Posts by Kevin M.

National Mentoring Month

Jan31
2007 Written by Kevin M.

Did you know that January is National Mentoring Month? This month, mentors and mentoring organizations across the country were highlighted for the positive impact that they have on young lives.

The Cincinnati Enquirer featured a story about three generations who were involved in mentoring, in which the successes of “mentee” inspired her to become a mentor for someone else. This mentoring relationship was made possible by “UC Med Mentors“, a program run through the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative and located at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

UC Med Mentors also happens to be a First Book recipient! Not only have they been granted books from a First Book Advisory Board, but they have also received books from the First Book National Book Bank, and have purchased books from the First Book Marketplace!

First Book is proud to support such wonderful programs by providing them with the educational materials they need to succeed. And I am especially proud of our support, because it just so happens that my mother founded UC Med Mentors!

If you are interested in mentoring a child, the MENTOR website allows you to locate a mentoring opportunity in your community.

Posted in Book Recipients

First Book… or First Video?

Oct04
2006 Written by Kevin M.
A TV/VCR box with a First Book sticker on it.

Here at the First Book office in Washington, D.C., we get a bit confused sometimes. You’ve heard all the terms before — Book Relief, National Book Bank, Literacy Site — and now there’s one more for you to remember: “Learning Libraries.” But wait… Learning Libraries don’t come with books? What’s going on here?

Two weeks ago, as part of our Book Relief initiative, we completed a distribution of nearly 1,800 Learning Libraries to groups on the Gulf coast that were affected by the 2005 hurricanes. Each Learning Library consisted of one TV/VCR (donated by Funai) and twenty educational videos (donated by Disney).

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Posted in Book Distributions, Book Relief

The Children’s Book Council Breakfast

May19
2006 Written by Kevin M.

The Children’s Book Council kicked off Friday’s events with the Children’s Book and Author Breakfast. The winners of the “Excellence in Children’s Bookselling” were announced, including DC’s own “A Likely Story”.

Authors Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson spoke at the breakfast to announce their new book, “Peter and the Shadow Thieves”. This is their second collaboration, having previously written the New York Times best-seller, “Peter and the Starcatchers”. Dave and Ridley actually met through their participation in the “Rock Bottom Remainders”, a rock band of authors that have been performing since 1992 to raise money for nonprofit organizations — $1.8 million in all.

Laurie Halse Anderson followed, speaking about the challenge of getting her book “Speak” published back in 1999. She railed against the classics — which were “written for middle-aged adults one hundred years ago” — issuing a call for teachers to provide teen students with exciting books that are more relevant to modern life. “You’re creating illiterate adults by feeding teens the classics,” she quipped. Her message was clear: Books can be a savior for troubled teens, and we need to do everything in our power to get them to read. Her upcoming book about teenage boys, “Twisted”, promises to be a dark story in that tradition.

Congratulations to A Likely Story and we’re looking forward to reading these books!

Posted in BEA 2006, General