Book donors, in turn, get to download the Christmas album by Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, known to their fans as the act Pomplamoose.
Pomplamoose sold some 100,000 songs online last year, and the YouTube video channel PomplamooseMusic has almost 210,000 subscribers who track releases by the duo.
Tyler Hester, a ninth-grade English teacher at the Leadership Public Schools charter high school in Richmond, has been close friends since college with Conte and Dawn and suggested leveraging the group's online popularity to bring books to low-income students.
Pomplamoose Helps Schools
The result is the website www.richmondbookdrive.com, which outlines its mission "to put compelling, relevant books into the hands of young people throughout the city. We aim to provide students -- be they reluctant or voracious readers -- with books that they will love, books that will turn them into lifelong readers and learners."
Books are earmarked for Kennedy High School, Lovonya DeJean Middle School, Leadership Public Schools, Lincoln Elementary School and Richmond High School, all of which have reading proficiency levels of 26 percent or lower and where a majority of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Pomplamoose Helps Schools
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