MOORPARK : Author to Help Raise Money for Library

Author Ray Bradbury will spend an evening at Moorpark High School this month, speaking to students and offering autographed copies of his books for sale to help support improvements planned for the high school library.

Bradbury, author of “The Martian Chronicles,” “Fahrenheit 451,” and “Dandelion Wine,” will spend at least an hour autographing books and then will speak to students at the free event.

About 45% of the money from the sale of Bradbury’s books will go toward improving the library, which has drawn the attention of school officials for its lack of resource material and a shortage of books, school officials said.

Parent volunteers have spent hundreds of hours over the past few months unpacking and cataloguing books that had been in storage and adding them to the library shelves, said Frank DePasquale, assistant superintendent of the Moorpark Unified School District.

Peggy Blakelock, an English teacher at Moorpark High who originally asked Bradbury to visit, said she and a group of Moorpark students saw Bradbury speak at the Thousand Oaks Library in November, 1991.

Blakelock said the students were so impressed by his talk that they wrote a collection of thank-you letters to the author. Blakelock sent the letters last fall, when she asked Bradbury to come and help raise money for the library.

“He sent back and said he was busy, but told me to get in touch with him again after the first of the year.” In January, she said, after a series of phone calls, Bradbury’s visit was scheduled for March 18 at 7 p.m. in the high school library.

“He is so down to earth, so very gracious,” Blakelock said. “When he says he’s going to call, he does. And he does his own calling. He says, ‘Ray Bradbury calling.’ ”