We Look Forward to 2013!

I think we are onto something special here. It was wonderful to see how people from around the world celebrated International Book Giving Day in 2012.

If you are interested in joining the International Book Giving Day festivities next year, like International Book Giving Day on Facebook or follow International Book Giving Day on Twitter, and we will be in touch. We welcome your ideas and support. If you have a proposal or a special interest in getting involved in International Book Giving Day 2013, please email me at amy dot broadmoore at gmail dot com.

We look forward to celebrating with you in February 2013!

Pelican Post: Send Books Directly to Schools in Africa

Pelican Post's objective is to supply 20 copies each of various children's fiction books to classrooms in Africa. Pelican Post enables supporters to choose an African school to support and then send books directly to the school of their choice. To ensure that books sent are appropriate, Pelican Post has compiled a booklist of recommended books with African characters.

Pelican Post is a new organization. As a pilot project, Pelican Post has partnered with fourteen schools in six African countries.

To support Pelican Post's work, you can go to Pelican Post's webpage and pledge to send one or more books to one of Pelican Post's partner schools. Then, purchase the books, and send them to the address provided. Alternatively, you can donate money to Pelican Post here. Pelican Post is also looking for new schools to partner with and volunteers to assist with various projects.

Pratham Books: A Nonprofit Publisher Publishing Affordable Children's Books

Pratham Books, based in India, is a nonprofit children's book publisher whose goal is to help make children's books accessible to every child in India. Pratham Books publishes affordable children's books in a variety of Indian languages. Begun in 2004, Pratham Books has thus far published 170 different titles in 14 Indian languages.

For International Book Giving Day, Pratham Books has compiled a list of ten organizations in India in need of books. These ten organizations range from a traveling library to a home for abandoned girls to an under-resourced public school. For each organization, Pratham Books lists the types of books needed and the organization's address. To help, you can purchase books from Pratham Books or another publisher (flipkart.com sells books from a variety of publishers) and have the books shipped to one of the organizations in need.

See "Celebrate International Book Giving Day With These Organizations" at Pratham Books' website. Pratham Books is encouraging people to send books to these organizations throughout February.

Happy International Book Giving Day!

Happy International Book Giving Day to each and every one  of you giving books to kids today! It is a pleasure to have you joining us from Australia, Canada, South Africa, France, India, Ireland, Japan, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States (thus far)!


Things you can do today to celebrate!

• Give a book to a child as a Valentine’s Day present. 

• Borrow a book from the library, and share it with a child. 

• Rifle through your bookshelves for children’s books that could use a better home, and donate them to a good cause within the next week. Consider donating your books to your local library, second hand store, children’s hospital, shelter, after-school program etc.

• Identify a waiting room with few to no good children’s books, and commit to leaving a book in that waiting room within the next week.

• Donate money or time to a charity working to distribute books to kids. 

Today is the last day to commit to giving a book to a child. If you haven’t already, decide how you will celebrate International Book Giving Day, and add your name to our list of people giving books to kids for International Book Giving Day. See We're Giving Books above.

If you have the chance, take a picture of your act of giving. Send your pictures to me via email (amy dot broadmoore at gmail dot com), Facebook, or Twitter, or add them directly to International Book Giving Day’s flickr group.

Lastly, enjoy the photos and stories that people are sending in about their acts of giving. See Photos & Stories.

What are you doing to celebrate International Book Giving Day?

Book Aid International: Addressing the Need for Books in Sub-Saharan Africa

First, I want to share this video with you entitled Books Change Lives. This video does an excellent job of conveying the value of books to those living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Book Aid International has been working since 1954 to meet the need for books in sub-Saharan Africa. UK book publishers donate more than 500,000 new books to Book Aid International each year, and Book Aid International ships these books to school and community libraries throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Palestine.

Book Aid International does not accept used books because it has neither the warehouse space nor the funds to store and ship more books than it receives directly from book publishers. For more information about how you can donate money to Book Aid International, see Book Aid International's website. UK book publishers can learn how to become a book donor here.

Books for Africa: The World's Largest Shipper of Donated Books to Africa

The simplicity of Books for Africa’s work is attractive. Books for Africa focuses solely on collecting, sorting, shipping, and distributing books to Africa. It relies on volunteers to sort donated books based on subject and age level. After books are shipped to Africa, they are distributed to schools, libraries, and individuals.

Books for Africa is based in the United States, with warehouses in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Atlanta, Georgia. You can support Books for Africa’s work by donating gently used books. See Books for Africa's website for the shipping address and information about the types of books Books for Africa will accept. In addition, you can support Books for Africa’s efforts by donating money to pay for shipping or by volunteering to sort books at one of Books for Africa’s two warehouses. 

Botswana students read a book donated by Books for Africa.

Books for Africa is a simple idea, but its impact is transformative. For us, literacy is quite simply the bridge from misery to hope.  -Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary-General

Do you have a used book or two that you could donate to a good cause?

Two kids, Gigi and Mason, sifted through their book collection and found sixty books to give away for International Book Giving Day! Wow! It made me very happy to read about these two kids generously giving their books to others: International Book Giving Day: Getting Ready.

From Urban Girl, Interrupted.

From Books for Africa.

The contrast between the top photograph of a girl surrounded by books and the bottom photograph of six girls sharing a book is striking.

Room to Read: Working Worldwide to Help Kids Pursue a Quality Education

Room to Read is an organization with a big vision: A world where all children can pursue a quality education and contribute to their communities and the world. One of the main ways Room to Read works to achieve this goal is by establishing libraries so that kids have access to books. Room to Read also publishes children’s books in a variety of languages to ensure that libraries have books written in local languages. So far, Room to Read has established and helped maintain more than 12,000 libraries in 10 countries in Africa and Asia. You can learn more about Room to Read’s efforts to establish libraries here. 

Room to Read has chapters in the United States, Canada, Asia, the Middle East, Australasia, and Europe, so there is a good chance that Room to Read has a chapter near you.

You can support Room to Read’s efforts to establish libraries by donating money to their Room to Dream campaign. Alternatively, you can support all of Room to Read’s program areas, which include supporting teachers teaching kids to read, funding school construction, and working towards gender equality in education.

While Room to Read does not accept used book donations, those of you in the United States can donate used books to Better World Books. Better World Books will sell your used books and donate the proceeds to Room to Read upon request.

Let's do this...but with children's books!

30 Gifts to 30 Strangers by Lucas Jatoba

I love the joyful giving in this video!

Man's first responsibility is to be happy. The second is to make everyone else happy. -Cantinflas

Don't forget to share a photo here -- International Book Giving Day flickr group -- or here -- International Book Giving Day Facebook page -- or send a photo to amy dot broadmoore at gmail dot com.

An International Book Giving Day Flier

If you are excited about International Book Giving Day, here are a couple ways to encourage those in your community to participate. You can print off a flier and hang it at your library, college campus, coffee shop, concert venue, school, church, or other community gathering spot. You can also attach a book drop sign to a box and collect used children's books to give to a good cause.

Click on the following images to print!

International Book Giving Day flier (color)

International Book Giving Day book drop sign (color)

A black and white flier and book drop sign are available after the break.

The Book Bus

It is estimated that 800,000 kids in Zambia miss out on a basic education every day. In 2007, The Book Bus was created to bring books to kids in Zambia. The Book Bus is in fact a bus, decorated with Quentin Blake's illustrations and filled with children's books. The bus also carries volunteers from the UK and Zambia who enthusiastically read books, tell stories, disseminate books to kids, and help develop library spaces. Since its inception, The Book Bus has begun operating two more buses -- one in Malawi and one in Ecuador.

The Book Bus is currently accepting books for Zambia. The deadline for shipping books to Zambia just happens to be February 14th -- International Book Giving Day. More information about donating books is available at The Book Bus's website.

The Book Bus volunteers playing games with kids in Zambia.

For more: "The Book Stops Here" - The Guardian