Saturday, December 3, 2011

Good book, good wish, good deed



What if buying a book for yourself would help put a book in the hands of a child in a refugee camp? Purchasing WHAT YOU WISH FOR, an anthology of short stories about wishes by some big-name kidlit authors, raises funds to do this.

About 250,000 people who fled genocide in Darfur are in camps in eastern Chad where even gathering firewood can be put girls in peril of rape from marauders. Libraries and education are far-off dreams for the children in these camps, whose culture has been stolen from them along with their homes. One boy said he would gladly walk to the farthest mountain every day if there were a school he could attend.
Enter The Book Wish Foundation, which is donating all proceeds from sales of WHAT YOU WISH FOR to build libraries in the camps through the United Nations refugee agency. The stories in the book were written by super authors: R.L. Stine, Meg Cabot, Cornelia Funke, Jane Yolen, Joyce Carol Oates, John Green, Jeanne DuPrau, Gary Soto, Karen Hesse, Ann M. Martin, Alexander McCall Smith, Nikki Giovanni, Naomi Shihab Nye, Nate Powell, Sophia Quintero, Cynthia Voight, Marilyn Nelson, Francisco X. Stork. The forward is by actress and activist Mia Farrow.
For writers, another incentive to purchase the book has been added. A 500-word essay contest about how wishes in the stories connect to the refugees offers one-page critiques of 50-pages of manuscript from some of the authors or their literary agents. For more information go to the Book Wish Foundation’s essay contest page.
You can purchase the book at Penguin, Amazon, B&N.

22 comments:

Jemi Fraser said...

Very cool! I hadn't heard of this yet. thanks for the heads up - off to buy my copy! :)

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Yay! I'm so pleased to hear that. I ordered mine, too.

kah said...

How awesome is that? I hadn't heard of it either. Thanks for sharing. :)

Robyn Campbell said...

Thanks for filling me in. I'm clicking over to buy a copy. You rock, Pat!!!!!!!!!!!! (((hugs)))

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Karen: It is soooo awesome. A bunch of the authors met at the UN for the kickoff, too.

Robyn: Hi, there, my friend. Hugs back at ya!

Lydia Kang said...

I hadn't heard of this. What a wonderful thing.

VR Barkowski said...

This is fabulous! Just ordered mine, and I'm off to tweet about it. Thanks for the heads up, Tricia.

Stina said...

What a wonderful idea. Like Lydia, I hadn't heard of this, either.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Lydia & VR & Stina: I'm so pleased to pass this along. Thanks so much! :D:D:D

Donna said...

Good. I'll do it. Thanks.

Susan R. Mills said...

This is great! Thanks for the information.

Bish Denham said...

Those are some powerful authors! Thanks for the info.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Donna & Susan & Bish: Thank you all so much. Glad you're intersted in it!

Golden Eagle said...

Those are some famous authors!

And what a great cause--thank you for posting about the book. :)

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Hi, Eagle! Aren't they fantastic?

Julie Dao said...

Tricia, thanks so much for posting about this! I'm buying that book ASAP.

Sarah Laurence said...

Great to hear of this collaboration for a worthy cause.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Julie & Sarah: Thanks so much!

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Amazing. What a great cause. So tragic that people can exist like this, but my hat's off to these authors for trying to do something about it. I'll check it out. Thanks for posting on this, Tricia.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Hi Carol. Everyone involved in this project must have a big heart!

Suzanne Casamento said...

How cool! I had no idea. Thanks for the great news!

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Yay, Suzanne!