February 14th is already known through children's and YA book blogging land as the day that the Cybils winners are announced. (There's some other holiday that day, too, I think, but we're book people here. Right?) February 14th is also International Book Giving Day. The official site (see details here - this is a grass roots effort) recommends three ways to celebrate:
- Give a Book to a Friend or Relative.
- Leave a Book in a Waiting Room or Lobby.
- Donate a Book.
There's a cool poster, designed by Hungarian designer and illustrator Mariann Maray, just released for 2014:
I found this poster at the home of Amy at Delightful Children's Books. She is one of the organizers of this event. Other International Book Giving Day posts are up at Susan Stephenson's blog, and at Playing by the Book (also organizers).
I haven't decided how we'll celebrate at my house. (I give books to my daughter so often that giving her a book will hardly stand out). But I'll be giving it some thought. Meanwhile, you can follow along using the hashtag #giveabook on Twitter.
Happy Book-Giving!
Volunteers from Barclays Capital continued to give books and spread joy to students in the New York City metropolitan area last week. As part of their Investing in Bright Futures program, Barclays Capital volunteers visited PAVE Academy in Brooklyn, New York and announced that they would donate 2,000 brand new books to the school. On Tuesday, volunteers brought copies of Bunny Money, by Rosemary Wells, and Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride, by Marjorie Priceman, to read with PAVE’s first-grade students. At the end of the day, the first-graders were thrilled to take home their very own copies of both books!
In 2010, Barclays Capital will donate more than 30,000 new books to children from low-income populations throughout the United States. We are proud to work with Barclays to provide financial literacy materials and educational resources to children in need, as well as invest in the bright future of our next generation of leaders.
Operation Teen Book Drop
ReaderGirlz, GuysLitWire, YALSA, and publishers are dropping 8,000 new young-adult novels, audiobooks, and graphic novels into hospitals for teens across the country on April 16th, 2009.
And YOU can participate, too! ReaderGirlz invites all of you teen readers and YA authors to participate in Operation TBD. Help spur reading on a national scale! Leave a YA book in a public place on April 16th. Look at the joy you can share when a teen finds your book!
So what right now? You need a bookplate!
Click for bookplates!
Then leave a comment here telling us what you are going to drop in your community. Want to tell us where? Think about taking a photo when you drop your book. You can upload it during the TBD Post-Op Party, a live chat in another blog post that night at 6 PM Pacific/9 PM Eastern. You never know
who you might bump into…
Are you an author? Drop a comment here with your title and link to your site. We’d love to celebrate your work as you leave a free copy in your town! Mark your calendar for the Post-Op Party.
Spread the news about this blog! Report in now to rock the drop!
I don't suppose that this sort of thing is limited to librarians, but certainly members of my profession would take an interest in the prizes. DK Publishing is riding the publicity machine via
a contest. Whaddaya win?
GRAND PRIZE
One grand prize winner will receive 100 Eyewitness books* of their choosing!
(*based on availability)
RUNNERS-UP
Five Runners-Up will receive a set of the four new Eyewitness titles, plus a set of the eight re-launched backlist titles!
THIRD PLACE
25 Third Place winners will receive a set of the four new Eyewitness titles!
Eyewitness has its charms. Nobody in their right mind would ever use it as a reliable reference text, but for those kids who bat their long lashes at you and
plead for something ANYTHING on one topic or another, they tend to do very well. Go wild, pretty kitties.
Contesty-westy time, chickens. Editorial Anonymous has been commenting on the power of the first line. She considers tension, voice, sense of humor, cadence, and rhythm. Then she says this:
So here's the deal: send me your first line (or your first two lines, if you must) and I will post a select few to comment on. Send them to my email with CONTEST in the subject line.
This contest opens now, and closes as soon as I've had enough. Maybe tomorrow.
As of my writing this right now, it's still open. There's no prize as such, but it's a fun idea. It may be over by now, though. Note it.
From author Mitali Perkins comes the following contest:
In honor of my birthday, I'm emulating Bilbo Baggins and giving away a bag of my favorite savory, nutty, spicy Hot Mix and a signed copy of Rickshaw Girl. To win, you must supply the best 9-syllable last line of advice in one of two limericks.
Smart people that you all are, I'm sure you'll come up with multiple answers to her samples. Me? Not so much. Rhyming is best done when you're playing a game of Balderdash at 2 a.m., have had a touch too much to drink, and you've started rhyming all your answers with a kind of way-hey gleeful abandon. Or is that just me?
Speaking of Bilbo Baggins though, check this out:
I got this from
Saints and Spinners and I believe that what we may have here is the very first Hobbit home I've seen that I actually like. Especially if it was made for kids. I mean, when you compare it to
this and
this, there
is no comparison.
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Can it be a middle-grade book? I’d love to participate.
The book is “The Curious Misadventures of Feltus Ovalton” and the website is http://www.feltusovalton.com.
I bet they’d be happy to, Jo. To find out for sure, ask ReaderGirlz.