PRESS RELEASE:
International Book Giving Day (February 14th)
International Book Giving Day is a day dedicated to getting new, used, and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible. Tomi Ungerer, Judy Bloom, Katrina Germein and several other great authors are participating. It would be great to have you participate too!
We hope that we can connect people from around the world via International Book Giving Day’s website, facebook page, flickr group, and work together to focus on a good cause: getting books to kids.
Three simple ways you can celebrate International Book Giving Day:
1. Give a Book to a Friend or Relative.
Is there a child in your life who would enjoy receiving a book on February 14th? In lieu of or in addition to a card or box of chocolates, choose a good book from a bookstore or public library to give to your child, grandchild, friend, or neighbor.
2. Donate a Book.
Wrap up a box of children’s books that your kids have outgrown and get them in the hands of children who could really use a book or two. Donate your books to your local second hand store, library, children’s hospital, or nonprofit organization working to ensure that all kids have access to books.
3. Leave a Book in a Waiting Room or Lobby.
Choose a waiting room where kids are stuck waiting and there are few to no good books available. Purchase a good book, and deposit your book covertly or overtly in your waiting room of choice. The goal here is to spread the love of reading to kids, so choose a fun book, nothing controversial.
Let us know that you are participating, and we will add you to our list of people giving books for International Book Giving Day: http://bookgivingday.blogspot.com/2012/02/were-giving-books-for-international.html
It would be fantastic to have your help with encouraging others to participate – especially others outside of the U.S. and U.K. Please, consider inviting authors, friends, and family in countries around the world to take part in International Book Giving Day.Let’s see how many people we can get to commit to giving a book to a child by February 14th!
Organizers: Amy Broadmoore and Zoe Toft
I already had a post earmarked to share with you from the wonderful Playing by the Book, and today she has another one – so here they both are:
Firstly, this great focus on children’s books from Norway, part of Zoe’s Read Around Europe – so we can look forward to more great country round-ups.
And today this wonderful post about last year’s New Horizons winner at the Bologna Book Fair, Do! by Ramesh Hengadi, Rasika Hengadi, Shantaram Dhadpe, and Kusam Dhadpe, with Gita Wolf (Tara Books, 2010). What makes this post extra special is that Zoe and her children have created a beautiful pillowcase using Warli techniques using the video of Do! from Tara Books, included in the post. Watch, read and be inspired – yes, Do!
Once Upon A Wartime is a family-friendly exhibition taking place at the Imperial War Museum London until October 30, 2011. Focusing on five well-known books written for children about war and conflict, the exhibit brings the books to life though stunning life-size sets, intricate scale models and hands-on, interactive displays. The exhibit is split into five sections – one for each of the books it explores: War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden, The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall and Little Soldier by Bernard Ashley.
Throughout the exhibit, visitors will explore the themes of loyalty, separation, excitement, survival and identity portrayed in the books. They will go behind the scenes of each story and learn of the authors’ inspiration through interesting and sometimes unseen items such as manuscripts, early sketches, interviews and photographs. Once Upon A Wartime also offers all-important historical context through expert interpretation and genuine examples of relevant objects including evacuee labels and letters, aircraft recognition cards and a tail fin from a German incendiary bomb.
Diane Lees, Director-General of the museum, says: “War has inspired authors of children’s stories for generations and we’re delighted to draw together some of the very best examples in Once Upon A Wartime. The Imperial War Museum is the museum of everyone’s story so focusing on these extraordinary fictional accounts of conflict is an innovative, and we hope successful, way of helping children, and adults, understand the experience of war.”
Zoe Toft blogs at Playing by the Book and visited the exhibit last month. Read and see photos from her visit here and here. Click here to watch a video of Hazel Brown, Exhibitions Researcher, talking about the exhibit and here to watch Helena Stride and Grant Rogers of the IWM Learning team explain more about the exhibition’s learning and events programs.
In August 2011, the Imperial War Museum will host a Children’s Literature Festival based on the exhibit. Authors and illustrators who will be taking part include Michael Morpurgo, Marcia Williams, Michelle Magorian, Jane Serraillier (daughter of Ian Serraillier), Martin Brown, Karin Littlewood, Bernard Ashley and Maurice Gleitzman. For those of you who live in the northern UK, you may be interested to know that the exhibit will move to the IWM North in Manchester on February 11, 2012 and run until September 2, 2012.
Zoe Toft of Playing by the book has two exciting initiatives happening on her blog that you may be interested in:
1. A Children’s Literature Tour of the UK – Part 1 and Part 2
A Children’s Literature Tour of the UK got it’s start when Zoe decided to compile a list of the various museums and centres for children’s literature around the world. “The part of the world I know best is the UK and then I got excited with the idea of a tour around the UK for lovers of children’s literature and illustration,” she says. “There’s quite an industry dedicated to literary tours but apart from one or two focusing on Harry Potter, I couldn’t find one dedicated to children’s books and so this post was born. Join me as we tour some of the best museums, centres, galleries and bookshops in the UK for children’s literature by clicking here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.”
“Here’s the google map to the European tour I’m currently working on and then I will eventually move on to a US tour and a rest of the world tour (will have to come up with a better name). Any suggestions (museums, galleries, bookshops, activity parks etc) would be most appreciated.”
2. Perfect Picture Books by Post
” This is all about sending and receiving wonderful, indeed brilliant children’s picture books.” says Zoe. ” It will be a way for you to spread the word about a picture book you are passionate about, and to discover another equally amazing book through a gift from someone else. Anyone can sign up (whether or not you have a blog, whether or not you have children) but when you sign up you’re agreeing to purchase and post a lovely picture book (something that in your mind is the ‘best of the best’) to your partner. You in return will receive a lovely gift of a book back.” Interested in signing up? Click here for the details.
With the FIFA World Cup underway in South Africa, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the children’s literature resources in that country. While surfing the internet for information on the subject I came across Zoe Toft’s delightful blog Playing by the Book. Zoe resides in the UK with her husband and two young, bi-lingual daughters and says her blog is “a review of kids’ books and the crazy, fun stuff they inspire us to do”.
In her recent post Catching South African Fever, Zoe and her girls read The Dove (Dianne Stewart, illustrated by Jude Daly) and then, based on the beaded trinkets and animals mentioned in the story, made their own beaded artwork. Zoe has allowed us to share her photos and her review of the book here but I encourage you to visit her blog to read the entire post as she has also compiled an excellent list of resources for South African children’s literature.
The Dove, set in the South African province of Natal, tells the story of Lindi and her Grandmother who are tying to make ends meet after a flood destroys crops and sweeps away many animals. They make beaded trinkets to sell in tourist shops in Durban but have little success until they decide instead of their usual keyrings to make a dove, inspired by the first animal on their land after the flood had subsided. Their beaded animals and people are a hit and now Lindi and her Grandmother need not worry about having enough money until the next harvest.
M loved the story because of the sewing/creating theme, J enjoyed the small details in the illustrations (which actually reminded me a little of Gauguin in their style), and I loved the story for its freshness and believability – it was a great introduction for my girls into (what seems to me) “real” South Africa, rather than a version you might find preserved in an open air museum (although it would be very interesting to hear what any South African readers have to say about the themes in this book). This story set in modern South Africa would be the perfect read before holidaying there – a great way to start thinking about the people behind the trinkets we might bring back from visiting there.
Inspired by this ge
ntle book I ordered a selection of African beads and buttons and M used these beads to create two pieces of art. We used some embroidery hoops we’d picked up in a charity shop, a large needle and some embroidery thread and then M set about designing her African villages and se
