We can rely on you every year to give us a fresh injection of literature!

Dear Reader To Reader,

Thank you so much for your annual contribution of books to our school. The books have been used to augment the classroom libraries and the school library, and we were even able to give books to parents so their children will have books to read at home. We really appreciate the program, and that we can rely on you every year to give us a fresh injection of literature!

Thanks again, we really appreciate your program.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Luff, E.L.A. teacher
William N. DeBerry Elementary School
Springfield, MA

Doris Hiatt Mentoring Program Doubles in Size

Enthusiastic Amherst College students from diverse backgrounds gathered together as Reader To Reader launched the third year of the Doris Hiatt Mentoring Program.

The Doris Hiatt Mentoring Program has more than doubled in size again for the 2009-2010 school year. The online mentoring program began in 2008 with 7 mentors. In 2009, 17 mentors were hired as three new schools joined the program, and for the 2009-2010 school year over 40 mentors will help students across the country explore books, build academic skills, and develop a love for reading.

The innovative mentoring program brings together children from low-income backgrounds and college student reading mentors to read books and discuss them online in a specially designed forum. The students not only receive positive feedback and academic support, but also much-needed role models.

Jim Trelease, noted literacy advocate and author of The Read-Aloud Handbook has been a strong supporter of the program.

"With online connections now present in most urban schools, we've got one half of the personal 'mentoring' program in place. David Mazor's Reader To Reader project now completes the formula, providing top-notch college students as mentors via the Web and email.” Trelease explains. “What the program accomplished with motivating Native-American youths while connecting them to college-age mentors 3,000 miles away is one of those unsung success stories that deserves national recognition. It begs the question: Why isn't it being adopted by other cities and rural districts across the nation?"

It is always nice to add new books to our collection

Dear Reader To Reader:

Thank you so much for the donation of books to our library. It is always nice to add new books to our collection, and one of our English teachers is keeping the advanced reader copies in her classroom for the students to read. We appreciate your generosity!

Sincerely,

Ellen Stein
Librarian
Holyoke High School
Holyoke, MA

New Orleans Children Go Back To School with Elephant & Piggie!

Caldecott Award winning children’s author Mo Willems has teamed with Reader To Reader to make back to school a special time for the children of New Orleans.

Thousands of first and second grade students of New Orleans’s public schools are getting their own personal copies of Willems’s delightful Elephant & Piggie books and The Pigeon Wants a Puppy as they begin their school year.

Reader To Reader is working with the Recovery School District to distribute Willem’s books to all the elementary schools.

The Recovery School District was created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to rebuild the schools destroyed by the devastating 2005 hurricane.

Troy Peloquin of the Recovery School District was delighted to have the donation.

“Love it! Love it! The teachers adore it! It’s a really fun project,” Peloquin notes.

Author and illustrator Mo Willems grew-up in New Orleans and is looking to make a long-term commitment to the children of New Orleans. He shared his motives for making such a large donation.

"I suppose there was a confluence of being a native New Orleanian, having discovered that having books in the home is a determining factor in later educational success, and the waves of Katrina washing away some of my complacency,” Willems says. “I'd sent books to three schools the year before, so including more schools seemed a logical step towards a small gesture that I hope to continue for decades."

Mo has a heart as big as all of Louisiana!” says Reader To Reader executive director David Mazor. “He has done something truly special for these children.”

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just received 5 boxes of books from you. I am putting approximately three boxes worth into the library and giving the other two to the students, so they can take them home.

I thank you, my students thank you!!!

Christine Demski, Librarian
Mary M. Walsh Elementary School
Springfield, MA