Change the World in a Week

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): All Souls Night by Loreena McKennitt.



I recently just became aware of this. If you don't know Guys Lit Wire is fabulous blog aimed at raising reading awareness for boys, finding books for boys and proving that there are plenty of guys who still read. I love it. And last year, they did a project to bring books to kids in the LA Detention Center. Over 600 books were given. It was awesome. And they are at it again this year.

This year they've teamed up with Readergirlz, YALSA, and If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything (a national reading club for Native Americans) to help bring books to kids at two reservation schools -- Ojo Encino Day School in the Navajo Nation and Alchesay High School on the White Mountain Apache Reservation.

They say it much better than I can, so go over to their blog to check out all the details, but here is a quote from them that hit me with particular force:

Books are power - we are all book lovers and we know that; most of us learned it when we were kids. Books showed us worlds like our own, as well as places we could not imagine. They taught us how to cope, gave us big ideas to ponder and dared us to dream great futures.

And from Finding Wonderlad:

It's been an experience for Colleen (GLW) to create these wishlists. It sort of tears me up that she didn't get a lot of responses to her emails at first because the people at the schools didn't believe she was serious. Free books? SERIOUSLY? And then, the excitement, when the students realized that a wishlist means you can ask for anything.

"Books are still gold. The emails I have received in the past week or so from Alchesay as the kids realized they could ask for books to come their way have been great. And with their internet hookup (more reliable than Ojo Encino) they are going to check their wish list everyday to see what is coming. They are so excited - both schools are so incredibly excited. Yes, the ipad and kindle and whatever else are all wonderful and good but these are kids who do not own a book.

Think about that. Not one single book." - Colleen

All I know is that these kids need these books, and they have created the lists themselves. These books will not be wasted. As a girl masquerading as an undercover superhero, these things are so important to me. I know these things make a difference in people's lives. Books can change lives, and we are the instigators of that.

The wishlists are through Powell's website and it only takes a few scant minutes to complete. And what would we go without? A cup of coffee for a week? We could be opening entire worlds for these kids. I want to be a part of that. A few grains of sands can tip the scales of someone's life in a big way.

Here's how:

First, hit the Powell's site and on the upper right click on "wish list". From there you will be prompted for the email address of the list owner. Type in "guyslitwire@gmail.com". You will then be given the choice to select either Ojo Encino or Alchesay. Once you are looking at the lists (which contain hundreds of titles) you can make your selection of a new, used, or sale copy. After your done and ready to make your purchase you will be asked to confirm that you are buying books for a certain wishlist. Checking those boxes will keep the lists up to date and prevent books from appearing as unsold even after they were purchased. Now all you have to do is enter the mailing addresses, and here they are:

Mary Nickless
Ojo Encino Day School Librarian
HCR 79 Box 7
Cuba, NM 87013

Marilyn Hill
Alchesay High School
200 Falcon Way
Whiteriver, AZ 85941

CAUTION: Right now Powells is having trouble shifting from one wishlist to the next. So if you want to buy for each school then go all the way through one order and complete it and then start the next one fresh. I've sent an email and hopefully they will get this fixed quick.

And please, spread the news, spread it wide. There is only a week left to make it happen.