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INUVIK - A shipment of books has arrived at Sir Alexander Mackenzie school and is currently in the library storeroom, waiting to be catalogued.

The school received a grant from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, providing the school with $30,000 worth of books and other reading materials annually for three years.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie school principal Janette Vlanich stands with sisters Anna-May and Amanda Andre-Niditchie. The school is cataloguing a new selection of books for the library. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

"We're focusing on buying more culturally-relevant books," said principal Janette Vlanich.

"We want books about the North, made in the North and about Northerners," said Vlanich.

"I think that books that focus on things the kids know about is going to be better than things they don't know about," she said.

"I think the kids would like to learn more about a muskrat than a farm animal."

Vlanich also wants to encourage parents to read to their kids.

"To improve literacy in school, parents need to start reading to their children, even from infancy, because exposing your child to the language is very important." said Vlanich.

"Learning to read will be much easier for someone who was read to."

Vlanich said the best gift a parent can give their child is a library card.

"It's free and a good way to start reading with your child," she said.

"It'll pay off a huge difference when they get to school."

She said a lack of literacy skills can mean a lot when coming into the school as a new student.

"If they don't know how to read, then it could put them behind the rest of the children in ability," she said.

Vlanich said a child learns by watching their parents.

"Parents are the primary teachers of their children," she said.

"If a child is not read to, they won't be familiar with the whole school process and what goes on here."