Another Computer Lab Unveiled in Ghana

With the help of Reader to Reader’s Computer Donation Program, a new computer lab has opened at the middle school in Saviefe-Deme, Ghana, as a part of Reader to Reader’s ongoing Ghana Project.

Residents of Saviefe-Deme were invited to tour the lab and on the day these photos were taken the whole town was going through it.

Reader to Reader’s Computer Donation program is run in partnership with Amherst College and provides refurbished Dell Optiplex computers and iMacs to schools and libraries across the United States and across the globe.

The quality of the books is stunning!

Dear Reader to Reader Team,

The students here could hardly walk by the books you sent without asking for one, two, or more. How could it be other-wise, as the selections you sent are so engaging! As our literacy scores are not tops, it is truly exciting to see. I think your mission's intentions hit the mark here at Pinehill, NM.

The quality of the books is stunning. I know many of my art books are difficult acquisitions, as they are so valuable and expensive.

The classics and many of the high caliber books will find a home in our library, along side the many hard-covered books you sent. Our librarian is ecstatic! As it is, she grabbed the Native American titles and immediately put them out in celebration of our Native American Heritage month.

The paperback selections are golden and will be used as rewards for good academic progress. I had to defend them from many of our teachers. THEY wanted copies! Personally, it was hard to pass by some of the science fiction titles.

Thank you for all the work you are doing for the world's marginalized students. I know you are making a huge different in the quality of life and futures of many. You deal in pleasure and potential in the best of bases; warm, concerned, and beautiful human intention.

Thank you so very much! So very, very much!

Deer Maitre
Visual Arts, K-12
Pine Hill Schools
Pine Hill, New Mexico

Science Textbooks Head to Ghana Universities

A special thank you to Sinauer Associates, Inc. for their generous donation to Reader to Reader of over $20,000 worth of new science textbooks.

The textbooks are now heading to Ghana as part of Reader to Reader’s Ghana Book Project, where they will be used by students at Regent University of Science & Technology in Accra, and Cape Coast University in Cape Coast.

Sinauer Associates are publishers of college-level textbooks and educational multimedia in biology, psychology, neuroscience, and allied disciplines.

I always look forward to donations from Reader to Reader!

Dear Reader to Reader,

Thank you very much for the books that were donated to the Holyoke High School library yesterday.

I always look forward to donations from Reader to Reader. You know exactly what our students like to read.

These books have been entered into the library system and students have been checking them out.

Sincerely,
Ellen M. Stein
Library Media Specialist Holyoke High School
Holyoke, MA

Anita Silvey Receives Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy

Reader to Reader is pleased to announce that Anita Silvey is the 2012 recipient of the Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy.

The award is given out annually by Reader to Reader to honor people that have had a significant impact on literacy.

Past award winners include Norton Juster, Jane Yolen, Wendell Minor and Roger Sutton.

The award was presented at the opening reception for the 23rd Annual Children's Illustration Exhibit, which was held on November 11 at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts.

The award was presented by author Norton Juster (whom the award was renamed in honor of in 2009) and Reader to Reader founder David Mazor.

The author of 100 Best Books for Children and 500 Great Books for Teens, Anita Silvey has devoted 40 years to promoting books that will turn the young—and families—into readers. To do this she has appeared frequently on NPR, The Today Show, 60 Minutes, and radio programs in the United States and Canada to talk about books for children and teenagers. As Publisher's Weekly has said "It would be hard to find a more authoritative voice than Anita Silvey."

As publisher of children’s books for Houghton Mifflin Company from 1995-2001, she oversaw all the children’s book and young adult publishing for both the Houghton and Clarion lists, including such well-known authors and illustrators as H. A. and Margret Rey, Virginia Lee Burton, David Macaulay, Lois Lowry, Allen Say, David Wiesner, Karen Cushman, Linda Sue Park, and Chris Van Allsburg.

In a unique career in the children’s book field, Ms. Silvey has divided her time equally between publishing and evaluating children’s books. But her lifelong conviction that “only the very best of anything can be good enough for the young” forms the cornerstone of all of her work. Prior to her role as publisher, Ms. Silvey served for eleven years as Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book Magazine, a publication many call “the Bible of children’s literature.” As Editor of Horn Book, she read several thousand books a year, hunting for those of exceptional quality that children return to again and again.

”We are very pleased to recognize Anita Silvey’s passion for children’s literature and the key role she has played in helping others identify books worth giving and reading to their children,” David Mazor said.

Thanks for the books!

We are very pleased to contribute books to Reading Village for their important work in Guatemala.




"Thanks for the books! Just in time for me to bring them with me to Guatemala on Friday."
--Linda Smith - Founder and Director, Reading Village

Books & Computers Arrive at Navajo Nation!

After battling Hurricane Sandy in order to bring over 16,000 books and 12 computers donated by Reader to Reader to schools on the Navajo Nation, officials and volunteers from Reader to Reader and the Navajo Nation Library unloaded 400 boxes after completing the 5-day 2,400 mile journey on Monday.

The books and computers will be distributed to 16 schools on the Navajo and Hopi Nations.

In addition, thousands of books will be added to the Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona, and their branch library in Kayenta, Arizona.

Hundreds of books are also being donated to Martha Shelley, First Lady of the Navajo Nation, for her outreach work across the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation.

Reader to Reader founder David Mazor flew in for the unloading.

“I want to commend Irving Nelson for all his hard work. He is quite the hero. He drove through 1,000 miles of hurricane with the truck blowing all over the road, and encountered snow squalls and waves of driving rain, yet nothing stopped him.”

To date the Navajo Nation Book Drive, a partnership between Reader to Reader and the Navajo Nation Library, has delivered over 65,000 books and 60 computers to schools and libraries on the Navajo and Hopi Nations.