Help change the world, one book at a time!

The contest is here! You have a chance to be a Literacy Super Star!

This contest was inspired by my fabulously wonderful, and super great writer, mom whose name is Kathy Haynie, and by my daughter Kat (named after Grandma Kathy) who both are an inspiration to me.

My kids now go to Mt Pleasant Elementary, just as I did, and while it has a long and rich heritage of education fabulous students, it is not a school with much money. My daughter Kat recently came home and told me that the school needed more books, and since there wasn't any money for new books, she wanted to know if we could buy some books for the library. After I talked to the principal, she confirmed that most of the school districts in Oregon have almost completely cut their budgets for new library books this year, because the budgets are so tight. I imagine that Oregon is not the only state in which that is true.

With Michael out of work, I don't have enough money to buy more than a book or two for the school. I certainly don't have enough money to donate books to every school that needs them. I truly wish I did though, because I know that reading is a fundamental part of learning, and having great books to read helps motivate students to read for pleasure, not just for assignments.

I have talked about Oregon Stories in a previous post, and am excited that we have good stories and books coming out of our little corner of the world!

So, that is where this contest comes in. Here is what YOU can do to help me help our schools.

1) Buy some children's books!
Used books are okay, but the librarian tells me that they usually have older books on their shelves, and it is the newer books (published in the last 2 years) that they need the most. She told me that in the first 2 years a book is on the shelf, it will get more than 70% of its times being checked out, even if it is on the shelf for 20 years.

2) Donate the books you have bought to a local school!
Choose the school you want to help, and take the books in. If you want to check with the librarian at the school first to see if she has a wish list, that would be great. Our librarian had 30 books on the wish list from books kids had requested that the library didn't have.

3) Repeat as often as you are able!
This contest is going to go until June 1st, so you have lots of time to donate as many books as you can!

So, you ask, what can you win if you participate?

An autographed copy of the Oregon Stories book of course!
Or you might win the $10 gift card to Powell's Books!
If we happen to get over 100 books donated, I will draw for a second copy of Oregon Stories!

How do you get entries into the drawing for these fabulous prizes?

1) For each 2 books you donate, you get an entry.
Please put the titles of the two books in a comment to this blog post, and we will get you in. If you donate 20 books, please make 10 comments each with the name of the two books for that entry! It would be great if you would tell us which school you donated the books to, but that isn't required!


2) Make a blog post, twitter feed, or Facebook status update with a link to this blog, and then leave a comment so that I know you did it. (If you are doing a Facebook update, please leave it up for at least a day so that as many people as possible see it!)


3) Buy a copy of Oregon Stories, and post a comment that you did and what your favorite story from the book was.


4) Buy books and have them shipped to me and I will donate them for you.
I know some people would rather just buy the books. For any books that are shipped to me, I will distribute them to the three closest grade schools to where we live. Once you have ordered them, just leave a comment on this post telling me the titles of the books you ordered. Remember to leave a comment for every two books you ordered, if you order more than two. Email me at koponick@comcast.net and I will give you my snail mail address for mailing the books.


Here are a few great sites for ordering books, if you want some inspiration:
www.powells.com
www.half.com
www.amazon.com
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/parentsHome.jsp?ESP=PAR/ib/20091014/eng/parents_corpMainLink///corphp/txtl////

I have ordered from all of these sites and been happy with the prices, the shipping options and the range of books.

I will be drawing one name for an autographed copy of Oregon Stories on June 2nd. All comments should be left by midnight on June 1st! (If we can get over 100 books donated, I will draw for a second winner to receive an autographed copy.) I will also be drawing for a $10.00 gift card to Powell's Books.