Five Charities That Promote Literacy

Here is a list of charities that help promote literacy.  An important endeavor, these charities listed here are worthy of mention.

1. First Book: “At First Book, our innovative approaches tackle the single biggest barrier to the development of literacy – access to books. To date, First Book has provided more than 120 million books to children in need, increasing access to needed materials for educators and administrators, and helping to elevate educational opportunities for our nation’s most disadvantaged youth.”

2. Donors Choose.org: “DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on our site, and you can give any amount to the project that most inspires you.”

3. We Give Books: “We Give Books distributes books to children in need across 5 continents through our Charity Partners. Featured Charity Partners receive book donations from We Give Books on an ongoing basis.” 

4. Better World Books: “Better World Books uses the power of business to change the world. We collect and sell books online to donate books and fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than 8 million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.”

5. 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.”

What Kids Want From Books!

A surprising 73 percent of kids report the they would read more if they could find more books that they liked, according to a new report by Scholastic.

The Kids & Family Reading Report: Fifth Edition, which comes out entirely in January, examines the reading habits of kids 6-17. The research reveals that  70 percent of kids want to read a book that will make them laugh when reading for fun and 54 percent like reading books that allow them to use their imagination.

Different age groups seek different types of stories. According to the report kids 6-8 like to read books with characters that look like them and kids 9-11 enjoy with a mystery or problem to solve, whereas 12-14 year olds look for books with smart, strong or brave characters and 15-17 year olds are looking for books that allow them to escape.

Here is what kids of different ages are seeking:

54% say:  Let me use my imagination.

48% say:  Tell me a made-up story.

43% have characters they want to be like because they are smart, strong, or brave.

43% teach me something new.

41% have a puzzle or mystery to solve.

*73% say:  I would read more if I could find books I like!

Kids 6 to 8

Are more likely than older kids to want:books with characters that look like them.

Kids 9 to 11

Are more likely than younger kids to want:books that have amystery or problem to solve.

Kids 12 to 14

Are more likely than older kids to want:books with smart, strong or brave characters.

Kids 15 to 17

Are more likely than younger kids to want:books that let them forget about real life for a while.

American Teens Spend 4.2 Minutes Reading on Weekends

My blog today gives another glimpse into American youths' reading habits. In a study by the U.S. Labor Department, Americans between the ages of 15 and 19 spend an average of 4.2 minutes of their weekends and holidays reading.

The research revealed that 20 to 24 year old young people spent an average of 10.2 minutes reading during the weekend and 55 to 64 year olds spend 26.2 minutes on weekend days reading. 

For the most part, the average time spent reading goes up with age, except for the 25 to 34 year olds who only spend an average 7.8 minutes reading on weekends.  

The oldest Americans read for more than an hour a day.  These data include reading for fun, which may be why the student age population is low.  

U.K. Board of Education Cuts American Literature

The British GCSE exam board has dropped U.S. literary classics such as John Steinbeck and Harper Lee from its English Literature syllabus in a move to push for a more British-centric curriculum.

According to the new document issued by the exam board, “students should study a range of high quality, intellectually challenging, and substantial whole texts in detail. These must include:

At least one play by Shakespeare

At least one 19th century novel 2

A selection of poetry since 1789, including representative Romantic poetry, fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards.

John Steinbeck

The change has prompted criticism from writers and readers online, leading many people to believe that the books were banned. British education secretary Michael Gove has defended the move, claiming that the books are not banned.

 “Teachers are as free to introduce children to the brilliant writing of Lee, Steinbeck and Miller today as they were yesterday and nothing this government is doing will change that in the future,” he told The Guardian.

Although the U.S. owes much to the United Kingdom in terms of literature, past and present, I believe removing timeless books such as these from their curriculum will diminish the overall effectiveness of fine literature for this generation of British students.

Print or ebooks--or Both?

For those of us in this writing racket, the discourse on print vs eBooks will not subside.  Enthusiasts on both sides of the issue are always willing to defend their positions without wavering.  The majority of authors that I have talked to feel there is a place for both delivery systems.

In fact, within the past week, Harper Lee, author of the evergreen children's novels, To Kill a Mockingbird has given permission for the book to be released in eBook form.

Below are some interesting statistics concerning the rise of eBooks.  Have a look.

According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) StatShot report for the first month of 2014, publishers saw total trade eBook sales increase 12.8 percent compared to the prior year.

The report looked at net revenues for 1218 publishers in January 2014. The AAP also revealed that the Children’s and Young Adult category grew by 65.1 percent in eBooks and 53.7 percent in hardcovers during the month. Check it out, “The entire C/YA category, all formats, grew by +43.7% vs the previous year.”

The AAP chart embedded below shows total net revenue for January 2014 versus January 2013 broken out by category.

Paddington Bear is Back!

Michael Bond, author of Paddington Bear, is bringing back the children’s book character Paddington Bear in a new collection of letters written from the bear to his Aunt Lucy.Love from Paddington will be published by by HarperCollins in November.

 In the book, the Peruvian bear will recount his world travels and tell how he arrived at Paddington Station in London. In the book, he will also reveal how he met the Brown family and came to live with them.

Paddington books have been translated into 30 languages across 70 titles and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. He first appeared on October 13, 1958 and was subsequently featured in more than twenty books written by Michael Bond and first illustrated by Peggy Fortnum.

He is always polite—addressing people as "Mr", "Mrs", and "Miss" and very rarely by first names—and well-meaning, though he inflicts hard stares on those who incur his disapproval. He has an endless capacity for getting into trouble, but he is known to "try so hard to get things right". 

The new book comes as a film adaptation of the book is also in the works. The film, directed by Paul King and starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, is slated for release in December.

Michelangelo's Artistic Grocery List Gives Shopping a Whole New Meaning

Michelangelo, the greatest painters and architects of the Italian Renaissance and possibly of all times, seems to have taken his skills into his kitchen as well as his studio. His works include the David and Pieta statues.


Not only did he paint frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, his grocery lists are masterpieces as well.

Bibliokelpt has posted an imagine of one of the artist's grocery lists which included detailed text, as well as drawings to help illustrate to his assistants what to pick at the market.

It may have been fun to go to the local outdoor market with Michelangelo's masterpiece grocery list. What one wouldn't want to do, though, is cross out each item as it was purchased! 

Sixty-Two Percent of UK Young Adults Prefer Print Books

Here is some news that will warm the hearts of you authors of Young Adult novels.  It certainly did mine! 

The majority of (62 percent) of 16-to-24 year-olds in the UK prefer print books to eBooks, according to a new report from Voxburner.The report included responses from 1,420 participants who were surveyed them between September 25th and October 18th 2013.

The main reasons that the respondents prefer print are that print books are a good value, and that readers have an emotional connection to books.

 Fifty-one percent of participants said that they liked to hold the product. Twenty percent said that they are not restricted to a particular device. Ten percent responded that print is easier to share. Six percent said that they can sell a print book when they are done with it.

Interestingly, respondents picked books as the media they most prefer in print. Forty-percent of respondents said that they prefer physical copies of movies,  47 percent prefer print newspapers and magazines to digital, 32 percent prefer CDs to MP3s, and 31 percent of these young people prefer physical video games to digital ones. (The Guardian via Dianna Dilworth.

Though to this author finds the report not too surprising, what does the future hold for the youngest of children today and those not yet born?  That may very well be a different story.  As eBooks become more available and accepted by a majority of people, there may be a shift downward from the UK numbers.  Only time and human experience can answer this question.

In the meantime, let's enjoy this time when print books rule and look forward to the time when ebooks may be the vehicle of choice for words, thoughts, and ideas.  And if so, we can and will live with it.

What do you think.  I would love to hear from you, dear reader, about your thoughts and wishes on this topic.  Please let us know!