SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife kids will have some new books to read this school year, as the territorial government has dedicated a $400,000 fund to fill out their school libraries, as well as others across the NWT.

Each school in the territories will get a minimum of $7,000, according to Dan Daniels, deputy minister of the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment.

"We can start spending now, because we have the letter basically telling us that we have the money," said Claudia Parker, superintendent of Yellowknife Catholic Schools.

Parker mentioned that the school district also wants more books with cultural aspects to them.

Both Weledeh Catholic School and St. Joseph School received money from the Indigo "Love of Reading" grant, said Parker.

She said the library most in need of the boost is the St. Patrick High School library.

"The students will be involved in helping the librarian choose books that they are interested in, so she'll probably do a survey of their interest areas," Parker said.

Both the YK1 and Yellowknife Catholic School superintendents said the money will be spent on leisure books, rather than educational text books.

They first found out about the book fund in September, but it was officially announced through a letter from the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment sent out in October.

Metro Huculak, superintendent of YK1, said all the libraries in the district could use a little updating.

"This certainly will be a boost for every school," said Huculak.

The money should be rolling out to the individual schools in the next few months if it hasn't already, according to Daniels.

Huculak expects to have new books coming in around Christmas time.

Daniels said schools in remote communities around the NWT will receive additional funding on top of the $7,000 for extra shipping costs that may occur.