Thursday, March 19, 2015

Book Buddies - post #1



The Book Buddies Program


Dear Reader,

I am going to depart from reviewing a book today; I hope you’ll forgive the digression!

So. I recently signed up for this amazing program called Book Buddies (thanks for the referral, awesome sister Bethany!), which I am really excited about. The program matches you with an underprivileged kid who might not have the same opportunities I did, for example, in terms of time and support for learning to love reading. A couple of weeks ago, I got assigned my partner; for the sake of privacy, we’ll just call her “BB”. BB is 11 years old and in the 6th grade, reading at a 7th grade level. I have to admit, I was really glad to get a girl - while I know my pre-teen years were AGES ago by now, I still feel like I can (vaguely) remember what that time was like, and I certainly remember old reading favorites! So I hope to send her some great selections, based partly upon the letters she writes to me (I’ve requested she let me know if there are any specific books she would like). 


So the program requires that the adult Book Buddy send the kid Book Buddy a book a month (over the summer months, you send all 3 right before school ends), enclosing a letter and an SASE with each (everything is, of course, opened before being passed on to the kids, to keep them safe). I’ve just sent out my first one, with the help of AmberBug, who is just as excited for this program as I am! (I hope she will help me select a book each time, and next year we plan to do this in more of a partnership; I wish I had thought to do that when I first signed up!) What did I send, you ask? Why, a childhood favorite: Pippi Longstocking!

I don’t think I would necessarily have chosen that, because I worry that it might seem a bit dated, but I think Pippi easily transcends time, and plus, I was told that BB totally loves the Ramona books! So I think this one fits in quite nicely. Of course, I hope to have a better idea of what BB would like when I hear back from her; I am so glad that we get to exchange letters so that I can try to better tailor my selections to what she is interested in. 

In any case - I will try to remember to post every month as I make my selections. I would love any suggestions from those who are more familiar with middle-grade/YA books, as well! Please feel free to leave a comment about anything you know of that might be promising for an 11-year-old. I welcome all ideas & promise to take them all under advisement!

Best,
Arianna


Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)

Support Shelf Notes! Purchase your copy of this book here:

3 comments:

  1. Wow, what an amazing program! I think this is a great idea and look forward to reading your posts about it. One middle grade book I recently read was Brown Girl Dreaming and it was beautiful memoir written in free verse. I highly recommend it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds great - thanks!! I actually have that in my TBR but I had no idea it was for middle grade! I am definitely going to check it out soon - it'd be great if I could read it quickly & then get a copy for my BB so that we can share the discovery. Thank you so much for the idea!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Since the story is written in free verse, it's a light read and you could probably read it in a day or two. It's also very easy to get drawn into the story and find that time has zipped by.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...