Last year, then-sophomore Shannon Bradley of Keyport decided that the Book Nook “was really a mess” and wanted to do something about it.

“There were books everywhere stacked precariously on all of the shelves. Some stacks looked like they could fall at any minute. So, I decided to start changing the way it was run and start changing how the books were organized,” Bradley said.

The new Book Nook, which opened to the school on Nov. 4, features a new online system for cataloging books and for allowing students to take books out, Bradley
said.

New books were also added as a result of a collaboration among Spanish teacher Gail Plumeri, MCVSD Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction Kelly Harmon and technology teacher Laura Gesin.

To order the books, the group used a $1,000 first place prize won by alumna Hannah Eareckson of the Class of 2015 from the 2014 Charles Lafitte Foundation Summer Reading Essay Contest.

“Ms. Harmon asked me if I would help get a book order together with the $1,000 prize that was won last year. So, with Ms. Gesin’s help, we got a book order together, and were able to get $1,000 worth of books for the Book Nook,” Plumeri said.

More books also came in through donations.

The new Book Nook was originally intended to be completed in two weeks last April, “but we severely underestimated how long it would actually take to catalog all the books and make sure they were all organized,” Bradley said.

Now, after months of work, Bradley and Plumeri, along with help of other students, have completed their project.

Junior Sam Bender of Neptune, who helped Bradley and Plumeri in opening the latest Book Nook, said it was not completed without its difficulties.

“There were a few computer problems with getting everyone’s name into the system so that they could take out books. There were a few books we had to take out, because they weren’t appropriate for school,” Bender said.

Now that the Book Nook is once again open, Bradley said she hopes it will bring increased reading at CHS.

“I hope to improve the quality of books that people are reading and start increasing the number of books that everyone is reading and just really get them into reading again,” Bradley said.