I just returned from a whirlwind tour of schools as part of the Raise-a-Reader program in Penticton, Canada.
The program in this part of the country is spearheaded by Yasmin John-Thorpe, a tireless advocate of literacy in her community. In my opinion, Yasmin has created something truly unique, using her program funds to sponsor authors to come to schools to give books directly to kids. In fact, every kid who attends a presentation by the author receives one of those author’s books for free.
I journeyed to the Okanagan to present at four different schools over two days, along with author Kallie George. Boxes of our books arrived just after us, and we personally signed each and everyone—over 700 books! Kallie signed copies of her early reader Flare, while I signed copies of my Kendra Kandlestar series, including The Box of Whispers, The Door to Unger, The Shard from Greeve, and The Crack in Kazah.
You can see the stacks here; needless to say, we signed into the wee hours of the night.
But it was completely worth it. I visit a lot of schools, but it’s pretty darn cool when you get to give away books. It must be what Santa feels like!
One of the neat things about this series of visits was that I visited the school classroom by classroom. I brought poster boards of my cast of characters, which turned out to really provoke the imagination of the kids. I had plenty of questions about each and every character!
Here are some photos of my presentations in action, and some shots of some very happy children.
It was interesting to hear about Yasmin’s personal stories regarding reading. She remembers authors coming to her school when she was a child and giving order forms to buy their books. But coming from a family of nine, buying a book just wasn’t an option. These days, Yasmin’s determined that kids get books in their hands, books that are their very own, books that they can take home.
I think her concept is pretty magical . . . and I’m pretty lucky to have been part of it!
