Many of us have ideas to bring about change in America, but it’s a challenge to transform that idea into reality. One way you can bring about change in America is by voting for change.org’s Top 10 Ideas for Change in America.
Ideas for Change in America is a crowd-sourcing competition that empowers citizens to identify and build momentum around a diverse range of ideas for addressing the challenges our country faces. From January – February 2010, more than 2,500 ideas were submitted and voted on by 100,000 people across the country. The final round of voting is taking place now and ends this Friday. The 10 most popular ideas will be presented to relevant members of the Obama Administration, and Change.org will subsequently mobilize its full community to support a series of grassroots campaigns to help turn each idea into reality.
Everybody Wins USA has come up with an excellent idea for change in America…To launch a national “Read to Kids” campaign.
Did you know that by reading aloud with low-income children, we can help bridge the literacy gap? To accomplish this, we need a national campaign that emphasizes the importance of parents, teachers and community volunteers reading aloud to children at least 20 minutes a day from birth through high school. Similar to the national physical activity campaign that encourages kids to get their 60 minutes of physical activity every day, we need a similar campaign aimed at encouraging kids to get their 20 minutes of reading aloud every day.
A national “Read to Kids” campaign could engage national and local literacy organizations, schools, teachers, parents, authors, publishers and nearly every sector of business and society that understands that our nation’s future depends on our children’s literacy skills.
Support Everybody Wins USA in their efforts to launch a National “Read to Kids” Campaign by voting at the link below. It only takes a minute, but the results will be well worth it!
René Colato Laínez is the Salvadoran award winning author of I Am René, the Boy, Waiting for Papá, Playing Lotería, René Has Two Last Names and The Tooth Fairy Meets El Ratón Pérez. His picture books have been honored by the Latino Book Award, the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, the California Collection for Elementary Readers, the Tejas Star Book Award Selection and the New Mexico Book Award. Laínez was named “Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch (and Read)” by latinostories.com and is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children & Young Adults.
His goal as a writer is to produce good multicultural children’s literature; stories where minority children are portrayed in a positive way, where they can see themselves as heroes, and where they can dream and have hopes for the future.
Mario is leaving his home in El Salvador. With his father by his side, he is going north to join his mother, who lives in the United States. She has sent Mario a new pair of shoes, and he is thrilled. He will need good shoes because the trip will be long and hard. He and his father will cross the borders of three countries. They will walk for miles, ride buses, climb mountains and wade a river. Mario has faith in his shoes. He believes they will take him anywhere. On this day, he wants to go to the United States, where his family will be reunited. René Colato Laínez’s inspiring story, dramatically illustrated by Fabricio Vanden Broeck, vividly portrays a boy who strives to reach a new land and a new life.
I’m honored to be a stop on the My Shoes and I blog tour and had the wonderful opportunity to ask René Colato Laínez about his inspiration and his own personal journey…
What was your inspiration for writing My Shoes and I?
MY SHOES AND I is my real journey from El Salvador to the United States. In 1985 my father and I left El Salvador to reunite with my mother in Los Angeles. I still can remember the Christmas present from Mamá. I was so excited to find inside a new pair of shoes. My father said “These are very good shoes for the trip.” And they were! My shoes traveled with me on a journey that I will never forget.
Years later, I told my story to my creative writing teacher, Phyllis Root, at Vermont College during my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She encouraged me to write the story as a picture book manuscript. At the end of the semester, I had a manuscript ready to submit to publishers.
What do you hope readers take away from reading My Shoes and I?
Everyday many children and their families need to cross borders around the world in search of a better life. If they don’t have money for the trip, the journey is not easy. There are many obstacles that these children and families need to overcome in order to arrive at their new destination. MY SHOES AND I is an authentic story and reveals not only my journey but the journey of many Latino children coming to the USA. I want readers not only to realize how hard the trip can be but also to have faith in their selves just like Mario in the story. Obstacles can be overcome!
How long did it take My Shoes and I to go from idea to bookshelves and tell us about any problems you encountered along the way.
I wrote the manuscript on my second semester at Vermont College on the Spring of 2004. I read my manuscript on the summer residence to a group of students. Author and teacher, Carolyn Coman loved the story and she submitted it to Boyds Mills Press. I received the famous call “I want to publish your story” on the Fall of 2004. The search for the right illustrator took years. It wasn’t until 2008 that my publisher found Fabricio Vanden Broeck to illustrate the book. We had an instant connection. Fabricio lives in Mexico City and he knows about many people who had traveled north in search of a better life. Fabricio asked for pictures of my shoes. It was amazing to see my real shoes in the art. He worked on the illustrations during 2008 and 2009. The book was released on February 1, 2010. It was a long wait for me, but I am glad that now I can share my story!
This book describes your long and tiring trip from El Salvador to the U.S.. Give us an idea of how difficult the trip was and how long did it take?
It was long and hard. My father and I left El Salvador the morning of February 19, 1985. We crossed Guatemala and arrived in Mexico City on February 22. Then my father lost his wallet. We called my mother and she sent us more money. The first time, the money was returned to her because she did not have the right address. She sent the money again, but the bank did not give the money to my father because he did not have Mexican documents. Then, my mother sent the money to my father’s friend. He was able to cash the money for us. In the meantime, my father and I were sleeping inside an old trailer. It was cold inside and I was able to see the stars through the big holes on the top of the trailer. My father and I continued the trip in April. The hardest part was to cross the border. My father and I remained on the Tijuana’s mountains for two days without food or water. Finally we arrived to the USA on April 14, 1985. My new shoes were gone. I only had pieces of my shoes, but I am so grateful they made the trip with me.
If you’d like to win a copy of My Shoes and I, please leave a comment below.
-For contact purposes, if you are a non-blogger or your email is not accessible in your blog profile, please leave a valid email address within the comment section.
-Contest is open to US only
-Contest ends on Friday, March12, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.
-Winner will be chosen at random and notified on Saturday, March 13, 2010.
Teen Tech Week, sponsored by YALSA (part of the American Library Association), is taking place all this week (March 7-13) and there are many ways to participate.
This week of techno fun is a national initiative aimed at teens, librarians, educators, and other concerned adults to encourage teens to take advantage of libraries’ non-print resources. YALSA has a variety of different activities and suggestions which can be found on their website. Teen Tech Week began in 2007 and has a general theme of Get Connected @ your library.
In the spirit of Teen Tech Week, Sourcebooks Fire (the YA imprint of Sourcebooks) is not only putting together a list of suggested activities, but they’re going to give students a moderated forum to showcase their work to almost 1,000 digitally inclined, teen fiction fanatics! Additionally, they will have the chance to win FREE BOOKS for both themselves and their libraries just by participating!
· Share a Book Video Contest: Are you the next James Cameron? Create a book trailer, video review, scene from a book or any other book related short video (3 mins MAX) and upload it to the TeenFire video archive for a shot to win FREE copies of any 5 Sourcebooks Fire books for you & your library. For contest details & tips on how to do this quickly (and for free!), check out the Share a Book forum on TeenFire.
· Mad Men of Literature: Put Don Draper to shame using all your creative & technological powers to design an ad to inspire your peers to pick up a book! Five winners will receive an 11×17 poster of their ad, with additional copies available to their library. A grand prize winner will also receive free copies of any 5 Sourcebook Fire books, as will the sponsoring libraries. For details & guidelines, check out the Mad Men of Literature forum on TeenFire.
· Pimp My Profile: Let your true colors show by customizing your profile page! The TeenFire network allows much more flexibility in picking colors, uploading graphics and posting videos than a regular facebook page! For the easiest contest to enter in all Teen Tech Week, design a unique profile page & enter to win one book of your choosing for both yourself and your library from Sourcebooks Fire. For details and guidelines, check out the Pimp My Profile forum on TeenFire.
· TeenFire Trailer Contest: The authors need your help! Create trailers for any Sourcebooks Fire titles and enter to win five Sourcebooks Fire books of your choosing for you and your library. Since many of their YA books aren’t out yet, Sourcebooks Fire has uploaded a few chapters of each title which can be read on each book group page. To register, check out the TeenFire Trailer forum on TeenFire.
Some additional resources that may be helpful during Teen Tech Week are…
Did you know March is Small Press Month? Small Press Month, sponsored by the New York Center for Independent Publishing (formerly the Small Press Center) is held annually in March and raises awareness about the work of independent presses across the United States.
The New York Center for Independent Publishing is pleased to announce that their 22nd Book Fair will help kick off National Small Press Month. It will take place March 6th and 7th, 2010 in the General Society Library at 20 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Registration is now open.
But if you need another place to celebrate, what better place than Indie-Debut 2010– a debut group of authors whose books hail from small presses! Join us at Indie-Debut 2010 for our own month long blogobration! Be sure to drop by each week. We’ll have new interviews with small and indie publishers, agents and other members of the publishing industry. And make sure to join us on Fridays for exciting giveaways–all with a Small Press Theme!
It’s time to Fish for a Free Book! Below you’ll find the links of some wonderful blogs that are hosting a children’s -young adult book giveaway.
For those of you hosting a children’s- young adult book-related giveaway, sponsoring a giveaway, or anyone who has found a really awesome giveaway that you’d like to share with us, please leave it here!
(Please make sure it’s children’s book related–any spam will be deleted)
Remember to post your giveaways as the one listed below. Be sure to include the Prize and the Ending Date as part of the “Name” in the link.
Name: Lori Calabrese Writes! – Rene Has Two Last Names – 3/07
Link: Link directly to the giveaway
Shows up like this: Lori Calabrese Writes – Rene Has Two Last Names – 3/07
Then, be sure to enter all the fantastic giveaways you find below!
Still looking for more? You can find even more book giveaway listings at these other great blogs: Brimful Curiosities–Full to the Brim Winning Readings (A bunch of giveaway listings including Children’s Books)
Many of us have ideas to bring about change in America, but it’s a challenge to transform that idea into reality. One way you can bring about change in America is by voting for change.org’s Top 10 Ideas for Change in America.
:
