My Own Book

A Call to Action!

 Summer is right around the corner and we'd like to invite teens throughout the country to make a difference! At My Own Book we spread the joy of reading by visiting K-3rd grade classrooms, reading a story, and letting the children pick out a brand new book of their very own. We concentrate on visiting schools and libraries that draw children from homes where owning books is uncommon. For many of these children the books they choose will be the first book that have ever owned themselves. We're rewarded with smiles and the children's joy. It is wonderful. We've given out almost 20,000 books so far and we want to give out 5,000 books this summer. If you are a teen you can have a fun and rewarding summer.   Below is information on setting up events. event.  Contact us at kyleandbrady@myownbook.net to tell us about your plan and we will get you books and bookplates.

Make a plan to do something this summer that will impact your life, improve a child's life, and change our community. Together, we can!

Kyle and Brady Baldwin

707 864 4046

- Identify schools, child care facilities, or libraries in low income areas. Your public school district can help you do this, and give you principal’s names and school phone numbers. Another great source of information can be service clubs in your town.This information is usually on the web as well.

- Contact the principal and tell them you are a part of My Own Book and would like to visit a k-3rd grade classroom, read to the children, and give each child a new book to share the love of reading.  Tell them something about yourself to give them some idea that you are a responsible person, for instance, “I attend high school at xxxxx or I’m a member of 4-H  and am involved in xxxxx.” Typically for a class of 20 it takes about 30 minutes to read and distribute books.

- Contact us and let us know the grade level you will be visiting and the number of children involved.  We will send you books and bookplates if you need them- or use the link below to print bookplates on decal stock.

- Send out confirmation email to principal- here is a sample of what we found that works to avoid wasting time in the school's office:

We are looking forward to visiting your school. To maximize the time we spend reading and passing out books to children we have the following requests:

-    Please alert your office staff that we are coming.
 
-    We will report to your school's main office.  Please have a map or guide ready to show us where to go. Also, have a dolly ready for us to use to transport books   
 
-    Group as many classes together by grade level as possible. The fewer times we must move between classrooms the more books we can give out
 
-    Have a table clear for us to display books for the children to choose
 
-    Please make sure the teachers have a list of children's names in the class so that the teachers can write names on bookplates to distribute to the children.

- Visit the K-3rd Grade classroom and read aloud to children. Sometimes it is fun to act out the book.  Talk about how much fun reading is, and show off your library card. Have team members get class list during reading and write first names on bookplates for the children.  Spread out an array of books for the kids to choose. We think it is important that the children choose their own books! Call out the children's names in sections and let them each pick one book. Assure them that each child will be given a book. Once they pick put a bookplate in their book. Tell kids to enjoy their books. Thank the teacher. Pack up and take leftover books.

Once you get going, and are successful, you'll probably want to host book drives. Here is a sample of what we sent out to schools in our school district- we collected over 2,500 books

  My Own Book: A Community Opportunity

My Own Book, is dedicated to visiting local elementary schools and distributing new books to kindergarten through third grade children 

-Many low-income families have no books at all

Children Helping Other Children

Please consider partnering to with My Own Book help children in our community!

Here is one way your school can help:

Book Drive:

Set up a book drive in your school for new and gently used books

1. Send out a flyer (we have a printable flyer below) to each child to take home telling their family

about the book drive

2. Set up a box in the office or multipurpose room for one week only to drop off books

3. Pick up the books promptly and distribute to other children.

Fast, easy, and a great way to help others!

For more information on My Own Book, please visit our website at www.myownbook.net or contact us at 707.864.4046. Thank you very much.