Tate Maki-Waller stands next to a bookshelf that towers over her.
The sixth-grader at Northfield Middle School says students love the student-run bookstore where she works.
She finishes lunch early so she can hang out there, and she wishes she didn't have to ride a bus to school so she could hang out more before and after school.
"Some people will come in here and hide books they like so nobody else can take it until they can afford it," she said.
Welcome to the Tattered Pages, where students at Northfield Middle School can earn coupons to buy their own used books, donated by the community. The student-run store, started by media specialist Amy Sieve, aims to get more books into students' homes.
"I love to read, and I like to find new books to read," said Luke Hubers, a seventh-grader who works in the store. "It's nice because you have to earn the money to buy books, someone just can't give it to you."
Sieve said that the school last year surveyed students who had performed in top and bottom quarters on reading tests, and found the lowest performers had very few books at home.
That was also often associated with students who came from low-income families, who make up almost one-fifth of the school's population.
