$70,000 Worth of Books Headed to Navajo and Apache Schools

Reader to Reader offers a special thank you to SOHO Press for their generous donation of $70,000 worth of books for teens and adults!

The books are headed to schools and libraries on the Navajo Nation and San Carlos Apache reservation.

Reader to Reader's Hurricane Relief Effort Keeps Growing

Reader to Reader's hurricane relief effort keeps growing! 

Thank you to Christopher, Drew, Cael, Jack, and Kevin in Manasquan, New Jersey, for the 18 boxes of children's books they collected for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief. They are now on their way to Houston.

In addition to books shipped directly by Reader to Reader, we coordinate book drives across the country, enabling church groups, scout troops, and schools to contribute to disaster relief efforts.

Julie Gribble and Rocco Staino Receive Reader to Reader's Norton Juster Award

Congratulations to Julie Gribble and Rocco Staino of KidLit TV, who are this year’s recipients of Reader to Reader’s annual Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy.

The award was presented November 12th at the 28th Annual Children’s Illustration Celebration at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, MA.

Julie Gribble created (and Rocco Staino hosts) the first talk show that explore the world of children's books for kids and their grown-ups!

“A talk show about children’s literature is such a brilliant idea,” said Reader to Reader founder David Mazor. “And nobody can read a story aloud to children better than Rocco! We are so pleased to recognize them for their outstanding contributions to literacy.”

Since 2008, Reader to Reader, a nonprofit organization based in Amherst, Massachusetts that has donated over $50 million of books, computers and school supplies world-wide, has been honoring those that have devoted their lives to literacy.

Past winners are an illustrious group of authors, illustrators, and enthusiastic advocates for the special magic contained in books.

Winners include:  Norton Juster. Julius Lester, Jane Yolen, Wendell Minor, Anita Silvey, Leonard Marcus, H. Nichols B. Clark, Jerry J. Mallett, and Susannah Richards.

A Big Thank You to Community Bank!

Reader to Reader would like to thank Community Bank, N.A. for their sponsorship of our Read, Think, Share program in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Thanks to Community Bank’s generous support, 46 children at Alice Beal Elementary are reading and corresponding daily with our college reading mentors.

The innovative Read, Think, Share mentoring program partners students from low-income backgrounds with college student mentors. The students and mentors read books and discuss them online in a secure forum. Students have the opportunity to select books from a wide range of titles that suit their personal interests. The program not only provides the students with positive feedback and academic support, but also time spent corresponding with strong role models.

Reader to Reader Expands Navajo Nation Staff

Welcome to Martha Hughes, who joins our staff in New Mexico, as one of our two Navajo Nation Outreach Coordinators.

This year we our expanding our capability on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico in order to reach more schools.

Martha will be helping students at various schools prepare for the ACT, and will assist them with the college application process.

Martha grew up on the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, New Mexico. After receiving her BA in English & German from Coe College and her MA in Intercultural Education, Migration, and Multilingualism from the Karlsruhe University of Education, she's thrilled to be back in Dinétah. Reader to Reader affords her the unique opportunity to share her dedication to providing progressive education to Native youth through the Blueprint for Success program.

Our expansion of our Navajo Nation work is made possible by the generous support of the Fordham Street Foundation, the Hiatt Family Foundation, and Lynn and Jean Miller.

A Thank You from the Red Lake Indian Nation

Dear Reader Reader,

The students in Red Lake Schools would like to sincerely thank you for the 100 copies of the young adult novel, “The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things.”

I divided them up between the language arts teachers and libraries in different parts of our district; the staff was excited to save their own budget.

(A special thank you from Reader to Reader to author Ann Aguirre for making this donation possible!)

Reader to Reader Expands Staff

We are pleased to expand our staff this academic year with the help of AmeriCorps and Commonwealth Corps.

New to Reader to Reader are Olivia Rossetti, our AmeriCorps Ambassador of Mentoring, and Jennifer Kim and Ha Ram Hwang, who are in Massachusetts's Commonwealth Corps. Our gratitude goes out to Mass Mentoring Partnership and the Massachusetts Service Alliance for these opportunities.

Jennifer and Ha Ram are 2017 graduates of Amherst College, and Olivia is a 2017 graduate of Smith College.

They bring energy, skills and ideas that we so greatly appreciate.

All three are our working as our Mentor Coordinators, helping our Read, Think, Share mentoring program continue to expand. The program is now one of the largest academic mentoring programs in Massachusetts, working with over 1,500 adolescents as they participate in a year-long reading intervention aimed at boosting their literacy, critical reasoning, and writing skills.

Jennifer, Ha Ram and Olivia also aid in hiring and supervising the over 210 (and growing) college student reading mentors that are the backbone of the program.

WRSI Fills the Book Bus for Reader to Reader!

A special thank you to WRSI - 93.9 The River for their Fill the Book Bus book drive for Reader to Reader.

Thank you to everyone at WRSI for helping us collect over 4,000 books!

And thank you to all the famous children's authors that came read to children at the event, including Jane Yolen,  Jeanne Birdsall, and Lisa Yee.

And our special mystery guest author, Mo Willems, who read from his latest book, Sam, the Most Scaredy-cat Kid in the Whole World, which was hot off the presses!

5,000 Books for Bridgeport Children!

We filled a truck from the bottom to the top, packing in 4,000 books for schools children in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

This the eleventh year of Reader to Reader's Bridgeport Literacy Initiative. The program brings much-needed books to low-income children attending schools in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Reader to Reader Receives 5-Year Grant to Expand Navajo Nation Work

We are jumping for joy over our new 5-year capacity building grant we received to expand our work with Native American high school students on the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico. 

The grant will enable us to hire an additional full-time staff person to be based in Fort Wingate, New Mexico. 

Our goal is to expand the number of schools that participate in our Blueprint for Success program, which aims to raise college entrance exam scores, and guide students through the college admission process.

Last year, thanks to the program, students at Wingate High School in Fort Wingate scored 30% higher on their ACT exam than the students that attended the school in 2010-2014. 

We gratefully thank the Fordham Street Foundation for the funding of this grant.

Reader to Reader's Spring Book Extravaganza Gives Away Thousands of New Children's books

“This is heaven for teachers!” was just one of the comments that came our way as Reader to Reader held its latest giant book giveaway.

Teachers in Chicopee, Easthampton, Holyoke, Springfield and West Springfield, Massachusetts got thousands of free books at Reader to Reader’s annual Spring Book Extravaganza.

Based in Amherst, Reader to Reader gives away tens of thousands of books annually to schools and outreach program in the region including its annual spring book giveaway.

The Spring Book Extravaganza is in its tenth year, and teachers chose from hundreds of boxes of books supplied by leading publishers, including Scholastic Corporation and SOHO Press.

“As an English teacher this is an absolute joy,” said Kathy Gunn, a teacher at the Hampden Charter School of Science.”

Reader to Reader’s executive director, David Mazor, said “Our goal is to get books into as many children’s hands as possible, and we are so pleased this event gets bigger every year. This year we had 20,000 books from some of the top publishers in the world.”

Reader to Reader Gears Up For Giant Spring Book Giveaway

It is springtime and time for Reader to Reader’s Spring Book Extravaganza!

The annual event donates thousands of new children’s books to students attending elementary schools in Chicopee, Holyoke, Springfield and West Springfield, Massachusetts.

This year we will be giving out 20,000 books from a wide variety of publishers, including Scholastic and Pioneer Valley Books.

We are busy unpacking the boxes and organizing the books  so that schools and outreach programs can come in select the books that are right for their program.

This is Reader to Reader’s tenth year of holding the annual book giveaway.

A Nice Thank You From Students at Brightwood Elementary

A wonderful thank you from the students at Brightwood Elementary in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

Reader to Reader's book donations enable the elementary school to do "Book Your Vacation" book giveaways, which get books into kids' hands so they can read during vacations and summer breaks.

ACT Scores Soar at Wingate High

Reader to Reader’s Navajo Nation Outreach Coordinator, Jeannette Ortega, has been doing an amazing job at Wingate High School in Fort Wingate, New Mexico.

She teaches 6 classes a day focusing on ACT test prep and college readiness.

The results of her hard work are clear, as ACT scores have soared 30 percent since she arrived there two years ago.

The dramatic rise in scores makes more students eligible for college, and makes college more affordable, as more students are eligible for scholarships.

Reader to Reader Computer Lab is up and Running in Nigeria

The latest Reader to Reader computer lab is up and running in Idah Kogi State, Nigeria.

“We are highly thrilled by your massive support. You have enhanced our computer-based learning and thus acquainted us with lots of computer works/ In fact, your kind gesture will continue to keep our hopes alive for a better learning and future.  –Rev. Fr. Anthony Ojoka Ojotule
About the Computer Donation Program

Reader to Reader's Computer Donation Program donates new and refurbished computers, tablet computers, and e-readers. Computer labs have been built in the Navajo Nation, Hopi Nation, Massachusetts, New York, Ghana, Kosovo, Nigeria, and Trinidad & Tobago.

In addition, computers have been donated to projects in Bolivia, The Bahamas, Costa Rica, Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua, and other states and countries.

Exploring College

Students from the Young Parents Program (YPP) in Springfield, MA joined us on campus for a tour of the Amherst College campus, a visit to the Beneski Museum of Natural History, and lots of discussion of books and college. YPP is an alternative education program that helps young parents achieve their high school equivalency and begin planning for their next steps.

A special thank you to Amherst's Office of Admissions for helping us make them feel so welcome!

Books for the San Carlos Apache Reservation

We are excited to help build two school libraries on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in San Carlos, Arizona.

This winter and spring we are shipping hundreds of new books for grades K-12, and this will be an ongoing project that we will be working on for years to come, as greatly expand their access to books.

"Thank you, Reader to Reader, you have always been a great help for the Native Americans."

Donna M. Manuelito, M.Ed
San Carlos Unified School District
Assistant Superintendent of Academic Excellence-PD, Curriculum and Technology

Thank You for the IMacs and Books!

Dear Reader to Reader,

Thank you for the amazing donations to ArteSana's ESOL program this fall!

The iMac desktops are like new and have made a world of difference for our students, allowing them to accelerate and deepen their language learning.

Meanwhile, the book donations have brought so much to us as well. Everyone loves choosing books for their little ones! Having the books actually inspired some the moms to bring in books from their homes they no longer used, to share them with the other families.  It’s a classic ripple effect, started by your organization’s generous donations!

Thank you so much for your awesome work in the world!

Katy Moonan
Executive Director
ArteSana
Holyoke, MA