Literacy/Reading

Bookselling This Week is pleased to report that, after our Citywide Book Club list went online March 13, we received many e-mails from both libraries and booksellers detailing their own particular community book-reading efforts. Additionally, the Library of Congress (LOC), www.loc.gov/cfbook/, now has a listing of Citywide Book Clubs, and some community efforts were added or updated using information from LOC’s Web site. The result has seen the list expand from 45 different community-reading initiatives to 65.

It’s doubtful that either Nancy Pearl, executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library (WCB), or Chris Higashi, associate director for WCB, realized just how influential an idea they had conceived when they launched "If All of Seattle Reads the Same Book" in 1996. Today, over 50 cities, counties, or states have begun programs that encourage communities to read the same book at the same time and then to discuss it in numerous venues.

Now is the time for bookstores interested in participating in the 2002 Prescription for Reading marketing program to sign up and receive promotional kits, along with 200 copies of this year's book, Sylvia Long's Mother Goose, published by Chronicle Books.

For Get Caught Reading Month in May, Book Sense is supplying numerous ideas for booksellers. This month, expect the information about a "Community Wish List" program to help stores work with local groups in need of books.

The power of song can champion world problems in a manner that few mediums can match. Now, Deborah Pardes, a San Francisco singer/songwriter who in 2000 founded the San Francisco-based Songs Inspired by Literature (SIBL) Project, thinks music can help literacy programs -- especially if she gets a little help from her friends, independent booksellers.

The American Booksellers Association has announced a new partnership with the Pizza Hut® BOOK IT! ® Program and Chronicle Books in support of ABA's 2002 Prescription for Reading program. Prescription for Reading pairs independent booksellers with healthcare providers in an effort to remind parents and caregivers about the importance of reading to very young children.

In December, Scholastic launched a marketing campaign to promote books as a source of understanding, comfort, and connection. The "Read for Life" campaign -- featuring original artwork by Harry Potter illustrator Mary Grand Pré -- is a part of a continuing outreach by Scholastic in the aftermath of September 11, and it carries the message "Read for Comfort ... Read for Closeness ...

Last spring, out of the masses of books energetically offered at BookExpo America 2001, Jim Harris, owner of Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City, Iowa, found himself compelled to pick up and read an advance copy of The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout (Ruminator), he recently told BTW.

Book giveaway at University Hospital