Books Are A BIG Deal

How important is reading books to your family? Every member of my family loves reading. We’ve been reading books to our kids since they were babies. At any given time there are about 50 books checked out from our local library. The background picture in the quote above was taken while my daughter was babysitting. Vanessa was taking care of a 13 month old boy who wasn’t feeling well because he was teething and had a cold. She scooped him up and started reading to him while they rocked. Even though he is only 13 months old, he sat quietly and listened to the story. I just had to take a picture because it was so sweet. But as much as our family loves books and are surrounded by them, there are children in our community that do not have that same luxury! Every child needs to have the opportunity to have something to read each and every day. That is why I am delighted to be involved in the September Champion For Kids SIMPLE Service Project: Nickelodeon Big Deal Book Drive!

I will be asking family and friends for book donations as well as gathering up books from my house. I want to give something to those who donate so I decided to make cupcakes and started with the cupcake toppers.

First, I created this printable with a simple “Thanks!” Want to make some of your own? You can download the printable here:

Thanks! Cupcake Toppers

I cut pages of an old book into strips, cut one side with pinking shears and folded the pages accordion style. I attached 2 of the accordion strips to make a long strip. Then, I attached the two ends to make a doughnut shape. I put some hot glue in the center of the doughnut and pressed it closed to make an accordion circle. Next, I hot glued half of a paper straw to the back of the book page circle. I glued the Thanks! circle to a green paper circle and then hot glued it to the book page circle. Now, I am ready to make cupcakes!

I also went shopping with Vanessa to buy some Nickelodeon books. We stopped by the Dora the Explorer Gymnastics event that I told you about last week. Unfortunately, the Dora the Gymnast book was not available yet at this Walmart but they were giving away gymnastics ribbons.

We went to the book department and found a couple Nickelodeon children’s books to buy. We wanted to buy as many books as possible to help as many kids as possible. So, avoided the expensive books. Although we did not find a Dora the Gymnast book, we did find Dora the Explorer and The Big Ballet Show.

After looking through the book department, we found more Nickelodeon books on a Halloween display.

Here are the books we bought to start our collection. We hope to have many more by the time I post again. I am not sure where I am going to donate yet. I visited the Children’s Hospital website and they do take book donations but they have to be published within the last 7 years. I don’t feel like I can be picky about the books that others donate so I am going to talk to the elementary school librarian to see if the school could use a book donation. If they don’t need the books, I plan to ask the librarian if she knows of a local place that is need of books.

Here are some facts from the Nickelodeon Big Help Book Drive project card:

• Students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math
scores. Students with more types of reading materials in the home also demonstrate
greater reading proficiency.

• 67% of fourth graders in the U.S. are reading below a Proficient level, according to the
most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress.

• 61% of low-income families have no books for children in their homes, and more than
80% of the preschool and after-school programs serving at-risk children have no
books at all.

• Approximately 8.7 million fourth through twelfth grade students struggle with required
reading and writing tasks in school. For many adolescent students, ongoing difficulties
with reading and writing figure prominently in the decision to drop out of school.

I would like to ask each and every one of you to donate at least one book this month! If you could donate a boxful that would be even better! Gather books from your family, friends and coworkers. Then, find a charity in your community that could use books for children. Stop by the Champions for Kids website and report your donation to be part of the huge movement to mobilize 20 million people by 2020.If we all work together, we can make a difference!

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