FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Seventh Grade Austin Blogger’s Campaign will Donate 250 Books to Travis Heights Elementary   May 5, 2015, AUSTIN, TX – ForeverBookish.com, a young adult book review and blog website run by Austin seventh-grader Xander Christou, today announced that it will distribute more than 250 books to Travis Heights Elementary on Wednesday, raised by its Hooked by Books campaign in partnership with several publishers.   Christou, of Fulmore Middle School, has found a way to share his love of all things bookish with the students at Travis Heights Elementary School. He launched his blog’s Hooked by Books campaign earlier this year to challenge local Austin kids to read for fun. The young blogger has since garnered the support of four major publishing houses; Disney-Hyperion, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Random House, who have collectively donated over 260 books for the campaign.   “It has been a joy to work with Xander Christou on this independent project,” says Christou’s project advisor, award-winning Fulmore Journalism Teacher Morgan Goldbarth. “Xander wanted to share his love of reading and books to other children and teens” she said. “He created the campaign to do just that, and through his efforts we are set to deliver at least 260 books because of this remarkable young man’s dream,” she continued.   WHAT: The donation of hundreds of publisher-backed books will be made by middle-school blogger, Xander Christou, of ForeverBookish.com   WHERE: Travis Heights Elementary School during a student assembly   WHO: Books will be distributed to second through fifth grade classes   WHEN: May 6, 2015 at 8:00am   The campaign took root for Christou during a bus ride home from school earlier this year, when a student challenged him when he was reading on the bus. “The kid asked some other kids on the bus and only one of them said they read for fun,” Christou said. “It was sad to think that in reality, kids don’t choose books as their daily entertainment,” he recalled. As a result, Christou put his contacts in publishing and the book community to use, and set up a GoFundMe page to gather donations in anticipation of an upcoming trip to the New York City Book Expo. The result: for every $4 raised from the campaign, a book would be given to a child at Travis Heights Elementary school from a participating author.   Reaching his goal of $2,000 will generate enough books for the entire school, as well as cover his upcoming trip. On Wednesday, each student will receive one new book in each grade’s title, hand-selected personally by Xander. “I thought that if they each got the first book in a series and they enjoyed it, they would get hooked and continue on with the rest of the series,” he said.   For more than two years, Xander Christou has reviewed numerous young adult books on his blog, as well as interviewed authors and developed relationships with several publishers. To read more about Xander Christou’s blog, campaign and upcoming trip to the Book Expo visit www.foreverbookish.com or gofundme.com/hookedbybooks.   For more info contact: xandersreviews@gmail.com