Hooked by Books Initiative

HELLO everyone! I am back and starting a project that I have been working on since October and I am SO excited to finally get to share it with you guys. Hooked by Books is my new project for partnering with publishers to provide books to an underprivileged school to spread the love of reading with a campus of kids in my town Austin, Texas. For every $4 I raise on my GoFundMe, a book will go to a kid at the school until we get to the whole school. With hooked by Books, I will also be able to attend BEA this year. Watch this video and scroll down to learn more:

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(by clicking the link above or visiting http://gofund.me/hookedbybooks)

Quick info:

Who: Me and publishers working with a school
What: Raising money and donating books to kids and attending BEA this year
Where: An elementary school in my hometown Austin
When: From now until May 26th.
Why: Spreading the love of reading to kids!
How: $4=1 book to the school, until each kid has a book. The money also lets me attend BEA again.

The details:

Last year, I raised over $1300 to attend BookExpo America 2014 in New York City. Over 45 people donated to help fund my trip, and I met authors, publishers, bloggers and all sorts of bookish people. I also spread the word about my blog. My experience at BEA was incredibly valuable because I learned a lot about the publishing process, saw firsthand how the book industry works and made many contacts. I was also invited to visit two publishing houses, Macmillan and HarperCollins where I met with people from all areas of publishing and got a taste of publishing from the inside. This will help me move towards my goal of working in the book industry and being an author.

This year I would like to go back to BEA but I want to share this wonderful opportunity AND my love of books with other children. Here’s how it will work: for every $4 I raise on my GoFundMe page, Hooked by Books will donate a book to a child in an elementary school in Austin. The fundraising goal for my trip is $2000. My aim is to get publishers to sponsor a particular class or grade at a school and work with me by donating quality middle-grade and young-adult books that will inspire kids to read. I will focus on Travis Heights Elementary School, and I will personally select, read and review each book donated. That will spread the word about the book to the many readers who read my reviews, follow ForeverBookish and will want to read that book as well. I will also speak to each grade in the school about their particular book and why it was chosen. I think it will be a unique way to spread literacy. The fundraising aspect will allow me to attend BEA again this year, which will further my education and experience in the book trade, and help me better inform my readers.

Another component of Hooked by Books is to set up a stocked Little Free Library somewhere in Austin to provide people with a selection of books and a way to exchange them when they finish reading. I would like to get authors on board with this idea as well; I have talked to many authors about the idea and I hope to reach more authors so they can spread the word about it and work with me on this.

The goal of Hooked by Books is to help fuel kids’ love of reading, and work towards the goal of keeping kids readers for life. What are you waiting for? Let’s get kids “hooked by books!”

So far, I am working with: