How to use this Page

As we get ready to Rock the Drop on Thursday, the 17th, here's a list of seven philanthropies you might look into. Get your book ready to drop with a bookplate and think how else you might contribute to Support Teen Literature Day!

Operation Teen Book Drop, 2014 – Seven Literary Philanthropies We Love

1. Girls Write Now
Founded in 1998, Girls Write Now is the first organization in the country with a writing and mentoring model exclusively for girls. Girls Write Now provides guidance, support, and opportunities for at-risk and underserved girls from New York City’s public high schools to develop their creative, independent voices, explore careers in professional writing, and learn how to make healthy school, career and life choices.

2. First Book
A recognized leader in social enterprise, First Book has pioneered groundbreaking channels to provide new books and educational resources at deeply reduced prices — and for free — to schools and programs serving children in need.

3. 826 National
826 National is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic leadership, administration, and other resources to ensure the success of its network of eight writing and tutoring centers. Its mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

4. The Lisa Libraries
The Lisa Libraries donates new children's books and small libraries to organizations that work with kids in poor and under-served areas. It was started by author Ann M. Martin and friends to honor and memorialize children's book editor Lisa Novak. Since its founding in 1990, the Lisa Libraries has contributed over 300,000 books to nonprofit organizations across the country.

5. Room to Read
Room to Read works in collaboration with communities and local governments across Asia and Africa to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond.

6. Reading is Fundamental
Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is the largest children’s literacy nonprofit in the United States. It prepares and motivates children to read by delivering free books and literacy resources to those children and families who need them most. RIF inspires children to be lifelong readers through the power of choice.

7. World Literacy Foundation
The World Literacy Foundation is an independent not-for-profit charitable body, founded in Australia in 2003 that acknowledges education as a basic human right, and believes that literacy unlocks the door to a life of learning.

The second season of Chapters, the reading series I curate for Girls Write Now, begins this Friday, March 25, when our delightful first guest, writer and mentor Emma Straub, reads from her new story collection, Other People We Married. Join us at 7 p.m. at the historic John Street Church (no affiliation).

Coming up: Anna North, America Pacifica, on April 29; Tayari Jones, Silver Sparrow, on May 20; and Kate Christensen, The Astral, on June 17.

The first installment of Chapters, the Girls Write Now reading series I’m curating, will feature the talented Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of the new novel Wench.

She’ll be introduced by my friend and fellow board member Tayari Jones. After Dolen’s guest reading, several of the girls will share their own work. The event is this Friday at the Center for Fiction, 6 p.m., and we’d love to see you there.

Below, in the spirit of the evening, Perkins-Valdez reminisces about books she read in her youth. You can also listen to her discussing

I grew up in a world that predated mega-bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders. We did not spend our weekends exploring the library or checking out the new releases shelf.

As a result, when I am asked about books I read growing up, I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I never read any classics of children’s literature. Black Beauty? No. Little Women? No. But the one place I did go every week was the supermarket.

My mother spent many hours shopping for the family each week, and she did not mind if I threw a book in the cart. So I grew up reading all kinds of trashy fiction. I devoured the books voraciously, sometimes in a single night. Through them, I developed a love of reading.
 

Later, I moved on to Terry McMillan, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison. That is why when people ask me what I think about “urban fiction” versus “serious fiction,” I hesitate to feed the hierarchical distinction. I know from experience that any kind of fiction can act as a “gateway drug” to another kind. I believe the important thing is that young people read!

I want to introduce my daughter to all kinds of fiction, and through the exposure, let her discover that which speaks to her most.

Many thanks to artist Michael Fusco for the striking Chapters flyer.

Last year I joined the board of Girls Write Now, a nonprofit organization that pairs at-risk teen girls with professional writers who support them. The pairs meet regularly, alone and in groups, and the girls who finish the program all go on to college.

Amalie, for instance, broke down a little in her first reading (until the other mentees rushed in — video below), sailed through the second (also below), and has just finished her first semester at Smith College.
 

Girls Write Now has continued to flourish this year despite an economic climate that is as challenging for nonprofits as it is for everyone else. In November, our director, Maya Nussbaum, traveled to Washington, D.C., with third-year mentee Tina Gao to receive the Coming Up Taller Award from First Lady Michelle Obama. (Video above.)

But most of our support comes in small increments from individuals like you. Right now we’re just a little bit short of our $50,000 holiday fundraising goal. I know things are tight all over, but if you have a little to give, please do. And a million thanks to all who’ve donated in the past.
 

A multicultural background provides rich material for an aspiring writer. That is, if you get the encouragement and information you need to get started writing at all.

Girls Write Now, a New York City-based non-profit, is an incubator for multicultural writers. The organization, founded in 1998, teams young women who want to be writers with women authors, journalists, playwrights, poets and editors in a program that annually produces an anthology of student writing and several public readings.

Girls Write Now works with disadvantaged girls 13 to 20 years old, about 40 percent of whom are immigrants; most of their parents don’t speak English and often they are the first in their families to apply for college. A program of classes and tutorial guides, Girls College Bound, assists high school juniors and seniors with the often onerous college application process.

Here’s a New York Times article featuring personal stories of these young writers and their mentors. Here’s an interview with founder and director Maya Nussbaum. If you’re New York-based, and want to volunteer to help with the program, click here.

Hats off to Girls Write Now for their inspiring, dedicated work. Perhaps some multicultural books for children will emerge from the program!

Author: Dayle Ann Dodds (on JOMB)
Illustrator: Abby Carter (on JOMB)
Published: 2007 Candlewick Press (on JOMB)
ISBN: 0763624683 Chapters.ca Amazon.com

Cheerfully wobbly illustrations combine with rhyme, repetition and a cast of colourful characters to make this sneaky introduction to fractions a read-aloud hit.

Other books mentioned:

• Minnie’s Diner: A Multiplying Menu
• Sleeping Dragons All Around

Poetry Fridays are brought to us by Kelly Herold of Big A, Little A.