This week kick’s off our usual weekly round-up of book and reading news, articles and links, just with a new name! As always, please comment on any of the included links — we’d love to hear your thoughts!
A Very Scarry Summer Celebration of Richard Scarry
Sterling Publishing is offering a free downloadable activity kit to celebrate what would have been beloved children’s author Richard Scarry’s 90th birthday.
Cartoonist - Sharing Stories with Cartoons
The Book Chook shares info on Cartoonist, a great web tool that allows kids to create their own cartoon stories and share them with others.
With plenty of Fourth of July fireworks and cookouts coming right around the corner, the question, “Why do we celebrate Independence Day?” may come to mind. In honor of our nation’s birthday, First Book is featuring titles which highlight the history, heritage and uniqueness of America.
Discover America is a wonderful series created by the Encyclopædia Britannica which tours all fifty states, describing each state’s history, environment, culture, and people. The Fact Book which accompanies this series gives readers “Top 10” lists, maps and charts detailing various facts about the United States. This series is the ultimate tool for any research, report, or even just general fact-finding.
First Book would also like to highlight the Young Founders series. The Marketplace currently hosts three titles in the series each about the founding of Jamestown, the American Revolution, and the Civil War. These books delve into the gritty reality of living during tough times. In Son of Liberty: A Novel of the American Revolution, readers will come face-to-face with the role slavery plays in the war. The books in this series center around the experiences of young people living at the time of these historical events, making learning an adventure that readers share with the characters in the books.
Other titles for younger audiences can also be found on the First Book Marketplace. Peanuts: Here’s to You, America! and Wow! America! are both quirky stories riddled with historical as well as cultural information about our country. Kids will delight in discovering new and sometimes even strange facts about our past presidents in So You Want to Be President? These titles all make learning fun and effortless through colorful, comical trips through time.
So remember, before you reach for the hotdogs and s’mores, American Independence is something to be proud of. As for why we celebrate this day, all it takes is one looks at America’s history to see how unique a country it truly is.
All of these titles and more can be found on the First Book Marketplace at www.fbmarketplace.org.
Wow, we asked and you responded with stories of some positively awful gifts! Thanks so much to everyone who commented; as a result, we’ll be donating 50 new books to children in need (one for every comment plus a few extra!).
Congratulations to A.C. Parker, the winner of our random drawing, who will receive her choice of an autographed copy of one of these great books: Linda Sue Park’s Keeping Score, James Patterson’s The Final Warning or Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the Thirteenth (just a small consolation prize to help make up for the “Beatles Edition” Monopoly game).
Thanks again to everyone who participated! And don’t forget to check out Books for Keeps for Birthdays at www.firstbook.org/birthdays.
Last Thursday, June 25th, I was lucky enough to join the President, the First Lady, and hundreds of Congressional family members to prepare 15,000 backpacks with books and other items for the children of servicemen and women. With the incredibly generous support of Random House Children’s Books and Disney Publishing Worldwide, First Book was able to donate 30,000 books (two for each backpack!) with a retail value of almost $250,000.
The service event highlighted ‘United We Serve,’ President Obama’s call to all Americans to engage in service projects and create meaningful impact in their towns and communities. The ‘United We Serve’ summer service initiative began June 22nd and runs through the National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11th. The initiative is being led by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency dedicated to fostering service in communities across the country.
Curious about the books the President and the First Lady helped us pack? Here’s the list — full of great choices for your own summer reading!
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and illustrated by Marla Frazee
Magic Tree House #28: High Tide in Hawaii by Mary Pope Osborne
Recently, members of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) hosted their sixth annual Surf Classic at Pacific Beach in San Diego, California.
Over 100 Pi Phis attended the Classic, watching on while dozens of surfers took to the waves in an effort to raise money for First Book to provide new books to kids in need.
The surf contest included both men’s and women’s brackets as well as a team competition. The all day classic also included a volleyball tournament, raffle, and barbecue in its fun-filled festivities. When the day was done, the event raised more than $8,500, which will support Pi Beta Phi’s literacy efforts and provide thousands of new books for kids in need across the country!
View the video below to see highlights from this great event.
Searching for that perfect gift for birthdays, graduations and other special occasions? Then check out First Book’s new line of Shop to Support products.
Find the catchy slogan “A Book Today, a Friend Forever” logo on a variety of products ranging from notebooks to Sigg water bottles, and golf shirts to baby bibs. A portion of proceeds from each of these products benefits First Book. When you purchase “A Book Today, A Friend Forever” merchandise, you can also help provide new books to children who need them most!
Browse through “A Book Today, A Friend Forever” gear and other products that benefit First Book at www.firstbook.org/shop and give while you shop!
This post is the last in the series of Rose’s Reading Round-Up. I am heading off to a new adventure, but don’t worry – Bookmark will still keep you updated on interesting book news with Odds and Bookends starting next Friday.
First look: What a weird ‘Wonderland’ Burton’s made USA Today offers a first look at director Tim Burton’s vision for his Alice in Wonderland movie, starring Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter; which is set for release on March 5, 2010.
Vote For The Best Beach Books Of All Time
NPR is creating a list of the best beach books ever — help make sure your favorites are on the list by submitting a nominatation.
Meet the staff members that make the First Book magic possible!
Name: Aesah J.
Where did you grow up? Manila, Philippines, Toronto, ON, and finally, Woodbridge, VA
What do you do at First Book? I help make sure that our registered groups are getting the books they need for the kids they serve.
What are you reading now? I’ve been working on Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta for the past couple of months. It’s a good read…I just have the attention span of a gnat.
What’s one fun fact about you?I try not to eat vegetables as much as possible, like a 7 year old kid.
What’s one of your favorite hobbies? Right now, it’s gardening…or making sure the plants in my window box are not dead yet.
What is one office supply that you can’t live without? Kleenex. Especially during allergy season.
Guest blogger Shellie Braeuner, a nanny in Nashville, Tenn., is the winner of the first Cheerios® Spoonfuls of Stories® Children’s Book Contest.The contest invites previously unpublished adult authors to submit their stories for a children’s book.Cheerios provides cash prizes to up to three winners, and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing reviews the top winner for a potential book deal.A book deal is not guaranteed, but last year, Shellie’s entry, The Great Dog Wash, not only won the contest, but earned her a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster as well.
Once upon a time, there was a very busy nanny who also liked to write and tell stories for fun. One day she read about a contest for previously unpublished children’s book authors and thought she might like to enter. She thought and she thought, but she was so busy that she kept putting it off. Then, on the VERY last day of the contest, she got an idea, went home, wrote the story, and submitted it in the contest JUST before the deadline. You’ll never guess what happened next! THE NANNY WON THE CONTEST.
Doesn’t that sound like a crazy story?? Well, I’m the nanny and that’s really what happened to me. I won the very first Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest after entering my story, “The Great Dog Wash,” on the last day of the contest – actually in the last HOURS of the contest. [Read more →]
I had the pleasure to travel to Southern California last week as part of the First Book team managing our Inland Empire distribution. It was two and a half days of Hollywood glitz, glamour, sunshine… and distributing 250,000 children’s books donated by Disney Publishing to many fantastic organizations in the greater Los Angeles area as well as groups around the country.
Among the celebrity “sightings” were Dr. Martha, Kellie, and the rest of the Book Buddies team who came out to support the distribution, and show us around the town. I was amazed to learn the story of how a family business of local health clinics came to establish Book Buddies, part of the Molina Foundation, a national network that builds libraries and puts books directly into the hands of children from low-income families.
Special thanks also to Lorraine, Carrie, Ozzy, and the rest of the staff of the United Way of Inland Empire, who hosted us in their warehouse, recruited overwhelming volunteer support (don’t we look great in our “Live United” shirts?), and somehow arranged perfect weather as we as we loaded up vehicles of recipient groups with their brand new books.
