Washington ( CNN ) -- At first glance , it 's a hoax : a storefront for a Museum of Unnatural History , complete with a bizarre animal skeleton visible through the front window and unicorn tears for sale . It 's perfect for luring in curious children . But when volunteers get kids past the upside-down coyote hanging from the ceiling and the owl with an elephant trunk , they shape young minds with after-school tutoring , writing workshops and books written by kids . `` I think the kids are tricked in and then , as they are talking to the person at the front desk , they are learning about what 's going on in the tutoring center , '' said Gerald Richards , the chief executive of 826 National , the nonprofit network of tutoring centers that look nothing like classrooms . The Washington `` museum , '' which set up shop in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in October , was the latest branch to open . Each of the eight centers has an imaginative storefront that helps raise money and encourage creativity among students . In Seattle , kids are lured into the writing lab by the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. , which sells intergalactic peace treaties and travel cups . In Ann Arbor , Michigan , Liberty Street Robot Supply & Repair sells robot emotion upgrades , fruit powered clocks and robodentures . The original chapter opened eight years ago at 826 Valencia St. in San Francisco 's Mission District . ( As it spread , the original address inspired the name 826 National . ) It was co-founded by Dave Eggers , author of `` A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius , '' and founder of the publishing house , McSweeney 's . Early on , organizers at 826 Valencia St. learned the space they 'd rented was zoned for retail , so they needed to come up with something to sell . The space looked a bit like an old pirate ship . `` Someone thought , 'Why do n't we sell pirate gear and see what happens ? ' '' Richards said . Since then , it has been fronted by The Pirate Supply Store , where shoppers can purchase hooks , peg legs and plank-by-the-foot . Now , Richards said , profits from stores account for 20 percent of the teaching that goes on in the writing center . And the imagination enticements work . 826 National is on track to serve 24,000 students this year through its tutoring centers and school outreach programs . Sisters Teah and Janea Green have been visiting 826DC most afternoons since it opened . `` This place is awesome , '' said Janea , 10 , as she worked on her multiplication homework with volunteer Matt Lemanski . `` I really , really need help with my homework and my parents are busy sometimes . '' `` Sometimes we do poetry , sometimes we do math , '' said Teah , 9 . When she does n't have homework , she works on the story she is writing about a mermaid named Katopia . Writing is the primary focus at 826 centers , which also work with middle school and high school students . It also publishes books written by students . Their latest , `` I Live Real Close to Where You Used to Live , '' is a collection of student letters to First Lady Michelle Obama . It will be in bookstores on December 15 . The letters run the gamut from asking if Obama cooks with an Easy-Bake Oven at the White House , to a suggestion that she use robots to keep drugs off the streets . The book is a companion to one that came out last year that contains letters to President Barack Obama , `` Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country . '' Profits from the book sales are used to support the tutoring centers . Kathleen Yancey , an English professor at Florida State University , said the 826 National centers complement the learning that goes on in classrooms . Schools are about college and job readiness , and tests that prove it , Yancey said . Those demands do n't leave much time for playful reading or imaginative writing , even if it could help some students learn . `` If you want people to engage in activity , you find a way for them to have fun with it . 826 is a genius at that , '' said Yancey , a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English . `` If [ students ] do n't take any pleasure in it , they wo n't actually practice it . When they have fun , they wo n't quit on you . '' Fun is what draws students in , too . `` It 's OK to be strange , '' said Richards , the 826 leader . `` It 's OK to be magical , it 's OK to be whimsical . ''
The National is a network of writing centers tucked behind imaginative storefronts . A new 826 chapter , however , opened recently in Washington . A new chapter written by 826 National kids ' letters to Michelle Obama .