Authors & Bloggers Give Back to Texas Teens

Last Friday, Stephanie, Jennifer and, I had the pleasure of taking around 500 books to the Austin Children's Shelter! My partner in crime, Stephanie and I have been begging, pleading, and buying books to donate since January. If you haven't read my previous posts about this en devour, go HERE and HERE.

"Organizing"

Janice (from shelter) asked that we condense the picture book shelves and weed through the reference shelves. She wanted to have a collection that better represented the teen population of the shelter. Clearing and condensing made room for some great MG and YA books!

It took over 7 hours to get the place in order, but...we did it! That also includes a little Paco Taco break. ;)

New YA shelves

Reworked picture book & early chapter books

Reworked middle grade shelves

View from the doorway

Without our awesome donators, this would never have been possible! Stephanie and I give a BIG, WARM, and HEARTFELT THANK YOU to...

Cynthia Leitich Smith
Greg Leitich Smith
Heather Brewer
Cindy Pon
Sophie Jordan
Susane Colasanti
Ellen Hopkins
Jill S. Alexander
Jessica Anderson
Daisy Whitney
Lisa & Laura Roecker

Valerie Kemp

Sara Zarr
Jon Skovron

Joy Preble
Melissa Walker 

Shannon Messenger
Holly Green
Nikki Lofton
Jo Whittemore

Jenny Moss
Shelli Cornelison
Sybil Nelson
Jane Lebak
Stacey Jay
Angela Morrison

Whitney Bates

Amanda Crocker

Girls In The Stacks

Cari Blogs
A Good Addiction
The Elliott Review
GReads 

A Blog About Nothing
Between the Covers
Addicted to Novels
Mundie Moms
Fictionally Yours
Reading Or Breathing
Diary of a Bibliophile
Life In a Book Shelf
Chick Lit Cafe
* super awesome anonymous donor

You are all truly amazing and we are so happy and thankful that you helped us spread some bookjoy! We hope that this inspires readers to take a look at their community and see if there is a need. It's amazing what time and a helping hand can do for an organization. No money required! Count your blessings and give back.

If you didn't donate and would like to (or want to donate again!), this will be a continuing project for us.
    *Thank you Jen at Library Gal for your donation!
    *Thank you Kelsey at Reading or Breathing for donating again!
    *Thank you Rachel Caine for donating the entire Morganville Vampires series!

Thank you again for all of your support and for following us on our wild and crazy journey. We hope we didn't clog the Twitter feed too bad. Special thanks goes to my PIC, Stephanie! Whew, that girl knows how to beg! Plus, she brings you donuts....


Happy Giving!

Texas Book Bloggers Give Back..an Update!

As some of you may know, my partner in crime Stephanie Pellegrin and I have been gathering books to donate to the Austin Children's Shelter. It all started with an awesome TX book blogger holiday party back in December, and then extended nationwide when Stephanie and I realized that the shelter was in desperate need of YA and MG books. Lucky us, we know tons of great authors and bloggers! We came home and blogged, Tweeted, and Effbooked away for more donations! We called....and you listened!  

This Friday, February 18th, we will be taking all of the donated books to the shelter. Our initial collection back in December was 50 books. Not too bad for a black light party that ended at 2am, right? When we started asking for donations in January, we were hoping for around 300 more books. It is my pleasure to report that we have received OVER 500 books for the children and teens at the Austin Children's Shelter! It has been overwhelmingly amazing seeing packages and boxes arrive for the teens at the shelter, and reading the sweet messages inside. 

This one stands out for me...

Ugh, tugs at my heart! There are many more messages like these written some of mine, and yours, favorite books! Next week, Stephanie and I will be posting a HUGE thank you post. We will be listing everyone who donated and have pictures of the beautiful books in their new home! 

If you would still like to donate, there is time!

Update: Austin Children's Shelter Donations

When Stephanie and I made a call to authors, bloggers, and book lovers to make a donation to the Austin Children's Shelter, we would never have dreamed of the awesome response. Authors from all over the country volunteered to donate boxes of their books, bloggers from Texas cleaned out their shelves and bought gift cards to book stores, and friends and family packed up bags and boxes too! This post is to say THANK YOU for helping us help others.

I wrote Janice, the coordinator of in-kind donations, about our latest efforts. She was, again, very thankful and excited for the new books. She also shared a story that I am happy to share with you.

"Thursday evening after you left I returned to the ESB kitchen to pick up 

some water bottles and there was a young man (16), just staring at the book 

shelves you both so caringly organized just an hour or so before.

He stopped me and said “Miss, did we get new books?... Can you help me fine one I might like?”…

I believe the simple act of creating order drew him to the shelves.. Thank you for 

caring and sharing the gift of reading with those who have yet to explore its treasures."

Just warms my heart! As a librarian and book lover, I feel beyond awesome when someone finds "bookjoy." I hope this young man and many others will find joy and hope in a book. We are still collecting donations until the beginning of February. This will allow the boxes to come in and gives us time to keep seeking donations. If you are unfamiliar about how this all started, please read HERE and HERE. We have over 107 books for the shelter so far, and hope to have 300 by the time our appointment comes around in February. 

Again, I thank the people who have donated so far, and ask that you consider donating as well. Even one book is very generous. We are seeking any books, but middle grade and young adult fiction and non-fiction are very much in need. Want to give something other than books? Click here to view the shelter's wishlist.  A full list of donors will be posted when we have a grand total. 

Stephanie and I appreciate you all so much! Even the kind words bring a smile to our faces! 


Happy Giving! 

Texas Book Bloggers Give Back

Stephanie Pellegrin from Stephanie, A History and I had the pleasure of delivering all of the awesome books collected from the TX book blogger holiday party. Yes, it took us awhile, but we were able to gather more books to donate since the party.

Tons of books, right! 

After much consideration, we settled on the Austin Children's Shelter for our donation. Janice is the coordinator of in-kind donations. We contacted her a few weeks ago and she was happy to have the donated books. When we arrived, we were excited to see that they had a cute little library! There were plenty of children's picture books and early chapter books, but not a lot of YAs. Luckily, we had those! Stephanie and I had a great talk, and learned about the awesome facility and services they provide to children. Currently, they have almost 50 residents. These children, that range from infants to 20 years, were taken away from their parents for one reason or another, or were homeless. They had a wonderful playground and the cottages looked so warm and cozy. The Austin Children's Shelter looked like an inviting home for any child. I was absolutely blown away by house nice the shelter was!

After our tour, Stephanie and I filled the shelves and snapped a picture! All of those books look so terrific in their new home! All together, we were able to donate around 50 books to the shelter. Janice was so nice and appreciative that we would love to donate more! She said they are looking for anything Twilight*ish and fantasy. She explained, "They have forgotten to dream." Oh my gosh, I just about cried my eyes out. These teens need a reason to come to the library and check out books. The shelter also encourages the children to keep their favorite book forever. Janice wants everyone to start their own personal library. How wonderful! The shelf in the above picture is the only area dedicated to teen books. They need more!

If you are an author who would like to donate, please email me. We are happy to donate ARCs. If you live in TX and have books to donate, we make trips to Houston and Dallas regularly for author events. We would love to pick up your donated books. In fact, we will be in Houston January 21-22nd for the Montgomery County Teen Book Festival. Any donation would be welcomed! We will be making another trip in March. I would love to have at least 50 books for the shelter. Think about it.....if your cost of postage is a concern, email me. 

Jen, [email protected]

Happy Reading!

Texas Book Blogger Holiday Party...was Bieber*ific!

I have been a very bad blogger! I completely forgot to tell everyone about our *epic* Texas Book Blogger Holiday Party. I was reading everyone else's Tweets, posts, and videos so it made me feel like I did. Oops...

The whole purpose of getting together was twofold, swapping books and donating to a great cause. Texas is a big state, and even though a lot of us Lonestars talk on Twitter and meet up during book signings, we wanted a night for just us. We talked shop - best and worst of 2010 - and we fought over books. Well, one book in particular. I think you will see the spat it in the video below.

So, here is how our night went....

Fun right?! We had a big slumber party and collected around 65 books for donation to an Austin women's shelter! We hope to have another get together in the spring. So, if you blog from Texas, let me know! We are also all getting together for TLA in April. I wrote a little post about it HERE. Since the party we have also started a group called, Literary Lonestars. The LL's are committed to keeping Texans informed about all things literary in children's and YA literature. We hope you come join us even if you aren't from these parts. It's nice to know who is on tour and find out the latest news in publishing in one spot. Find us HERE. 

Happy Reading!