Holidailies Charity Project: First Book

As you can see from Chip's entry, today is the Day of Giving for Holidailies Charity Project. We decided to pick First Book as our charity this year. I could go on and on about how highly the organization was rated on Charity Navigator, and how well it suited the requirements for Holidailies, but I can't improve on Chip's description (so go read it).

Me, I just like the idea of helping kids receive their first new books. This is the part of the entry where I should tell you about my first new book ... but I can't. I can't remember not having books. I learned to read at a very early age -- my mom credits Sesame Street with this, but I know she used to read books aloud to me a lot and I bet that helped too. I can remember some of the books only because they were passed down to my brothers and sister, and I ended up reading them to my youngest brother some 13 years later. (There was one very old one about Dickie and his mom and the milkman, and I'm sorry to say that when I read it to my baby brother, I found all sorts of potential double-entendres that I may have hyped a bit, but that happens when you're in your early teens.) Those books were worn to pieces after four kids read them, and chewed on them, and generally abused them.

The first chapter book I remember owning and reading was one that belonged to my mom: Heidi. I must have been about 7 years old. My mom had taken a series of classic old books with ripped-up paper covers, cut off the cute part of the front cover, and used contact paper to attach it to the front and to cover the whole book so it would be sturdy. Heidi is also the last book I remember my mom reading aloud to me -- about halfway through, she told me she knew I could finish it on my own. I've been at it ever since, often when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

I had as many books as I wanted as a child, some of which I still have in my bookshelves. My godfather once gave me a really nice hardcover of Little Women for my birthday, one of the first really high-quality books I ever received, and I can see it from my computer desk, still in excellent condition. I read it often over the years, but always very carefully. I have a paperback of The Secret Garden that a neighbor gave me -- its front cover is hanging by a thread and the last page is falling off, but once in awhile I still read it. I don't know what happened to the copy of Heidi but I suspect that it fell apart, and I'd outgrown it by then so I made no attempt to save it. Too bad.

And now I have way too many books, period. Two stacks of books are on my dresser right now, ready to be put in a box and taken to Half-Price Books (hopefully later today). I can see a stack of four used books wedged into the front of an already overstuffed bookcase -- the first four Betsy-Tacy books, old enough to have the Lois Lenski--drawn covers but in gorgeous shape, which will probably be a surprise gift for one of my nieces at some point. We have boxes of books in the garage that we currently have no room for, despite my periodic thinning of the book collection and a sincere effort not to buy anything I could easily find at the library.

As much as I like old and used books, I think all kids should have some new books of their own to enjoy or learn from. So Chip and I are giving money to First Book today. As part of the Holidailies Charity Project, we're encouraging anyone who feels inclined to make a $12 donation. First Book says that they can buy four books with $10, and until the end of the year, Simon and Schuster is matching every dollar donated with a book. That's more than 16 books given to kids with a $12 donation, which is fabulous. So if you're looking for one more place to give a little before the end of the year (yes, it's tax-deductible), head over to the First Book website today like we are doing.

Posted at December 28, 2007 10:18 AM