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Newsletter
Would you like to receive fresh reading recommendations for kids and teens from youth book clubs around the country? Are you interested in entering a contest to win books and other prizes for your book club? If so, sign up to receive our newsletter, Book Beat. You can also sign up for our quarterly newsletter, Book Bytes, for adult book clubs. Both newsletters have reading sugggestions, book giveaways, recipes and more for your book club. Enter your email address in the form at the top of the page, and then click “Sign Up.” Please note that your email address will be kept confidential and will only be used to send newsletters and updates related to The Kids’ Book Club Book. You can always unsubscribe from our list by clicking on “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of the newsletter. When you sign up, you’ll receive a confirmation message, then a second email with a confirmation link. Click the link, and you’ll be ready to receive our newsletter. Fall, 2007
We're pleased to bring you the introductory issue of Book Beat, a newsletter for kids' and teen book clubs. You'll find book recommendations and other ideas from book clubs across the country, contests to win books for your club, and more. In future issues, we'll feature recipes and activity ideas from authors and book clubs. Enjoy! And please take a moment to share news from your book club with us. Sincerely, Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp DCF Book Club of Orwell, Vermont, recommends: Grades 5-8 By These Ten Bones by Claire Dunkle "The kids loved the scariness and the thrill of the story, which relates to fears of 'things that go bump in the night' and of the dark. Parts of the story have a real edge-of-your-seat quality. The young heroine needs to make a very scary decision at the climax of the story and many discussion questions can come out of this dilemma. This book is relatively short and can be shared around the group for the month of October, culminating with a fairy tale costume party and book discussion around Halloween."
Journalist and novelist Masha Hamilton became intrigued with the idea of the camel library when her oldest child told her about an article describing a mobile library in central Africa. For over a decade, the mobile library has used camels to bring books to semi-nomadic settlements, areas plagued by drought, famine, and poverty, in northeastern Kenya. When Hamilton heard about the library's rule - if a borrower did not return a book, then the camels would not return to the settlement - a story came to her that ultimately inspired her third novel, The Camel Bookmobile (HarperCollins, 2007), about an American librarian who travels to Africa to work with a camel library. Hamilton researched the camel library and the region of Kenya where it operates while writing her novel, and after completing The Camel Bookmobile, she and her daughter had the opportunity to visit and walk into the bush with the real camel book library. "I realized how crucial these books are and how many are needed," she says. The books, written in English or Swahili, the two official primary languages of Kenya, "are spread out on grass mats beneath an acacia tree, and the library patrons, often barefoot, sometimes joined by goats or donkeys, gather with great excitement to choose their books until the next visit," she adds. HOW YOU CAN HELP: The Camel Book Drive website provides links to the library's book wish lists on Amazon and Powell's Book's websites so donors can purchase and send the books directly. "You can also send your own books," says Hamilton. "The readers love when someone inscribes a book. My son included his age and wrote notes to the readers. The librarians in Kenya say it helps their patrons feel connected to places only barely imagined." Children's books are most needed, and the Amazon wish list provides ideas. Financial donations are helping the camel librarians set up a small outpost library where they will base three camels and extend their reach deeper into the bush. Information on mailing books to the camel library, and photos and video of the library can also be found on the site. The Camel Bookmobile Drawing October Book Blast October titles: The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup and The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton. |