Who is helping give out half a million free books across America on April 23rd? We are.
WHO: On April 23, 2013, 25,000 volunteers from Berkley to Boston and Sitka to Sarasota to New Jersey will give away half a million free books in more than 6,000 towns and cities across the country.
WHAT: World Book Night U.S. is an ambitious campaign to give free, specially-printed books to light or non-readers across America. Volunteer book lovers will help promote reading by going into our communities and handing out free copies of a book we love to those without means or access to a printed book. With the support of our local bookstores and libraries, we’ll be sharing them in locations as diverse as hospitals, mass transit, nursing homes, Little League games, food pantries, and more.
”The volunteer book givers are wonderful, generous and passionate people. World Book Night is not a random giveaway, but a focused attempt to reach people in communities who would benefit from the gift of a book,” said WBN US Executive Director Carl Lennertz. “Our volunteers give of their time and energy to seek out those in need, one by one, on April 23. It is a very specific and personal act of kindness—the sharing of a book with someone you don’t know—and we hope that more will hear about this and apply next year to be book givers themselves.”
The Bridge of Books Foundation (BoB) is very proud to be participating in World Book Night U.S., and on Tuesday, April 23, 2013, our group of WBN book givers will be spreading the love of reading, person to person, by handing out books to light or non-readers.
We have chosen 11 of the 32 WBN book titles to hand out, as we intend to reach out to young adults in Salem, Passaic and Essex Counties. How? BoB will get multiple copies of WBN titles into the hands of educators across these three counties – educators who have few classroom resources and face the daily challenges of teaching struggling students. Hundreds of students who often do not have ongoing access to books will not only receive their own book to keep; they will have the opportunity to read the book as a class with teacher guidance and feedback.
BoB recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and has donated more than 350,000 books to at-risk children across New Jersey!
The 30 World Book Night U.S. titles for 2013, alphabetical by author, are (Bridge of Books is distributing titles that are followed by an asterisk):
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (Anchor Books/Random House)***
City of Thieves, David Benioff (Plume/Penguin Group (USA))
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks)***
My Antonia, Willa Cather (Dover)***
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier (Plume/Penguin Group (USA))
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (Vintage/Random House)
La casa en Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros; translated by Elena Poniatowska (Vintage Español/Random House)
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (HarperOne/HarperCollins)
El Alquimista, Paulo Coelho (Rayo/HarperCollins)
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Ballantine Books/Random House)
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Bossypants, Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur/Back Bay Books)***
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (William Morrow Paperbacks/HarperCollins)***
Still Alice, Lisa Genova (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster)
Looking for Alaska, John Green (Speak/Penguin Group (USA))***
Playing for Pizza, John Grisham (Bantam/Random House)
Mudbound, Hillary Jordan (Algonquin Books/Workman Publishing)****
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster; illus. by Jules Feiffer (Yearling/Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)****
Moneyball, Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton)
The Tender Bar, J. R. Moehringer (Hyperion)
Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley (Simon & Schuster)
Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life, James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)****
Population: 485, Michael Perry (HarperPerennial/HarperCollins)
The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion)****
Montana Sky, Nora Roberts (Berkley/Penguin Group (USA))
Look Again, Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s)
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris (Back Bay Books/Little Brown)***
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor Books/Random House)
Glaciers, Alexis M. Smith (Tin House Books)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain (Dover)
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury)
Favorite American Poems (Large Print edition) various authors (Dover)
World Book Night will take place on April 23, 2013. World Book Night in the U.S. is a non-profit organization and has 501(c)3 nonprofit status. World Book Night U.S. is supported by publishers, Barnes & Noble, the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, Ingram Content Group, FedEx, printers, and paper companies; a full list of sponsors is at our website.
For more information about World Book Night, please go to www.WorldBookNight.org or visit us on Facebook and Twitter: www.facebook.com/worldbooknightusa twitter.com/wbnamerica
World Book Night and Bridge of Books would like to thank River Road Books for making this collaboration possible by initially receiving over 75 boxes of books.