Another book giveaway!

     Mary Ann Cummings of Vancouver, Canada is the type of person I admire. She had an idea for a nonprofit enterprise -- collecting "gently used" children's books from parents who have plenty, and putting them into the hands of less fortunate children. She spent months starting up her outfit with full fervor. Her passion soon drew a cadre of enthusiastic volunteers who now spend hours per week promoting, collecting, sorting, re-boxing and putting books into the hands of appreciative youngsters. The local school board helps direct her to the schools with children most in need.
     Thanks to Mary Ann and her team, "Books for Me" (http://booksformevancouver.org/) has become a busy, busy outfit, and thanks to them, many a child who isn't used to the privilege of owning a book have received some of their very own.
     Keen Readers was honored to contribute roughly 100 to Books for Me last month (many of them donated to us by the generous children's authors at www.cwill.bc.ca) , and here's a photo of Mary Ann opening our box.
     As our regular readers know, we do this several times a year. By going through Books for Me on this round, we got to know Mary Ann and her crew, who reignited our own passion for promoting youth literacy.
    Thanks, Mary Ann and team, for all you do!
-- Pam Withers, Keen Readers co-founder

A small-world story

by Pam Withers

            My favorite part of running the keenreaders website is choosing someone to interview each month for our Interview feature. Basically, if they have anything to do with youth literacy, they intrigue me and become a potential candidate.

            So when I stumbled across something called www.MenTeach.org, which promotes getting more male teachers into schools (thereby hopefully influencing reluctant readers that reading is not entirely a female thing), I decided that at some point I’d pursue an interview with whoever founded it. Not just because the majority of reluctant readers are boys, but because I think (and many mothers and female teachers agree) that girls could benefit from more positive male role models in the school system too.

            This past month, I got around to checking out their website, and who do you think popped up on my screen? The name and photo of Bryan G. Nelson, founder.

            “So that’s where you’ve gotten to, Bryan!” I exclaimed. Because not only did Bryan and I attend Beloit College in Wisconsin together thirty-some years ago, but we co-edited the college newspaper, The Round Table. I recall a free-spirited, dedicated colleague with whom I shared many laughs as well as late-night deadline panics in the cramped little attic college-newspaper room.

            It was fun to request a Keen Readers interview with Bryan, then add a “by the way…” He too was surprised and delighted at reconnecting in this way.

            So, here’s to a small world, and to folks who endeavor to make a difference. Keep up your good work, Bryan!

Keen Readers donates another 100 books

Keen Readers just donated 100 books to Kate Pike, manager of the Jefferson Teen Center in Chimacum, Washington. She accepted them from Tony Dirksen, co-founder of Keenreaders.org.

The Teen Center, located on the Chimacum High School campus, is a place for kids to hang out, play music, play foosball, watch movies and yes, discover books and find a quiet corner to read.  Plus, the Center gives young people a place where they can come together to talk about issues of importance to them and to their safety, and it provides referrals to health care, employment and drug and alcohol prevention programs.

Keen Readers donates young-adult books to needy schools across North America, several times per year.

First fan letter of 2012

When you start a website and blog, you don't always know who is out there reading it.  Isn't it nice when somebody lets you know they have discovered your little piece of web real estate, and actually take the time to tell you it's useful and they like it! :)

Here's our first fan letter for 2012. Thanks so much Alicia.  Happy New Year everyone, and we hope you received lots of books over the holidays.  Pam Withers, co-founder

Hi,

My name is Alicia and I am a middle school English teacher. I am currently working on my students' next reading project. Usually the projects are based off a book we read as a class but this time I am letting the students have a free choice. I am helping them out by creating a list of sites they can turn to get ideas of what book to choose. I just happened to come across your page http://www.keenreaders.org/parents/links while I was looking for some book lists and other reading related resources to add to the guide.

I just wanted to take a second and write you a quick email to show my gratitude for the help you have given me with my project guide and lesson plans. The resources and information you took the time to post were very helpful. 

I thought I could share another great literature resource page I found while searching. This page http://www.curiocabinetspot.com/literary-awards has some good information and resources on the different literary awards and I thought you might want to add it as another resource. 

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.

Best Wishes in 2012,
Alicia 

Keen kids write authors

What better way to connect kids with reading and writing than dare them to write their favorite author? I salute teachers who assign kids to do so, and even moreso parents who help their children do so.  (If your child's favorite author doesn't have a website, the web or your local library can help you find the publisher's address.) Besides reinforcing their reading, it gives them a writing exercise they won't see as work.
I wonder how many authors write back. I always do, sometimes sending an autographed bookmark while I'm at it. My only curiosity is why so many adults have kids send snail-mail letters c/o the publisher, when it's so easy to email them via their websites.  (Especially since publishers can lose those letters, or take months to get them to authors.)
Anyway, here's a letter I received today, just to inspire parents to think about having their child write an author. I've replied already, of course! Thanks for writing me, Ryan T.
Pam Withers, co-founder, www.keenreaders.org (and young adult author, www.pamwithers.com)

Dear Mrs. Withers:
My name is Ryan T. I am a sixth grader at XXX Middle School. I am with a group of gifted and talented kids doing a report on an author.
When I heard we were going to do this project I got kind of excited. I discovered your books by a website that lets you look at books and authors. Once I found your books I immediately wanted to study you and know more about your books. I've almost finished your book Raging River. I think it's amazing! I love how you portray your character as an employee trying to get a promotion. I coudn't stop reading! I also just wanted to ask how did you come up with this amazing piece of literature? Did it just pop into your head one day while sitting at home? Did it take you a long time to try to figure out what happens to Peter and Jake? And if so how long did it take? Well enough questions. The most amazing thing I find in your books is that I find it very hard to put down! I could read it over and over again before I get even the slightest bit bored by it.
We are collecting autographed pictures of the authors and I was wondering if you could send one back it would mean a lot to me! Could you please write back? My teacher told me that sometimes the authors write back and I thought it would be really cool to get something back from you. If you do send me something I'll be sure to send you a picture of my completed project. I'm sure that by picking you I'll get an "A" for sure!
I wish you continued success in your career.
Your biggest and best fan,
Ryan T

A trip to Portland, Oregon

Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting Portland, Oregon to present my new young adult novel, First Descent, to 200 booksellers, librarians, publishers and other book lovers. I was attending the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association’s Fall Tradeshow 2011, and I was so impressed by the attendees, I wrote a guest blog for Tundra Books' site, right here:
 http://tundrabooks.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/guest-post-pam-withers-2/ 
But more importantly, I scattered some brochures promoting Keen Readers around, thinking that if no one picked them up, I'd stuff them back into my briefcase before I left. Whoa! Every single one got scooped up, and I had people asking me for more! Here was a crowd highly receptive to a youth literacy website (and hopefully they'll get kids they know to enter our youth writing contest, since we could definitely use more entries there). Anyway, I'll take more next time, I promise.

The power of one (plus one plus one...)

by Pam Withers

It all started with one letter from a teacher of grades two and three, who felt overwhelmed by the needs of her inner-city elementary students. She and her school struggle to meet their kids’ academic needs, but after school cutbacks, she could no longer turn a blind eye to unmet physical and psychological needs affecting their schoolwork, from warm socks and snacks (for those who didn’t eat breakfast) to counseling.

          She (Carrie Gelson, far left above) wrote a letter to the local newspaper, and the message went viral. She began receiving everything from monetary to food donations. A longtime children’s author who read Gelson's letter, Irene Watts (http://irenenwatts.com/), urged local children’s authors to donate books. When I received that suggestion, I (far right above) immediately dispatched a box of books to Gelson and her colleague Andrea Wilks (middle of photo) at Admiral Seymour Elementary in Vancouver, Canada.

          This is part of what Keen Readers is about, donating books to needy schools across North America. Through internet research, we target schools in needy communities, and then not only deliver a box of books, but deliver an additional handful of books autographed by authors to go to each of the students in that school who have a Big Brother or Big Sister. We hope they’ll read the books together, and we hope it’ll inspire more volunteers to step forward to serve as reading buddies.

          The gift bag in the picture holds five books for the Little Brothers and Sisters at Admiral Seymour. These are books personally donated by children’s authors (see our Author Heroes page: http://www.keenreaders.org/about/author-heroes).

          The big box of books Keen Readers handed over came originally from a special collection of books by children’s authors of British Columbia, Canada that sat at the University of British Columbia. When UBC disbanded the collection and tried to turn it over to the Children’s Writers and Illustrators of BC (www.cwill.bc.ca), CWILL BC voted to turn it over to Keen Readers instead, knowing we’d find a needy school for them.

          Well, we’ve found that school, thanks to one person (Gelson) who took the time to write a letter, one person (Watts) who made the suggestion, the members of CWILL BC who handed them over, and all those who support Keen Readers. That’s the power of one (plus one plus one plus one…)

         

Gelson’s original letter:

http://www.theprovince.com/life/Full+text+Carrie+Gelson+letter+community/5464503/story.html

Article on response to Gelson’s letter

http://www.theprovince.com/life/Support+floods+inner+city+kids+after+teacher+heartfelt+plea/5463376/story.html