Greenville Elementary School received a $3,500 Dollar General literacy grant.

Jacqueline Thornton, media specialist, and Michelle Barrow, the reading coach, wrote the grant back in April.

“We were one of 18 schools to receive it,” Thornton said. “There were about 300 schools out of the nation, 18 in Alabama, and we were one of 18.”

The grant will go towards purchasing non-fiction books for the library.

“It’s outdated,” Thornton said. “It’s something like $16 a book, so it’s at least 190 to almost 200 books.”

Thornton made sure to order lower level books to give the students experience in non-fiction material.

“This will give the children background experience to get better scores on the testing,” Thornton said. “Basically, it’s concentrated in the arts and sciences because we’re behind in that. I wanted to make sure our children got to experience the sciences and arts.”

The school wrote two different grants, but Thornton is happy to receive at least one.

“They will know how to take a non-fiction test and know what to look for,” Thornton said. “They don’t have the background knowledge. If they talk about going to a topical place, I’ve got books on animals, how machines work and things they’re not exposed to. I made sure that I bought books in the areas for them to gain knowledge and have experience of it.”