Let’s give away free books!
World Book Night is a global project that allows anyone to apply to distribute books to “light or non-readers” in their community. The deadline to apply is January 25 (next Friday!). Click on the link to the website below, where it takes about a minute to fill out an “application.” They will notify you via e-mail if you are approved, and you will choose a pick-up location for the 20 copies of a book that are yours to disseminate on April 23 – Shakespeare’s birthday.
http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/
There is a long list of books from which to choose your preference, including Tina Fey’s book, popular kids’ titles, and titles that you can ask for in both English and Spanish. I selected, in preference order:
1. Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, which is a Katrina story of local relevance
2. David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day, because he is hilarious and charming, and the candid and graceful way that his writing deals with being gay
3. John Green’s Looking for Alaska, for the young adult writer’s huge popularity among younger readers
Oh, and the books’ authors agreed not to receive royalties on the books distributed for World Book Night. What a positive way to encourage community connectedness.
Written by Whitney
1 response so far ↓
I agree that Salvage the Bones has some local relevance but the story is so much more than that. When I finished reading it I was not thinking about Katrina. I was thinking about the main character, a teenage girl named Esch and the rising tension of the book: the eminent storm–but a storm that somehow captures & transcends Katrina, Esch’s pregnancy & bravery in a world of men, and a new-born litter of puppies for Esch’s little brothers. The story will sweep you away and the writing is stellar. Sharing a Mississippi author for World Book Night is an honor. I hope you get it Whitney!
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