International Book Giving Day

Friday 14th February is not only St Valentine's Day, celebrated by birds, poets and lovers since Chaucer's time and maybe even before that; it's also International Book Giving Day, the day dedicated to getting new, used and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible. GAB's own Adeela has written a blog for them about our work and everything you can do to help. So please do go back to Give a Book and do just that.

Living the story

Michael Morpurgo has again written affectingly about the importance of reading time for children. In an wonderful article in The Times on Saturday 7th December he reminisces about his own childhood and being read to by his mother and grandmother and through them acquiring the love of stories. In his ideal world every child would have that special reading time both  at school and at home. And every child would have books of their own to love, cherish and return to for life. He lists 8 books that he'd love every child to have:
The Tiger who came to Tea by Judith Kerr; Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Victoria Lee Burton; The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling (which was his choice for our GAB Book of the Month back in August 2011); Charlotte's Web by E.B.White; The Iron Man by Ted Hughes; The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson; The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde; The Man who planted Trees by Jean Giono.
1 in 3 homes in the UK have no books at all. The single strongest indicator of future success in a child is whether or not there are books in the home. So why not Give a Book to someone who really needs one this Christmas?

Thank you

We've just heard that Discount Banner Printing is going to support Give a Book with free printing of  leaflets. They generously do this for several charities. So a huge thank you to them for this gift to us. We greatly appreciate it.

What Books Can Do Behind Bars

Click here to read a full report about the wonderful work of Prison Reading Groups. We're proud to be able to help them-- thanks to all of you who make Give a Book possible.

Reading Groups and feeling good

The pleasures and power of Reading Groups are amongst many good things celebrated by The Reading Agency. Their Reading Groups for All describes again and again the sheer value of reading-- to cheer you up,  to challenge, to inspire and share. Give a Book gives books to Prison Reading Groups, to Maggie's Centres,  Age UK and anywhere else where reading makes a difference. We can only do it with your help, for which our heartfelt thanks. 

Thank you

Thanks to our generous supporters we were able to give books this month to some new recipients:  one, a mother and baby refuge where the books ranged from first reading books for children under two to a set of Roald Dahl classics and text books for older children told us that  "The children are over the moon."
There was also much excitement in the Springboard Room  at Harris Academy in Peckham-- the first secondary school that Springboard has worked in-- when their new books arrived from Give a Book. The children are really enjoying them, especially First Greek Myths and the Quentin Blake Collection. So a big thank you to all those who share our belief that to give a book is a transaction of value and enable us to do just that.
Now go back to Give a Book.

World Book Night

St George's Day, Shakespeare's Birthday and World Book Night are on April 23rd. We're thrilled and honoured that Give a Book has been selected as a recipient for books by one of the WBN Givers, Sage Publications. They have chosen 3 of our partner charities to receive a generous helping of books: Maggie's Centre, First Story and Age UK.  Thank you thank you to all at Sage Pub from all of us at Give a Book for thinking of us. And all power to World Book Night .
Now go back to Give a Book.

A Life with Books by Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes has written a wonderful pamphlet exploring, explaining and celebrating a life with books. He writes: "I have lived in books, for books, by and with books; in recent years, I have been fortunate enough to be able to live from books. And it was through books that I first realized that there were other worlds beyond my own; first imagined what it might be like to be another person; first encountered that deeply intimate bond made when a writer's voice gets inside a reader's head..." It was featured in The Guardian on Saturday 30th June.  A Life with Books (£1.99) is published by Jonathan Cape to celebrate Independent Booksellers Week and is available exclusively in independent bookshops. All proceeds from the sales of the pamphlet go to the charity Freedom from Torture. IBW runs 30 June-7 July. For more details go to: www.independentbooksellersweek.org.uk

Words in the Park

There's a new Literary Festival taking place in the glorious surroundings of Holland Park, London on May 18th-20th.  Words in the Park is the latest venture from the wonderful Ways with Words group of festivals. There are now 4 throughout the UK and they've been going for 21years. More power to them.

The Book of the Future

Here's a piece from the New York Times about The Book of the Future.

Uggie writes...

We've had a recommendation from Uggie the dog. "If I've yipped it once, I've yipped it a thousand  times, where Dog Stars are concerned , you have to take the rough with the smooth. Rinty is rough , I am smooth. All the same I generously recommend Rin Tin Tin, the Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean. Donate to Give a Book here.

Bookworm in India

We've been a given a lovely thank you present by Helen from Helping Elsewhere. It's a special beautiful book called The Wedding of the Frogs, and is published by Bookworm where children learn to love books. Thank you, Helen, this really means a lot to us.

Helping Elsewhere: Books to Mandrem in Goa

Give a Book is sometimes asked to give books to charities or projects other than our regular recipients. We recently sent out books to a school in Goa. Claudia and Andy took them out and now Claudia has written to us:
"We delivered the books to Mandrem school last Friday, so that the headmistress Jacinta could be there and Helen who runs the helping elsewhere charity.
...We took the suitcases to the library and unpacked them with the headmistress, a class and the science teacher.
The look of amazement on their faces was wonderful.
...About 20% of the books  have been given to [another] school, about 4 hours drive into the interior, up in the hills behind behind the coastal strip, where any sort of movement into the 20 th let alone 21st century is very slow... Apparently this little school has even less than the Mandrem school and the books were really [to] help the teachers help the children and provide some sort of starting point to teach from.
.... it was a real delight seeing their excitement when they received the books."

Slightly Foxed

Another excellent place with whom we have an affinity--Slightly Foxed-- has written very warmly about us. Thank you, Slightly Foxed. And all good things to you in the New Year.

The Reader org

The excellent Reader org has blogged about Give a Book. Thank you so much. They have a saying on their website: "You need it, you just don't need it." We're sure we have a natural affinity.

I prefer reading

Lyn at I Prefer Reading kindly blogged about Give a Book in the summer. Great photo on the site and quote too: "Some people say life is the thing, but I prefer reading." Logan Pearsall Smith.

Life Wordsmith

Lovely book blogger Life Wordsmith has blogged about us. Here's the link http://lifewordsmith.blogspot.com/2011/10/give-book.html

Thanks for your support, Life Wordsmith.

First Story: how they'll use the books

12-16 books supply a FIRST STORY reading group at one of our schools…This is all super-exciting…

http://www.firststory.org.uk/2011/05/20/give-our-students-a-free-book/

Return to the GIVE A BOOK website http://www.giveabook.org.uk/

Age Concern and Sixty Plus: how they'll use the books

The plan is to use the books in our new Friends and Neighbours project - a little book club, starting with the donated books. This project targets isolated older people with the aim of creating friendship groups….

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/kensingtonandchelsea/news--campaigns/projects/give-a-book/

Return to the GIVE A BOOK website http://www.giveabook.org.uk/

from Maggie's Centres: some quotes about the books

“The first instalment of books has gone down incredibly well. There is something very humanising about being offered a book. People's first reaction is not to believe they are allowed to keep them .. we have to persuade them quite hard that it isn't a library system... then the books have induced round the table chats (we left them in a pile on the kitchen table for a day and explained what they were for.. ) most people hadn't read the selection or only knew a bit about them but the fact they look so new and nice makes them very enticing.

There is also a sense of being surprised by the books. You are so overwhelmed by cancer literature both in hospitals and because kind meaning friends give cancer books to you that it is so nice to be given a book that has nothing to do with your illness but is for you as a person.“

“When you're undergoing cancer treatment you can suddenly find yourself with a lot of time on your hands. Being given a book is one of the best ways I know to escape the reality of everyday and move into another world.”

“Books are the best gifts and to walk into Maggie's and find a whole rich selection to chose from made my day .. “

http://www.maggiescentres.org/newspublications/latest_news/give_a_book.html

Return to the GIVE A BOOK website http://www.giveabook.org.uk/