A Picture
by Stacey
is worth a thousand words. This night stand used to be covered with Pokemon cards, dirty socks and a Nintendo DS. Now look at it! Although it is starting to look like a hoarder lives in his room it is still a great sight to see. He has 6-7 books going at one time depending on his “mood” and this morning I literally heard myself say “Andrew, put the book down and eat your breakfast!” Who is this kid???-Andrew’s Mom
About a year ago, I auctioned off a type of “Book of the Month Club” at a local event. Andrew’s grandmother bid on my my item and a relationship was born. Every month, I e-mail Andrew and Addie’s mom and get updates on their reading levels and what books have captured their attention over the past month. Then I put on my thinking cap, browse my bookshelves and the library and of course, my favorite blogs. I follow up with an e-mail to Andrew and Addie’s mom with a list of suggestions. She responds with what the kids may have already read and then I put together a package for each of them.
Word (and picture!) has it that Andrew and Addie will often open their packages and start reading right away. Sometimes it is even hard to get them to stop reading. See below for Addie reading through a baseball game…
Needless to say, this relationship is a win-win. I get to do what I love best: talk about books and kids, search for great new titles and put books in the hands of readers. And Andrew and Addie get to open packages once a month filled with new titles hand picked just for them.
What could be better than all of that?
This is wonderful. Stace, what a fabulous idea! XO Gloria
And Andrew and Addie’s Grandy and Papa get to be heroes every month! Best gift we ever gave them… and it just keeps giving.
Then when we visit, we read the latest books they received together so we know what they are enjoying. I think every book has been a winner and we now have two dedicated readers on our hands.
Thanks so much Stacey.
Wow! What a great prize you offered – it’s inspirational. You actually send copies of the books you finally choose, not just a reading list? I’d love to know more of the mechanics of this – sg I might like to reproduce. If you could email me Stacey I’d really appreciate it!
That is great, Stacey! So glad that it’s been a success (though not surprised). I think the key is the amount of work that you and Andrew and Addie’s family do to make sure that the books you select are good choices for them. Tough to replicate something like that on a large scale, but so perfect on the individual family level.
[…] that I had seen the sign outside of a school in a neighboring town. This friend also happens to the grandmother of the little ones who receive a book from me each month. This is a part of what I love about being a reader. That […]