BEA Officially Launches First Book’s Campaign!
May 19th, 2006
Jen W.
Last night, Book Expo America officially launched First Book’s “Literacy and Justice for All” campaign with a special announcement during Tim Russert’s keynote address.
BEA Show Director Lance Fensterman discussed the campaign in his introductory remarks to the crowd, and playfully encouraged BEA attendees to cast their votes for literacy by voting for literacy “…both early and often.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
Tim Russert, the engaging interviewer and host of the Sunday morning politico program “Meet the Press,” then took the stage and went on to charm the crowd with both intelligence and warmth as he discussed his new book, The Wisdom of our Fathers — a semi-sequel to his best-selling book, Big Russ and Me.
He said that he had no intention of writing a follow-up to his best-selling memoir of his dad, but after receiving over 60,000 letters and emails from readers who wanted to share their own stories of their fathers, he felt a need to pass that collective wisdom on to others. Thus, a new book was born.
Throughout his talk, Russert demonstrated a true storyteller’s gift for coaxing laughter and tears from an audience (sometimes simultaneously) as he reminisced about his own father, “Big Russ” — a man who raised four children while maintaining two jobs as a sanitation worker and a truck driver. It was fascinating to see this tenacious, hard-nosed interviewer tear-up several times when speaking of the gift of his father’s acknowledgement, or the love his own son, Luke, has now been able to show for him.
I left the hall feeling a bit like I knew Tim just a little bit more… and that I owe my own Dad a call.
Jen W.
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3 Responses to “BEA Officially Launches First Book’s Campaign!”
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chrislin payne Says:
May 19th, 2006 at 8:04 am
I have been trying to get books for my school kids for 9 months. We are in michigan. Books have been to expensive. The have not come anywhere near our school. We are anon-profit group and I need help getting my children books. Help.
Desiree Senter Says:
May 19th, 2006 at 9:31 am
I live in Orlando, Florida since I learned of this program we have not been able to get books for our students due to distance. We are a low income school who has a great need as we seem to get a constant influx of students from the northern states and we have helped other areas by opening our school to Katrina victims which has over crowded our schools. Not to mention our own problems with hurricanes. Orlando is an awesome location as we are in the center of the state so we would be an equal distance for other parts of the state come here, not to mention if it was during vacation time many teachers from up north come here for a break.
Chandler Arnold Says:
May 19th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Dear Chrislin and Desiree,
You should both register your organizations with First Book at http://www.nationalbookbank.org. By registering you will be able to apply for free books from the First Book National Book Bank once a year as well as purchase deeply discounted books from the First Book Marketplace–which offers award-winning books to organizations like yours for an average price of about $1.80 per book. The Marketplace site is http://www.fbmarketplace.org — where you can find amazing hardcover, board books, and bilingual books for up to 85% off the retail price! Be sure to check out the site and, if you’d like, purchase these great books for your program for literally pennies on the dollar. Also, be sure to let us know what titles you like so that we can bring even more great books to the site that are useful for your programs and the wonderful children you support!