendoza
• Kathy Andersen
• Susan Bumps
• Judie Herr
• Sarah Rocklin
• Stacey Loscalzo
• Wendy Westerduin
• Hilde Sjoelset of Kolbotn, Norway
• David Berkowitz
• Fidel Pedregal Pimentel
• Elisabeth Gruner
• Linda Rigel
• Linda Young

Thanks to a shopping mall that decided to donate time, money and energy to collecting for the camel bookmobile: Manhattan Village shopping mall in Manhattan Beach, CA, and Ericka Sanchez, the assistant marketing director.

Thanks to the following bookstores, book festivals and libraries:

• Osondu Booksellers, Waynesville, NC
• Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, MI
• Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI
• Ann Arbor Book Festival
• Antigone Books, Tucson, AZ
• Cameron Village Regional Library, Raleigh, NC
• Ridgefield Library, Ridgefield, CT

Thanks to the following publishers:

• Unbridled Books for contributing a large box of the wonderful books it publishes by authors including Elise Blackwell, William J. Cobb, M. Allen Cunningham, Lamar Herrin, Layne Maheu, Deborah Noyes, Frederick Reuss, Carolyn Turgeon, Nancy Zafris and Lloyd Zimpel.
• Publisher and writer Nick Cato for his contribution of children’s books.

Spreading The Word

For helping spread the word about the camel book drive, thanks go to:

• The Arizona Republic, feature story by Sonja Haller
• Alison Granucci, President, Blue Flower Arts, LLC
• Barbara Hoffert, editor of Library Journal 
• Marly Rusoff
• Karen at Readerville
• Barbara Mead of Reading Group Choices
• Gotham Writers’ Workshop
• Carol at Bookreporter.com
• Women’s National Book Association, New York City chapter
• The Book Standard

And to the following bloggers who wrote about the Camel Bookmobile:

• Caroline at Food For Thought
• Marie at Green Fertility
• Libby at Midlife Mama
• The Drexel University Student Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (DUSLA)
• Mel at The Mel Mystique
• Finding Wonderland: The YA Weblog
• Suzanne Kamata at Gaijin Mama
• MJ Rose at Buzz, Balls & Hype
• Ron Hogan at MediaBistro.com (GalleyCat)
• Alison Kent at Blah Blog
• Jade Park at Writing Under a Pseudonym
• Anique at the cook up
• Michelle at New York Brain Terrain
• The Shelver at The Shelf Life
• Bibliobuffet
• Kristy at The Debutante Ball
• Lisa Guidarini at Northern Suburban Library System
• dovegreyreader scribbles
• Kitt at The Kittalog
• Judy at Welcome To My World Of Dreams
• Marianne Arkins at Reading, Writing & Stuff That Makes Me Crazy
• Fay Sheco at Historical/Present
• Condalmo
• Maud Newton
• Steven M. Cohen at Library Stuff
• George at Book Ninja
• The Reticulated Python
• Tiki Robot
• Boing Boing
• The Librarian’s Lounge
• The Book Patrol
• Thinking Woman
• Nom de Plume
• Sandra at Library Tourguide to Technology
• The Urbane Homestead
• Christian at think:lab
• Bruce Feiler
• Lori at My American Melting Pot
• Amy Nelson Mile at Books, Words & Writing
• Anne at Fernham
• Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
• Mia at Mia’s Saving Grace
• Knitting Rat
• David Berkowitz at Marketers’ Studio
• The Things I Said
• Mark Sarvas at The Elegant Variation
• Naomi Kritzer Live Journal
• Kevin Kelly at Street Use
• Kris at Paradise Found
• Marshal Zeringue at Campaign For The American Reader
• Lisa G at Estella’s Revenge
• Douglas Clegg at his livejournal
• Jennifer Niesslein’s Internet Presence
• Keren at WritingNews.org
• Peg Kerr’s Journal
• The Happy Booker
• Publishing Insider
• Stefanie at SoManyBooks
• Vix at Accidental Readers & Part Time Troublemaker
• MotherReader
• Kathy L. Patrick at The Pulpwood Queen’s Book Club Blog
• Gayle Brandeis at her blog fruitful
• Laurie Nadel
• arse poetica
• Tobias Buckell, science fiction author and blogger
• Steve Buchheit at storybones.blogspot.com
• Stephanie Leary’s livejournal
• Quiddity
• Sivacracy.net
• Papercuts
• Shannon at Apartment Therapy
• Kelly Amabile at gabling
• Creative and Unique Gift Ideas
• what Elisabeth is reading
• Frances at Ghost Word
• Amy Bowllan at her blog on School Library Journal
• Caroline Leavitt on Daysitter at CookieMag.com
• newport2newport.livejournal
• Westport Public Library book blog
• Our Kind of Parenting
• Berkeley Heights Public Library book blog

And these among the non-English bloggers:

• Katalist
• MIMblog
• Kyotoi Cseresnyevira
• Cambalache

What kinds of Books

The librarians in the Northeast Province who travel with the camel bookmobile told me children’s storybooks are most popular, general fiction for kids and adults is also high on the list, and much interest is shown in nonfiction books covering topics ranging from astronomy to geography to history. We also like to send books by African authors. Gently used books are welcome.

The librarians also said patrons especially love it when a book is inscribed with a note from the sender. It helps them feel connected to places only barely imagined.

Those planning to take school exams to further their studies focus on English since this is the language of government and education. Take a look at the Amazon wish list for ideas, or select some of your own favorite books.

Swahili is the national language. You can order books in Swahili from here or here.

Last year all of the books carried by the camel library were in either English or Swahili. To see small children practicing their English in their “classroom” under an acacia, take a look at the video. Somali is spoken by many of the library’s patrons. To see a great exploration of language in Kenya, visit this blog.

BOOKS NOT TO DONATE: We want to get the camel library the kinds of books they most need. Based on my time spent with the camel library as well as consultations with the camel librarian, Mr. Farah, books you might consider donating elsewhere include: textbooks, books about American, European or religious holidays, books with lots of slang, or racy adult books.

If you opt to donate by any of these methods, please send us an email and let us know so we can thank you.

How to donate books

How to donate money

Donate Books

You can order online and have the store mail your books. To make a donation without leaving home, take a look at the Camel Bookmobile Amazon Wish List. Amazon will ship the books and charge you for shipping (choose the standard international rate). Or you can order from a Powell’s wishlist, (just add the Kenyan address for shipping) or from your favorite independent bookstore. If you want to send books in Swahili, you can order from Language Lizard or Peppercorn Books and Press. Books written in Somali can be ordered from Afgarad Online or WorldLanguage.com.

Or you can buy your own books, box them up and mail them at your local post office. Gently used books can be included. The camel library carries both hardcover and paperback books, but the majority are paperback due to weight considerations for the camel.

Books for the camel library can be mailed to:

Nomadic Schools
P.O. Box 1204 -70100
Garissa, Kenya

Attention all U.S. donors: postal rates increased on May 14. The U.S. Postal Service eliminated the M-bag possibility, both surface and mail, for books to Kenya.

The most economical way to send your books is by FLAT RATE BOX. You can pick up these boxes free of charge at the post office or make sure you mail your books in a square box. Twenty pounds or less of books mailed to Kenya will cost $37 at the post office, or $35.15 if you purchase your postage online. But if the box weighs above 20 pounds, the cost spikes up because priority mailing kicks in. For example, mailing 25 pounds of books to Kenya costs $126.75. SO better to keep each individual box of books at 20 pounds or less.

To order postage online, go to usps.com, click on the rates calculator, select international mail, select Kenya, enter the weight of the box, select “Flat Rate Box” as your option and then click “print postage.”

What kinds of books to donate

How to donate money

Donate money

You can also donate any amount of money (nothing is too little) directly to Camel Librarian Mr. Farah to help pay for three she-camels to be stationed at the new outpost library, wooden book boxes, or local purchase of books.

To donate via Western Union, call:  1-800-325-6000. Wire the money to

Rashid M. Farah

Provincial Librarian

Garissa, Kenya

Secret Code: camel

They will give you a control number. Then email Mr. Farah at rmfarah2001@yahoo.com to notify him of the donation amount, the control number and your name. If you have something in particular that you’d like the money to be used for, be sure and let him know. For instance, he will be purchasing three she-camel for use in the new outpost library, and those camel cost approximately $350 apiece.  He also wants to raise money for a tent to provide shade.

Prices for a Western Union money transfer vary from state to state. From New York, for instance, Western Union charges $8.50 for any amount up to $100, and $10.50 for any amount from $100 to $500.

Email us with any questions.

How to donate books

What kinds of books to donate

What Books Are Wrong For the Camel Library?

BOOKS NOT TO DONATE: We want to get the camel library the kinds of books they most need. Based on my time spent with the camel library as well as consultations with the camel librarian, Mr. Farah, books you might consider donating elsewhere include: religious inspirational books, textbooks, books about American, European or religious holidays, books with lots of slang, or racy adult books.

The best books to send are non-religious and with reading levels from ages 3 to 4 up to young adult.