The day was bustling with activity for Sherri Foreman.
New inventory, some guest authors and a wave of excited kids swept through her library at the Muckleshoot Tribal School.
She could only smile.
“It’s exciting. It’s fun,” Foreman said as students carefully set up display tables arranged with newly arrived books while others perused the wide selection. “I just hope they share their books with me.”
Foreman, a teacher and librarian, reads as much as she can. But she can’t possibly keep up with the swish of new literature her eager kids received last week. She likes to read the same books her students do in order to share the plots and characters – all to encourage the joy of reading.
Local authors and founders of the online book community, www.readergirlz.com, distributed more than 300 books to middle and high school students at the Muckleshoot Tribal School last Thursday.
The tribal school was one of the many destinations of Operation Teen Book Drop, a national campaign by librarians, young adult authors and avid readers to spur literacy. Operation TBD delivered 10,000 new books to teens on Native reservations and tribal lands across the country, an event that coincided with Support Teen Literature Day.
Local authors and their respective publishers donated copies of their latest works. The kids quickly scooped them up.
“The publishers have been amazingly gracious, especially in this economy,” said Dia Calhoun, of Tacoma, co-founder and publisher liaison for readergirlz and an award-winning author herself.
Nationally, publishers donated books valued at more than $175,000.
“Operation TBD was originally conceived with the hope of reaching a number of teen groups,” said Lorie Ann Grover, readergirlz co-founder and young adult author, who donated copies of her latest book, “On Pointe”, to the cause. “While we donated books to hospitalized teens for two years, I was personally compelled to donate books to the local Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.”
Orchestrated publishers’ donations of nearly 20,000 new young adult books have reached hospitalized teens across the country. But this year, If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything – a national reading club for Native children – joined forces with three organizations to drop more than 10,000 new young-adult books into the hands of Native teens.
“These are the teens who need the solace of stories the most,” said Justina Chen, a visiting author. “Books empower youth.”
In addition, more than 100 top young adult authors throughout the nation will leave their books in public places for young readers to discover, and members of the public can buy books online and have them shipped to tribal libraries.
The effort was coordinated by readergirlz, the Young Adult Library Services Association, GuysLitWire, and If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything.
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For more information about the organizations and the latest campaign, visit the If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything home page at www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ifican, the YALSA at www.ala.org/yalsa, and
GuysLitWire at http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com.
