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

Keen Readers donates 101 books

Above: School-mentor Bill and reading-buddy Timothy enjoy a KR-donated book in South Dakota

by Pam Withers

When Tony and I co-founded Keen Readers, we wanted to be more than an information hub for parents and mentors of reluctant readers. We wanted to get books into the hands of youths who don't have as ready access to them as others.
So, thanks to our Publisher and Author Heroes* (more of whom are signing up every day), we have been boxing up donated new kids' books and we are just starting to send them out. Our first box went to Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Black Hills in South Dakota, a region that dominates the list of top-ten poorest counties in the United States. We're donating to needy schools that have Big Brother/Big Sister pairs, and the pair gets an author-autographed book to keep and read together, while their school library gets a box of much-needed books. We hope to repeat this across North America in coming months. This coming fall, when schools start up again, we hope to feature some photos and thank you letters from the schools and kids receiving these books.
Meanwhile, here's an email that arrived yesterday, warming our hearts.
      "Your 101 books have been received. We have been sorting them and will  distribute to several of the libraries in our low income area of town and also on the Pine Ridge Reservation. THANK YOU so much for allowing us to be a part of this project. The libraries are THRILLED and so are we!
Mary B. Victor, Executive Director, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Black Hills, Rapid City, S.D."

Publisher Heroes
Author Heroes

P.S. Did you read our feature last month on Big Brothers Big Sisters of America?

216 books!

by Pam Withers

News flash! The Children's Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia (www.cwill.bc.ca) just donated 216 children's books to Keen Readers. They were part of a special collection at the University of British Colombia that was being disbanded, and the board members of CWILL BC voted to hand the entire collection over to Keen Readers so that we can donate them to needy children's reading programs across North America. Tony and I are deeply grateful. The children who receive them thank you. A special thanks to all the authors and illustrators at CWILL BC.

Being a struggling reader all over again

by Pam Withers

          If I’ve always been a keen reader, that means I can never truly understand someone who is a struggling reader, right?

          Wrong.  I just spent the past two months struggling mightily with reading a young adult novel, never mind that its vocabulary was supposed to be at a fourth grade reading level. I had to use a dictionary to look up words I didn’t know several times per sentence. It took up to an hour to get through each of its very short chapters. Numerous times, I nearly gave up. Never mind that it was a novel written specifically for reluctant readers. And never mind that I wrote the novel myself.

          When Orca Soundings had my novel Breathless translated into Spanish – Respira*, I was delighted. I decided to take on the challenge of reading it in Spanish. With two years of Spanish classes under my belt, I thought I was up for the task.

          Here’s what I have to report: The novel took me two weeks to write back in 2005, but two months to read in Spanish just now. I jotted down each Spanish word I didn’t know as I went along, and they added up to more than 200! Still, I finished it, and the victory was sweet. Now I just have to read it another half dozen times until it starts to come smoothly, right? Exactly as struggling readers have to do. (It helps to have short sentences, short chapters and a plot that moves. I guess that’s why they’re called reluctant reader books.)

          I can now recommend that anyone who finds their patience dwindling while working with a struggling reader, try what I just did to get it all into proper perspective.

          And no, I’m not going to tackle Breathless in Serbian, nor my Orca Currents novel The Daredevil Club (Les Casse-Cous) in French, though I’m pleased they’re out there.

*http://www.orcabook.com/searchproducts.cfm

It's raining books!

by Pam Withers

I have two baskets in my home office. One is filled with books for our book reviewers to review, and they stop by periodically to sort through and choose which they’ll write about. (I never offer my opinion, because as a young adult author, I consider that a conflict of interest; I know so many of the authors!)

      My other basket is filled with books destined for reading programs around North America – donations from authors and publishers. Those from authors are even autographed, a lovely surprise for the youths who receive them. This is part of what Keenreaders is all about: not just providing information and features on our website, but also donating books to needy reading programs around North America.

      What I never anticipated is that this particular basket would overflow to the point I’m thinking I need a locker, or maybe I even need to back my car out of the garage and let the donation books take over there! I simply can’t ship them out as fast as they’re arriving. Reading-buddy programs aren’t discovering us as fast as generous authors and publishers are.

      Tony, my co-founder, has the same two baskets in his home in Seattle. (I hope his new wife doesn’t mind!). They’re slightly less full, because American authors and publishers have been slower to discover us than Canadians. (Hmm, is that because Tony was on his honeymoon while I was notifying Canadian authors and publishers, and he’s just catching up with his American notifications now?!)

      In any case, I’m now proactively contacting reading programs around the continent telling them we have books if they need them. If you know of any, by all means tell them about our program. No strings attached. We donate books (from picture books to young adult books) to reading-buddy programs in schools, community centers, religious institutions and other places that need them. They just have to ask.

      We’ll give until we run out. But that won’t be anytime soon, especially since Orca Books (http://www.orcabook.com/) alone has just donated 100 books. I repeat, 100 books!

      Did I mention that it’s raining books and soon I won’t be able to move around in my home office? Thank you, Author and Publisher Heroes, all of them listed on our website: http://www.keenreaders.org/about/author-heroes and http://www.keenreaders.org/about/publisher-heroes.