SCHOOL’S OUT FOR THE SUMMER AND WE’RE GOING TO MISS IT!

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR THE SUMMER AND WE’RE GOING TO MISS IT!
~post by Meghan G., BookPeople’s Children’s Book Buyer

Now that pencils and notebooks are giving way to swimsuits and hiking gear, we wanted to take some time to highlight our favorite moments from school year 2013-2014. Between our book fair program, our free classroom book-talks, our author events program, our popular bookmark contest, and Words Across the World (our pilot partnership with AISD to bring book based curriculum enhancements into classrooms), we worked with over 90 local schools this year. And we had a whole lot of fun doing it.

AUTHOR EVENTS:
Over the past 10 months, we welcomed over 45 dynamic authors (including Tom Angleberger, William Joyce, Richard Peck, Erin Hunter, Peter Brown, and more) into 60 schools to meet with kids and talk about their work. And the authors couldn’t have felt more at home in Austin, thanks to the infectious enthusiasm of Austin kids and educators. So thanks for helping us give all these illustrious guests a real Austin welcome.

BOOKTALKS:
Going out into schools on a weekly basis, Outreach Coordinator Topher Bradfield made it into classrooms at over 80 schools this year to talk with kids about some of our favorite new books. Topher also runs our Literary Camps program, and where Topher goes, whimsy, magic, a little bit of mayhem, and an irrepressible love of reading are sure to follow! (So if you’re registered for one of his summer camp sessions, maybe you can get him to tell you about some of the books we’re excited about for the Fall.)

WORDS ACROSS THE WORLD:
And for something completely new and different, this past school year (2013-2014), marked our first ever partnership with Austin Independent School District to bring Laugh with the Moon, Austin author Shana Burg’s book about Malawi schoolchildren, into classrooms around Austin.

We worked with 40 area schools to offer curriculum enhancements in art, music, and social studies. Through this program, we connected over 3500 students with pen pals from Malawi, facilitated fundraisers for charitable organization World Altering Medicine to use in their work over there, and engaged kids in a substantive dialogue about what it means to be part of a global community.

We recently invited ambassadors from participating schools to come to the store, talk about their experience with the program, and Skype with some of their pen pals in Malawi, and it was one of our favorite events of the entire year.

MORE TO COME!
Stay tuned for next year because we have a lot more planned, including another curriculum enhancement program centered around Grandfather Gandhi, a gorgeous picture book co-written by local author Bethany Hegedus and Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi. We think it’s shaping up to be a whole lot of fun!

If your school would like to be more involved with any aspect of our programming next year, feel free to email kids_buyer@Bookpeople.com.

In the meantime, have a great summer filled with sun, fun, and family. And if you need any suggestions for some great summer reads, come on in and check out our Summer Reading Program. As we always say, “Give Us Summer! Give Us Books!”