The power went out last night thanks to a lovely pre-Spring storm so I didn't have time to write my usual It's Monday! What Are You Reading? post, but I do have a quick, but fun post for you today.
Books like
I use We Give Books in the Media Center and encourage students to use it at home as well. I even made bookmarks for it. You can get the bookmarks here for free.
When you sign up for an account on We Give Books, you can choose a cause to read for. Every time you read a book on We Give Books, a free paperback book will be donated to the cause you have chosen. And right now, We Give Books is having their Read For My School event. From now until April 5, 2013 (or until 150,000 free books have been given away), you can choose Read For My School as your cause and register your school to participate. For every book that is read in your school's name, your school will receive a free paperback book from LeapFrog. You can earn up to 250 free books. (It was up to 500 last year, but this way more schools are able to receive books.) All you have to do to qualify is have 25 books read online. And if your school has more than 250 books read online, your school will be entered to win a visit from the ReadMobile. You can read more about Read For My School here.
Last year my school earned 289 books through this program and the kids were soooo excited to receive their books. If you haven't signed up to be a part of this great cause, I highly recommend it.
I was really looking forward to this promotion this year in my library after seeing the books they received at my daughter's school last year. However this year you will only get Leap Frog Books- which to me are mainly books that have TV and Movie Characters in them. I see this promotion as another way that large corporations get free advertising into schools and to very young, impressionable children, not to mention many of the schools that participate don't have the budget to buy books so these books go to the poorest children and they are the only new books they will be exposed to. I sent a letter to We Give Books letting them know I wouldn't be promoting this at my school nor participating with my daughter's school because of the lack of quality books being given away this year.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you feel that way. In my experience, the Leap Frog books have not been TV and movie related. We Give Books has several of the Leap Frog books available to read for free and those are not TV or movie books, unless you count their mascot, Tag, as one of those characters. Here is an example: Lead and the Lost Dinosaur It's likely that the books they will be sending out will be similar to what's on We Give Books. They were last year, but you never know. For me, it's worth taking the chance because I do work at a rural school where students don't have access to books outside of school and it means the world to those kids to receive books of their own to take home, read, and love. And I'm all for promoting a love of reading. =)
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