Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Baker Lake (Nov 07/05) - A teacher-librarian at Levi Angmak elementary school is leading her Grade 4 class on a journey from Baker Lake to Pakistan, with a little help from their imaginations.

Maggie Perquin and her class are taking the trip in the pages of a book called My Librarian is a Camel.

The story, written by children's author Margriet Ruurs, tells about mobile libraries in poor regions of the world. It follows a librarian in a region of Pakistan devastated by the earthquake this fall.

"I really try to make things real for the kids," Perquin said."The class has been studying what a mobile library is and a little bit about Pakistan."

The children are collecting school supplies, such as markers, paper and pencils, and stuffed animals to send to other children in Pakistan who lost parents in the earthquake. The initiative is a project started by Ruurs, who visited the class as part of her reading tour across the region earlier this month.

"The kids don't necessarily understand about earthquakes and all that kind of stuff, but they do understand about losing things and not having parents," Perquin said.

The students are creating posters and asking family and friends to donate stuffed toys to their project.

The students are also looking forward to listening to Ruurs read her own story during her upcoming visit.

"They're quite fascinated by the concept of a camel travelling all over the desert to deliver books to children," Perquin said.

Anyone interested in donating stuffed toys or school supplies can drop them off at the school office before Nov. 10.