OUR PROGRAM

Through the Read All Over project, kids are asked to become Program Leaders and start gently used book drives. This includes kids being involved in all parts of the book drive - from getting permission, to choosing a partner classroom or group to receive the donated books, to organizing and promoting the program. There are lots of ways to do the Read All Over program!

CLASSROOM to CLASSROOM

One of the best ways to get a lot of books to where they're needed is to find a new teacher at another school and partner classroom-to-classroom.

BIRTHDAY PARTIES
Instead of gifts, why not ask your friends to bring a gently-used book or two? Then you can donate the books to a classroom or organization.

10 Easy Steps to CREATING A BOOK AVALANCHE!

1. Get Permission
Before you can become a Read All Over Program Leader, it's important to ask permission. Talk to your parent or teacher about your idea. Be sure to tell them what you want to do, and why you want to do it.

2. Choose Your Partner
Who will get the books you collect? Choosing a partner classroom or organization is important. Ask an adult about who might need new books. (One Read All Over program leader chose to partner with a school whose library burnt down, for example.) Maybe you already have an idea about which school or organization you'd like to partner with? If so, be sure to explain why. (HINT: You should choose a place that really needs the books. Telling your principal, "Because my cousin goes there!" doesn't count! Ha!)

3. Organize Your Book Drive
Good news! If you're reading this, you've already started to get organized! We've got lots of tools and ideas that will help make your Read All Over Book Drive a big success. You can find them and print them out here. We'll even be happy to tell you our insider success secrets and pitfalls to avoid.

Once you've got your partner, you'll need to figure out how to make your book drive happen. You'll need to answer questions like: Where will you collect the books? When and at what time? Who will help you? Where will you store the books? How do the books get to their new home? What happens to the books that aren't what you're looking for? (HINT: Here's where adults come in handy! They're good at this stuff. We've got tools to help them, so show them this website so they can download these tools.)

>> Organizing a Book Drop-Off
>> Volunteers You'll Need
>> Organizing + Storing Your Books!
>> Delivery Suggestions


4. Tell the World!
This part can be really fun. Just remember this golden rule: The more people who know about your book drive, the bigger your avalanche will be! Tell everyone you know about it - and tell them to tell everyone they know about it - and tell them to tell everyone they know to tell everyone they know about it, too, and ... well, you get the idea. (Whew!)

>> Ask Parents to Volunteer
Be sure to write a letter to the parents of the kids at your school that asks parents for their help. They might give their time, donate books or help spread the word.

But that's just the beginning. If you want to get really serious and create a book avalanche that will bury your school or organization, here's what some kids do:

>> Posters + Flyers
Do you like art? Well, you can draw up posters, flyers and all kinds of signs to let kids and their parents know about your Read All Over book drive. Make sure kids and parents and even people outside your school can see your signs. You can even download a cool, pre-made flyer from Read All Over that you can circulate throughout your school.

>> Email

Write an email that tells people about your Read All Over program book drive. Ask your principal to send the email to parents, her teachers and organizations like the P.T.A.. Send the email to your friends and family. Be sure to encourage people to forward the email to their friends - or anyone who might be able to help you. Be sure to provide the date and information for the book drive in the email - and exactly what you'd like them to do. Here's a sample email you can use.

>> TV + Radio
Write a letter and call the producers of your radio and TV stations and tell them about your Read All Over program. Ask them for help. If you get lucky, they might just tell everyone about your book drive! Here's a sample!

>> Newspapers
Write a letter and call the editors of your newspapers - as many as you can. (The big city ones, little neighborhood ones even school newspapers.) Tell them about their Read All Over program. If you get lucky, they might just write a story about your book drive! Here's a sample!


5. Here Comes the Avalanche!
OK, so you've done all the up-front work. Now it's time to really get started! You'll have tables to greet your donors and collect their books. You'll have all the supplies you need - like paper and lots of pens to count the number of books that come in. You'll have chairs for your volunteers to sit in, boxes for your books, and signs all ready! You'll have volunteers and all of your friends coming in to help. Look out! The avalanche is about to begin!

6. Apply the Read All Over Bookplate
What's a bookplate, you ask? A bookplate is like a secret note on the inside flap of the book that tells whoever reads the book where the book came from. When your donations start coming in, you'll need to apply bookplates to the incoming books. This is important, because bookplates do three essential things:

>> Bookplates not only look awesome, they thank your donors for donating books. This will encourage them to donate to good causes again in the future.

>> Bookplates give credit to your school, make the friendship between your school and your partner stronger, and especially important ... Bookplates spread the word about book drives to other kids. (Maybe your idea will inspire other kids to start book drives of their own!)

>> Bookplates help us to tell Deora's story and her message of peace. Each bookplate contains this quote from Deora:

“People ask who, what, when, where, why, how. I ask peace.”

Download the Read All Over bookplate here.

7. Surviving the Avalanche
When the donated books come in, you can't just throw them into one big pile. You'll need a system to organize your avalanche. How? Well, first, you'll first need to sort them into appropriate age categories. Next, you'll need to organize the books by type. Is it a mystery book? Is it fiction? A science book, maybe? You can use Jenny's Library Organization List to organize the books. (Jenny's a real-life school librarian! Thanks, Jenny!)


8. Deliver the Books
So, you've organized your avalanche, and know about how many books your partner will be receiving! Be sure to share the good news with your partner. Now, you or one of the adults must organize a time for a truck to pick up the books and deliver them to your partner. This is where you really get to communicate with your new friends! Some kids have assembled a Delivery Team who help unload the new treaure! Other kids have written a Recommendation Letter to the students at their partner schools that recommend especially good books for them to read. Either way, be sure to send your partner school a letter that lets them know you were happy to donate the books and glad that they were your partner.


9. Say Thank You!
Wow! You've done amazing things! Congratulations are in order - look what you've done! You've made a bunch of new friends. You've delivered an avalanche of new books to your partner. You've probably found a ton of new books you'd like to read, too. Now, all you want to do is sit down and rest your arms for awhile, right? Well, you're not done yet! You've still got to thank all of the people that helped you! After all, without them, your success would not have been possible. It's very important to send the people who helped you a nice thank you note or email. Be sure to tell them how many books you were able to donate to your partner!

10. Tell Us About It
Don't forget to tell us about your Read All Over book drive! Your book drive is important to us. We not only want to know how large your avalanche was, but we want to hear your ideas. Is there a way for us to make Read All Over better? What worked for you? What didn't? Plus, when you tell us your story, there's a really good chance that we will tell the world about your success here on our website.

So be sure to send us an email - we love hearing from you. (Yes, we really do read them, talk about them, and get excited about them! This is the best part of working with Read All Over!)

Send your email to: debby@readallover.com